As the lazy days of summer slip away, high school students can take advantage of their free time to help fill the family college coffers with private scholarship winnings. And why should your child consider giving up precious time at the beach or the mall? Simple. If you’re like most parents, the net cost of [...]

Students hoping for “institutional” financial aid–those helpful funds that come directly from the college itself–in the 2010-2011 school year have yet another strike against their chances: significantly dropping annual funds.
Less Give…
A recent study for 2009 (a year that already saw many schools making big aid cuts) showed that donors gave less than usual to collegiate “annual [...]

Alabama’s Birmingham-Southern College officials had a shock when they recently reviewed their financial aid spending: they discovered that they have been over-awarding financial aid to students for years, an error that will cost them millions of dollars.
Suffering the Consequences
While the college plans to honor the award letters given out to their students, the error will mean [...]

You’ve probably heard (or read) a lot about grants, scholarships, and loans, but many parents have never heard of Work-Study - a common piece of the financial aid pie. If you, too, are in the dark, read on!
What is Work-Study?
The Federal Work-Study program–which, as its name implies is funded by the federal government–helps provide part-time on-campus [...]

More tough news for parents of current or soon-to-be college students: even with the economic downturn, college tuition and fees are still going up and up. The results of the latest College Board survey are in, and it could mean added financial stress for many families.
Cost Up, Aid Down
I’ll break the bad news first (don’t [...]

The financial aid system is constantly going through changes, but even the overcomplicated Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) never seems to give schools a perfect picture of how much aid a family really needs.
Since he took office in Fall, President Obama’s administration has been working on some of the larger problems in higher [...]

Budget cuts are the name of the game for most states this year, but some of them are coping with their multi-billion dollar shortfalls by shifting funds away from student financial aid.
Taking from the Poor
Budget plans from New Jersey to California are focusing on funneling financial aid reserves back into the general budget–reducing and sometimes [...]

In a time when student aid is more crucial to higher education than it has been in decades, the Obama administration is making some big changes in the Education Department.
New Blood
One of the latest changes is the addition of student aid expert Robert Shireman to the Education Department team. Recently appointed as the deputy secretary [...]

President Obama’s new $825 billion economic stimulus plan is set to go to the House next week for consideration, and it could be a great boon to struggling students.
In addition the funding that would be sent to state governments and national foundations for health and science, billions of dollars would be allocated to help higher [...]

It seems like every day brings unhappy news about the recession–but happily, today is not one of those days for college-bound students! That’s because colleges across the country want to help cash-strapped families by bringing them some good news.
Helping Hands, Far and Wide
With even the admissions process being affected by the recession, college officials are [...]