financial-aid

3 Things You Need To Know Before Filling Out A FAFSA
If you're a college student who seeks financial aid, part of your annual ritual is filling out a More »

A College Financial Aid Primer
Students need to call upon several sources to cover the massive expenses college drops on them. Unless they're independently wealthy or have a large college fund set up for them, they'll scramble to come up with the funds to pay for tuition, fees, books and living expenses. More »

Report: $37 Billion In Welfare Will Disappear By Year's End
Unless lawmakers somehow maintain the funding of welfare programs at current levels, the nation's poor could suffer a devastating loss of income by the end of the year. According to an estimate by Moody's Analytics, $37 billion in extended benefits are set to expire. More »

Facebook App To Automatically Match College Students With Financial Aid
MTV and The College Board recently teamed up for something called the College Affordability Challenge, a contest to create digital tools that will help to make navigating the financial aid maze even slightly easier. Earlier this week, they announced the winner, a Facebook application that takes users' info and matches them up with the most appropriate aid providers. More »

Federal Student Aid To For-Profit Schools Has Tripled In Recent Years
Back in August, the Government Accountability Office released the findings of their hidden-camera investigation that caught employees at several for-profit colleges encouraging applicants to lie in order to get more federal financial aid. Today, the GAO released a report that sheds some light on just how much money these schools have been getting from the government. More »

New Law: All Students To Borrow Directly From Federal Government
President Obama signed the last piece of the health care legislation today — but it wasn't actually health care legislation — it was, instead, an overhaul of the federal student lending operation. All students getting federal student aid will now borrow directly from the federal government instead of sometimes having to go through a subsidized private lender. More »

Students: Don't Forget To Fill Out Your FAFSA
The federal deadline for the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) is midnight Central Daylight time, June 30, 2010, but state deadlines are often different and earlier. More »

Financial Aid-Hunting Students, Make Sure You Visit The Right FAFSA Site
Filling out the FAFSA every year is as much a part of college as binge drinking and the morning after pill. But Jackie points out how easy it is to miss out on this seminal, government-subsidized loan and grant hunting experience by accidentally clicking on FAFSA.com, run by a non-government entity that soaks you for $80 to use its financial aid-finding services. The site you're looking for is FAFSA.gov, which is free. More »

College Students: Before You Bog Yourself Down With Loans Fill Out A FAFSA To Snag Free Pell Grants

—>Exactly how much academic knowledge you glean from college is debatable, but the experience gives most people a thorough lesson of how to drown yourself in debt. But there is financial aid out there, some of it free, for those willing to look for it. This HowToDoThings post offers some helpful tips on how to sniff out federal Pell Grants by getting a Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA).  More »

Financial Resolutions for 2009

—>It's that time of year again. m The Earth has moved 'round the sun once again, and for a month everyone will screw up when writing the date. What are your 2009 Financial Resolutions?  More »

Sallie Mae Will Make Fewer Student Loans In 2008

—> Student loan lender Sallie Mae said today it plans on making fewer loans in the future "in the wake of federal legislation last year to reduce subsidies for student lenders," reports Reuters.  More »

Bush Will Sign Bill Increasing Pell Grant Funding

—> In a not-too-surprising announcement after all the recent bad news about student loan firms—and in an apparent "victory" for both Bush and Congress—the White House said today that President Bush intends to sign into law a bill that reduces federal subsidies to those firms, including Sallie Mae, by $20.9 billion over the next five years, and will instead use that money to increase funding for Pell Grants (which recipients don't have to pay back).  More »