Understanding the National Merit Scholarship Program

By |2024-11-05T16:40:55+00:00November, 12, 2024|College Admissions Tests, Paying for College, Scholarships|

In October, students across the country took the PSAT/NMSQT, and some are likely wondering what "NMSQT" stands for.  The answer: National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test.  Now that you know that, you're probably wondering what the National Merit Scholarship is and how you qualify for it. To enter the National Merit [...]

College Admissions Podcasts Provide Useful Information and Advice

By |2024-11-04T21:37:42+00:00November, 6, 2024|College Admissions, College Applications, College Essays, College Preparation, College Research, Financial Aid, Paying for College|

High school students and parents are often bombarded by well-meaning friends and relatives who think they know it all when it comes to college admissions, the college search process, college applications, essay writing, and more. But truly great advice comes from experts. Here’s a list of podcasts where you can [...]

What to Expect from this Year’s FAFSA

By |2024-09-03T20:06:26+00:00September, 11, 2024|College Costs, FAFSA, Financial Aid, Paying for College|

Last month, the Department of Education announced the FAFSA (Free Application for Federal Student Aid) will not be available until December 1. Historically, the FAFSA opens on October 1. But, after last year’s delayed roll out on January 1 and the myriad problems encountered by students, families, and college financial [...]

$100,000 per Year! Rising College Costs and Student Loans

By |2024-05-09T20:39:45+00:00May, 8, 2024|College Costs, Financial Aid, Paying for College, Scholarships|

In 2016, when my first child started college, Harvey Mudd College in California was the most expensive college in the country, with a total cost of attendance of just over $70,000 per year. In 2020, when child number two started school, Columbia topped the list at $81,000.  For the 2020-2021 [...]

Colleges Respond to FAFSA Delays

By |2024-03-05T21:03:36+00:00March, 6, 2024|College Costs, FAFSA, Financial Aid, Paying for College|

If you are a high school senior or the parent of one, you likely are aware of the problems that have plagued the new FAFSA since it became available at the end of December.  Not only was the FAFSA's release delayed by nearly three months, but there have been several [...]

Coming Soon: The New FAFSA

By |2023-11-13T01:25:37+00:00November, 14, 2023|FAFSA, Financial Aid, Paying for College|

Just in time for the holidays, the U.S. Department of Education is giving families the gift of a new and improved FAFSA (Free Application for Federal Student Aid).  Set to be released in December, an exact date has not yet been announced.  But before you add "completing the FAFSA" to [...]

Big Changes Coming to FAFSA

By |2023-03-07T21:08:13+00:00February, 28, 2023|FAFSA, Financial Aid, Paying for College|

In a previous blog post, I wrote about how the Free Application for Federal Student Aid, or FAFSA, is going to change this year. Recently, the Department of Education announced the new form might not be ready by October 1, the date on which the application has opened since 2016. [...]

Why Is College So Expensive? Part 3

By |2023-01-09T19:17:51+00:00January, 11, 2023|College Costs, Financial Aid, Paying for College, Scholarships|

This is my third in a series of blog posts on the increasing cost of college in the United States.  In the first post, I offered several reasons why college is so expensive.  In the second, I explained that college may not actually be as costly as it seems, as [...]

Why Is College So Expensive? Part 2

By |2023-01-09T19:10:18+00:00November, 2, 2022|College Costs, Financial Aid, Paying for College, Scholarships|

When President Biden announced in August that he would forgive student loan debt for millions of borrowers, many critics argued that his plan did not address the larger problem of the rising cost of college.  In response, I published a blog post entitled, "Why Is College So Expensive?"  A couple weeks [...]

Why Is College So Expensive?

By |2022-09-10T22:37:07+00:00August, 30, 2022|College Costs, Financial Aid, Paying for College|

Since President Biden announced on August 24 that he was canceling student loan debt for millions of borrowers, there has been a flurry of responses from a wide range of individuals.  One of the main criticisms of Biden's plan is that canceling student debt does nothing to address rising college [...]

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