Let’s face it: the Free Application for Federal Student Aid can be a daunting piece of paperwork to fill out. There are so many questions steeped in legal and financial jargon that it can scare off a good number of people from applying – especially when you take the penalties for erroneous mistakes into consideration…. Read more »
Why Discretionary Income Should Dictate Student Loan Payments?
Student loans were once the greatest things to happen for the average American. You get the opportunity to study a degree and then pay back the loan once you get a job. It should have stayed that way for a long time to come. Then things changed. Student loans became less oriented for the benefits… Read more »
One in Two College Grads Un/Underemployed
The millions of students graduating in 2012 are going to be in for a very rough time, especially since almost half of all graduates are either unemployed or working in positions that don’t completely use the skills they learned in college. We are finding more and more college grads working as clerks, waiters, bartenders and… Read more »
How Exactly Can Student Loan Debt “Dismantle” America?
So student loan debt has reached in excess of $1 trillion. What are our presidential hopefuls going to do about it? Obama is proposing a whole truckload of reforms and easy repayment schemes for student loans. Romney is focusing on getting more jobs to the economy. Santorum is promoting for-profit colleges as a solution for… Read more »
Fed Releases FAFSA Completion Rates by High School
Here’s a bit of good news: the federal government has now made it possible for anyone to check the FAFSA completion rates of high schools via the FAFSA Data Center. The Free Application for Federal Student Aid is one of the most useful financial tools at the disposal of the average student. It can mean… Read more »
Obama to Congress: Don’t Double Student Loan Interest Rates
Two-term presidential hopeful Barack Obama is campaigning strongly for student loan interest rates to stay at the current 3.4% instead of letting it shoot up to its old rate of 6.8%. At least for one year, according to the White House. This proposal is indeed a welcome one for students all over the country, especially… Read more »
Feds to For-Profit Colleges: “Don’t Spend Taxpayer Money on Ads”
Schools should be concerned with educating their students and giving them a future – not on advertising themselves like used car salesmen. This is the argument that Senators Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) and Kay Hagan (D-N.C.) use in a new proposition to restrict for-profit universities from spending federal money on marketing expenses. If you want to… Read more »
Senior Citizens Owe $36 Billion in College Loans
If you thought that only 20 or 30-somethings are the only ones being crushed by student loan debt, think again: those older than 60 owe $36 billion.1 And our older citizens are not immune from late payments, either. Those aged 60 and up account for 4.8% of student loans due past the third quarter of… Read more »
CFPB Releases “Comparison” Tool for over 7,500 Colleges
It is pretty hard to reliably find out how much one college costs over another. Looking at a college’s sticker price may be deceiving, especially if you don’t take grants and scholarships into consideration. Some colleges may have a lower sticker price but not as many grants available, while others could have rather steep prices… Read more »
Lower Rates, Debt Forgiveness Proposed “Cushions” For Impact of Debt Crisis
Senator Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) and U.S. Representative Hansen Clarke (D-Mich.) are proposing two stop-gap measures to help students better deal with college loans. Schumer is pushing to extend the current interest rate for subsidized Stafford loans of 3.4% by one more year, while Clarke is proposing a system for forgiving student loan debt after 10… Read more »