Tag: applying to college


Students miss out on $2.9 billion for college

Posted on January 30th, 2015

While college is extremely expensive, there’s a lot of free money out there going unclaimed.

In fact, according to a new analysis by NerdScholar, U.S. high school graduates left over $2.9 billion in free federal grant money on the table last academic year.

How’d they miss out on the free money?

They didn’t fill out the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA).

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Infographic: Navigating the financial aid process

Posted on January 28th, 2015

Applying for financial aid can get confusing.

It can be difficult for families to keep track of all the different types of financial aid available, from grants to student loans.

But this helpful infographic from Southern New Hampshire University makes it a bit easier.

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Don’t make these 6 common FAFSA mistakes

Posted on January 14th, 2015

If you have a child in college this coming year, it’s time to start filling out the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) at fafsa.gov.

When completing the application, it’s important to make sure you’re not making any major mistakes that could jeopardize your student’s chances of receiving financial aid.

Check out the infographic from TurboTax to find out 6 most common mistakes people make on the FAFSA so that you can maximize your chance of receiving grants, work-study, and other forms of financial aid to help pay for college.

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What is the FAFSA and how does it work?

Posted on January 8th, 2015

How that January 1 has come and gone, it’s time for college-bound families to start filling out the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA).

The video below from Censtible Student clearly explains the basics of the FAFSA, including what you need to file and how to fill it out.

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5 ways to reduce college costs while kids are still in high school

Posted on September 18th, 2014

Reducing college costs doesn’t just happen once the kids have already been accepted. Planning early is the best way to reduce your college costs later on.

In this video from THV11 News, Little Rock Family Magazine editor Heather Bennett shares her five best to reduce college costs while your student is still in high school.

Check out our tips and watch the video to find out more.

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Colleges giving record discounts on tuition

Posted on August 27th, 2014

"Even as they raise their advertised prices faster than the rate of inflation, many colleges and universities are giving discounts so steep that they’re falling behind." -- Jon Marcus

While college costs have increased rapidly over the past few decades, financial aid, grants and scholarships have increased significantly as well. In fact, at some colleges, these tuition “discounts” have been so large that colleges are struggling financially, Jon Marcus reported in a recent Hechinger Report article. College costs are up, but so is financial aid According […]

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Purdue president calls on colleges to reduce costs

Posted on August 25th, 2014

"Instead of asking our students' families to adjust their budgets to our spending, let's try to adjust our spending to their budgets for a while." -- Mitch Daniels

College costs have gotten out of control, but rarely do you hear a college administrator take responsibility for rising costs. Instead, they announce tuition increases with promises that they’ve “increased financial aid.” But Mitch Daniels, President of Purdue University, isn’t like most college administrators. In a recent appearance on CNBC, he blamed colleges themselves for […]

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College rankings haven’t changed in 100 years

Posted on August 19th, 2014

"The fact that a chart from 1911 — when 3 percent of Americans went to college — could so accurately predict the reputations a century later of the universities it did rate illustrates a central problem with ever-popular college rankings." -- Libby Nelson

Every year, U.S. News & World report famously releases a list of America’s Best Colleges. While many other publications create their own lists, the U.S. News rankings are taken the most seriously by parents and prospective college students. The list is so revered that colleges even attempt to game their admissions policies to appear more […]

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These 5 states have the best colleges for your money

Posted on August 6th, 2014

We recently wrote about a new set of college rankings based on which colleges provide the best value for your money.

A few states dominated the list and were home to several colleges that provide students with a great bang for their tuition buck. Watch the video to find out what they were.

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The best colleges for your money

Posted on July 29th, 2014

There’s no perfect method for ranking colleges, and every media organization that releases a list has its own standards and criteria.

We tend to focus on lists that take a college’s value compared to its cost into account and which colleges leave their graduates with little student debt.

That’s why we’re intrigued–and a little surprised–at these latest rankings from Time Money. The newsmagazine recently ranked 1,500 four-year colleges by which colleges offer the most bang for your tuition buck.

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