Harvard Offers Financial Aid to Families Making $180,000 or Less

For a while it seemed that affluent or the lower income could “afford” a high-quality education at an elite college—the affluent because they have the funds to pay, the lower income because they could count on more financial aid. The middle-income families, however, seemed left to fend for themselves.
Happily, Harvard announced a plan last week [...]

Some Private Schools are Going Easy on Counting Home Equity when Awarding Financial Aid

Families that live in certain areas of the country, especially on the two coasts, find themselves sitting with a huge amount of equity in their homes – even during the current real estate market downturn. Students who are applying to any of the 300 or so private schools that require the CSS Profile financial [...]

Elite Colleges’ Students Fail Basic History Test

It may not have surprised you to read that college students don’t know much about the cultural origins of their cell phones, but wouldn’t you think that students of the most expensive colleges would be able to pass a basic U.S. History test?
Not so, according to a study recently released by the Intercollegiate Studies Institute. [...]

Scholarships Replace Loans for Low-Income Families

Very few colleges have taken the initiative to offer students scholarships in place of loans. This summer, Amherst College in Massachusets joined the ranks of schools like Princeton and Davidson College by implementing a new financial aid program.
Amherst’s program is targeted to help students graduate debt-free. Under the new policy, students will receive scholarship money [...]

What a Difference One Football Game can Make

This past weekend my son took the train up to Los Angeles to spend the weekend with his grandparents. My parents love to spend time with him and frequently complain that they don’t get to see him often enough. I tell them that I don’t get to see him enough either due to his typical [...]