The College Solutions Blog

August 5, 2013

I thought I’d devote the next couple of blog posts to bringing you up to date on what’s been happening in Congress with federal student loans. Chances are that you haven’t been keeping up with the latest student-loan developments on Capitol Hill, but a lot happened in July. And, as far as I’m concerned, Congress blew it. Before I get...

March 22, 2013

Many financial aid letters  — heck almost all of them —  are confusing. I’ve always wondered why award letters are so difficult to understand. Perhaps the staffers generating these letters in the bowels of universities have been conversing in financial-aid speak for so long that they have lost their ability to communicate in standard English. Of course, the cynical explanation...

August 26, 2012

This is the time of year when parents are stressing about paying for their child’s college tab. I’ve been hearing from parents who haven’t been able to borrow enough for college. I thought I’d share one of these emails. A Mom’s Dilemma Here is the mom’s note: I would like to know what to do if you don’t qualify for...

April 24, 2012

Are you a parent who needs to borrow for college? Most of the attention is focused on college loans that students take out, but there are parent loans as well. In case you missed it, I wrote about federal student loans in my last college blog post: What You Need to Know About Borrowing for College Today, I’m going to...

April 23, 2012

As recently as the early 1990s, most students did not take out college loans. Today about two out of every three students borrow to pay for college. One reason for the dramatic change is this fact: during the last-quarter century, tuition has risen four times faster than the consumer price index. The typical student borrower is now leaving school with...

March 8, 2012

Many financial aid letters  — heck almost all of them —  are confusing. I’ve always wondered why award letters are so difficult to understand. Perhaps the staffers generating these letters in the bowels of universities have been conversing in financial-aid speak for so long that they have lost their ability to communicate in standard English. Of course, the cynical explanation...

June 1, 2011

What is the best student loan? I got an email from a dad who was hoping to get the answer to that question. His son needs to borrow for the last year of college. That was an easy question to answer. The best education loan available is the federal Stafford Loan. There are two types of Stafford loans:  subsidized and...

March 22, 2011

It’s that time of year when parents, as well as new and returning college students, start thinking about college loans. Consequently, today I want to answer a few questions about Stafford Loans, which are the most popular federal student loans. Here are the questions: Question No. 1: Are there different kinds of Stafford Loans?   Yes. There are unsubsidized Stafford...

March 1, 2011

It’s the college financial aid season. Some parents are still struggling to complete their financial aid application, while others are receiving 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 and loans you’ll...

December 5, 2010

This is the time of year when high school seniors and their parents begin reciting this age-old advice:  Follow your dreams. Families tend to use this advice to justify their children attending expensive dream colleges even if these schools will require taking on crushing student debt. I am a huge advocate of families researching schools before hand to see if...