Anger about the cost of college extends from the preppiest of parents to the grungiest of Occupiers. Mr Obama is trying to channel the anger, to avoid being sideswiped by it. The White House invitation complained that costs have trebled in the past three decades.… Continue reading
We promised in last week’s post that this week we would cover the details of President Obama’s new executive order to make it easier for students to repay their federal student loans. For your convenience, we’ll break this into three parts:
Loan consolidation: There used to be two programs for borrowing federal loans, but the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act of 2010 abolished the Federal Family Education Loan (FFEL) Program, leaving only the Federal Direct Loan Program (Federal Direct) for new borrowers.… Continue reading
Students are borrowing more money to pay for college than ever before. New data show that students who graduated in 2010 carried 5 percent more debt than in the previous year. And education debt is expect to grow in the coming years, as students struggle to pay higher tuition costs.… Continue reading
Although more Americans are getting help from scholarships and tax breaks, the net cost of college is eating up a higher share of the typical family’s income in 2011, according to a report released Wednesday.
The sticker price of studying and living on campus at the average public university rose 5.4% for in-state students, or about $1,100, to $21,447 this fall, the College Board estimated.… Continue reading
Peter Bach, of the Memorial Sloan—Kettering Cancer Center, and Robert Kocher, of the Brookings Institution, argue that medical school should be free. In a May 2011 New York Times op-ed, the two doctors said M.D. programs could be free if they suspended stipends for students in specialty training programs.… Continue reading
What do you get when college costs skyrocket but incomes barely budge? Yet another blow to the middle class.
“As the out-of-pocket costs of a college education go up faster than incomes, it’s pricing low and medium income families out of a college education,” said Mark Kantrowitz, publisher of financial aid sites FinAid.org and FastWeb.com. … Continue reading
At Scholarship America, we hear time and again from students who receive scholarships through our programs that they benefit from both the financial assistance and the knowledge that their community believes in them enough to subsidize their education. Some students have shared that earning a scholarship was the catalyst for going to college, and to persisting in their studies to earn their degree.… Continue reading
Did you know that only about 40 to 50 percent of college students will get some type of financial assistance in the form of grants and scholarships in 2011 and 2012? According to experts, there are six steps that all college students should take to increase their chances of being among the lucky ones to receive such aid.… Continue reading
As college costs continue to rise, and in an economic climate where family incomes are suffering, more and more students must borrow in order to gain access to higher education. The result is that an increasing number of graduates find themselves saddled with high educational debt.… Continue reading
Is there anything you can do as a parent if you want to help your children graduate from college without a huge debt burden? Yes—with a bit of planning.
One option is a 529 plan (named for Section 529 of the Internal Revenue Code that authorized them) which provides tax benefits in order to encourage saving for future college costs.… Continue reading