The College Solutions Blog

March 9, 2010

This is my second post on deciphering college financial aid packages. Yesterday, I explained what sort of federal financial aid assistance you might find in your financial aid award. How To Decode a Financial Aid Letter Today, I’m going to cover the types of college grants that parents typically find in a financial aid letter. College Grants Many families believe...

March 8, 2010

It’s the college financial aid season. Some parents are still struggling to complete their financial aid application, while others are just beginning to receive their financial aid packages in the mail. Once you receive a financial aid award, the challenge is to decipher it. I’m going to help you master these financial aid letters by looking at the scholarships, grants...

February 26, 2010

It is hard to qualify as an independent college student when seeking federal financial aid. I wrote about this big hurdle recently in this post: Getting Financial Aid as an Independent Student Yesterday about four dozen students posted passionate comments on my blog after Chegg, the giant online source for textbook rentals, carried a post that I wrote earlier this...

February 17, 2010

Recently I wrote posts that cautioned parents and students not to take on too much college debt. Why am I being a nag? College loan debt can be toxic. My Exhibit A is a family practitioner in Columbus, OH, Michelle Bisutte, who finished medical school with $250,000 in debt in 2003. Today her college loan levels have swelled to $555,000....

February 12, 2010

I wanted to follow up on yesterday’s post: How Much College Loan Debt Is Too Much? In that post I talked about what is an acceptable level of college loans that students should assume. That post prompted Stuart, a blog visitor, to ask me this question about PLUS loans: What about the parents? What is a reasonable amount of student...

February 11, 2010

The typical student graduates from college with $23,200 in college loan debt. That figure, which comes from a recent study from the Project on Student Debt, only includes student loan debt. The $23,200 tab does not include money that parents borrowed through the federal PLUS loan program, a home equity line of credit or by dipping into retirement accounts. Is...

February 9, 2010

What schools offer the best college financial aid? Last month, I wrote this post: 51 Colleges With the Best Student Financial Aid. Please take a look at the list because it includes schools with awesome financial aid policies that will reduce your stress about how you will pay for college. Researchers from the University of Pennsylvania and Amherst College assembled...

January 31, 2010

6 Reasons to File the FAFSA Should you file the FAFSA? Here’s my answer for just about everybody, including myself: Absolutely yes. I admit it’s not fun to complete the FAFSA, which I am going to do today. If it’s any consolation, the FAFSA is easier to fill out than the CSS/Financial Aid PROFILE, which I am also tackling today....

January 26, 2010

Are you worried that saving for college will ruin your chances for financial aid? Relax. Parents who save for college are almost never penalized in student financial aid considerations. In fact, only about 4% of families who complete financial aid forms are penalized for their savings. Here are the two biggest reasons why saving money shouldn’t hurt your financial aid...

January 12, 2010

Need help completing the FAFSA, otherwise known as the Free Application for Federal Student Aid? I can sympathize with you. I’m filing out the FAFSA application myself this year and some of the schools that my son Ben is applying to have financial aid deadlines as early as Feb. 1. If you’re struggling with the FAFSA form or CSS/Financial Aid...