Student Loan Blog

In another move to restructure the federal financial aid system, President Obama has proposed ending the government’s five-year foray into merit-based student aid and redirecting those financial aid funds to the need-based Pell Grant program, reports The Chronicle of Higher Education (“An Experiment in Merit-Based Student Aid Is Likely to End,” ...

The direct student loan program — which President Obama wants to establish as the sole provider of federal student loans by 2010 — is swiftly gaining ground on the Federal Family Education Loan Program. In the past year, the number of college and universities originating loans through the Direct Loan Program has increased by more ...

Thousands of student loan borrowers who have defaulted on their student loans — including 15,000 additional borrowers each month — are being forced to remain in default despite their efforts to bring their loans back into good standing, The Chronicle of Higher Education reports (“Credit Freeze Leaves Thousands of Student Borrowers Stuck in ...

A recently completed audit of Fifth Third Bank — the 20th largest lender of federal student loans in the country according to college financial aid site FinAid — found that the bank violated federal law by illegally paying three companies for loan applications (“Audit Slams Fifth Third Student Loans,” The Enquirer, Jan. 9, 2009). ...

In a move intended to avoid a shortfall in student loans next year, Congress has expanded the government program to buy federally guaranteed student loans from private lenders. Under the updated loan-purchase plan, the Education Department can now buy lenders’ student loans with origination dates between Oct. 1, 2003, and ...

Despite 1,500 individuals and a dozen national organizations pushing for further changes to legislative provisions that help low-income college students repay their student loans, the Education Department recently issued the provisions’ final regulations without first making modifications to problematic language (“Low-Income Student ...

A California community college is being investigated by the FBI and the Department of Education for overpaying students more than $327,000 in financial aid during the 2005–06 school year, reports the Contra Costa Times (“Berkeley City College Overpaid Financial Aid,” Oct. 8, 2008).Berkeley City College, under former financial aid director Robert ...

Without additional taxpayer funds next year, the government’s “most important” federal financial aid program may be unable to provide Pell Grants to millions of eligible low-income students, likely pricing these students out of a higher education, according to an article in The New York Times (“Pell Grants Said to Face a Shortfall,” Sept. ...

With problems in the credit markets continuing to plague student loan providers, the U.S. House of Representatives overwhelmingly approved a year-long extension of the Ensuring Continued Access to Student Loans Act, which allows the secretary of education to buy student loans from cash-strapped lenders. If approved by the Senate, the measure, ...

Students attending colleges and universities in Kentucky, many of whom have already begun their fall semester, will soon receive their federal student loans now that the state has finalized its $50 million bridge-loan deal with the state’s nonprofit student loan provider, according to an article in the News-Democrat Leader (“Public, ...