Student Loan Blog

While acting last Thursday to approve the creation of a Consumer Financial Protection Agency, which will expand federal oversight of private student loans, a Congressional panel at the same time voted to reject a proposal that would have included school-sponsored “gap loans” under the authority of the new CFPA. The House Financial Services ...

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 ...

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, ...

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). ...

Students who want to maximize their federal financial aid for the 2009–10 academic year should fill out their FAFSA (Free Application for Federal Student Aid) this week — the first week applications are accepted, reports The Baltimore Sun (“Ringing in the New Year With FAFSA Might Be a Good Move for 2009,” Dec. 30, 2009). “The ...

Don Fenstermaker, the founder and CEO of NextStudent, will join noted names Mark Kantrowitz, publisher of FinAid.org, and Kim Clark, senior writer for U.S. World & News Report, as one of only a few financial aid experts to give a live streaming video keynote presentation on college financing at today’s CollegeWeekLive event.CollegeWeekLive, ...

In a letter sent to the American Council on Education on April 15, Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., the chairman of the Senate Education Committee, urged colleges to sign up for the Department of Education’s Federal Direct Loan Program as a preventive measure against the potential funding inadequacies within the Federal Family Education Loan ...

In the last six months alone, since legislators eliminated over $21 billion in subsidies to student loan lenders in the Federal Family Education Loan Program, at least 44 FFELP lenders have stopped originating federal student loans.This exodus of lenders from the federal student loan program, combined with the current credit and liquidity crunch ...