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,” ...

A large proportion of students who only take out non-federal private student loans to finance their education aren’t applying for federal financial aid at all, and it’s the application itself that may be culprit, a new study suggests (“Nightmare Application May Be Driving Students to Costly Loans,” Forbes, June 9, 2009). In his study of 250,000 ...

It’s “all hands on deck” for federal student loan lenders. The banks and third-party student loan providers that make up the Federal Family Education Loan Program have made it abundantly clear that they’re not going to roll over and accept the terms of the Obama administration’s proposal to axe their loan program in favor of the Education ...

In economic downturns, colleges and universities become flooded with students of all ages looking to better prepare themselves for an increasingly competitive job market. But these schools haven’t been immune to the effects of today’s recession. Fortunately, for every recent economic downturn in higher education — tuition hikes, state budget ...

With more families applying for financial aid — applications are already up 10 percent above last year’s record — and lending for private student loans drying up, families’ ability to find available financial aid is becoming more difficult, reports the Associated Press (“College Financial Aid System Facing Stiff Test,” Jan. 25, ...

Three former University of Phoenix students are suing the for-profit higher education giant for using a questionable loan repayment practice that skews the university’s default rate and takes away federal student loan repayment options from students who withdraw from the school, according to The Chronicle of Higher Education (“Lawsuit ...

After ranking number one in the nation for student loan defaults for the last four years, Nevada managed to come in fifth this year with a 7.4-percent default rate based on the Education Department’s data for borrowers who began repaying their loans between October 2005, and September 2006. To combat the state’s consistently high default rate, ...

Premiere Credit of North America, a debt collection agency based in Indianapolis, is a bit of an anomaly in today’s down economy — it is thriving at a time when many businesses are cutting back their workforces and many debt collection agencies are losing money to cash-strapped consumers who can’t pay up. Premiere Credit, which specializes in ...

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 ...