Valuable insights from Lynn O’Shaughnessy
a nationally recognized college expert.
Mark Kantrowitz

January 19, 2021
New FAFSA Changes – Winners and Losers
The Free Application for Federal Student Aid will be undergoing significant changes soon and families, who hope to obtain financial aid, need to prepare for the FAFSA changes. Tucked into federal pandemic relief legislation that Congress passed during the Christmas holidays, was a dramatic overhaul to the FAFSA and financial aid rules. Last week, I talked to Mark Kantrowitz, a...
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August 17, 2015
A Troubling Financial Aid Wrinkle
Parents are often worried about how their assets will impact their chances for financial aid. Often their fears are overblown because financial aid formulas don’t penalize families for all their assets. But it is true that families are now experiencing a harder time protecting their assets from financial aid calculations because of a horribly flawed federal formula that needs to...
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July 7, 2015
How Much Parents and Students Are Borrowing for College
As recently as the early 1990s, most students did not take out college loans. Today nearly 71% of students borrow to pay for college. The typical student borrower graduating with the class of 2015 left college with an average debt of $35,051, according to an analysis by Mark Kantrowitz, the publisher of Edvisors.com. In Kantrowitz’s chart below, you will see that the...
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November 3, 2014
Getting Help With the FAFSA
FAFSA season is fast approaching, which always brings questions about the Free Application for Federal Student Aid. In my post today, I want to share advice about why you should submit the FAFSA and who should be completing the actual financial aid form. I also want to share the link to an excellent and free ebook that will likely answer...
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January 27, 2014
Assets You Don’t Need to Report on the FAFSA
Every year, 20 million families file the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) and plenty of them inadvertently make costly mistakes. To avoid the same fate, I’d urge you to check out the Edvisors Network’s free 201-page guide, entitled Filing the FAFSA. The guide, which you can download from Edvisors’ website, provides advice on how to maximize eligibility for...
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August 14, 2013
9 Things You Need to Know About Private Scholarships
Winning private college scholarships can certainly help make college more affordable, but you need to know the realities of competing for this college cash. Before you start hunting for private college scholarships, here are nine facts about these awards that you need to know: 1. Private scholarships aren’t the biggest source of college cash. I suspect most families believe that...
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January 14, 2013
Answering a Dad’s Financial Aid Question
Today I’m answering a question from a father, who is puzzled by the Expected Family Contribution figure he generated when using an EFC calculator. I think my answer to him will be helpful for just about anybody who will eventually be filing for financial aid. If you don’t understand what the term EFC is, please read this post first: What...
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December 17, 2012
8 Things You Need to Know About Private College Scholarships
Winning private college scholarships can certainly help make college more affordable, but you need to know the realities of competing for college cash. My pet peeve about private scholarships is that people assume that they are the biggest source of college cash when they are really the puniest. Before you start hunting for private college scholarships, here are eight facts...
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January 6, 2012
8 Things You Need to Know About Private Scholarships
Winning private college scholarships can certainly help make college more affordable, but you need to know the realities of competing for college cash. My pet peeve about private scholarships is that people assume that they are the biggest source of college cash when they are really the smallest. Before you start hunting for private college scholarships, here are eight facts...
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January 13, 2011
A Financial Aid Guru Answers Questions
Do you have financial aid questions? If you do, head over to the college blog at The New York Times. This week Mark Kantrowitz, a financial aid guru and the publisher of FinAid and FastWeb, is answering people’s questions about financial aid. So far, Kantrowitz has answered three rounds of questions that you can read here: Part 1: Answers to...
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