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 bill to overhaul the student loan industry may reach Congress as early as next week; education-committee chairs are working behind the scenes on a piece of legislation that would eliminate the third-party student loan system called the Federal Family Education Loan Program, The Chronicle of Higher Education reports (“Behind the Scenes, a ...

Students who receive above-average scores on standardized college admissions tests, such as the SAT, may benefit the most from commercial test preparation services, according to new report from the National Association for College Admission Counseling, although the benefits of such test preparation may not outweigh the costs for ...

Alta Colleges, operating 17 campuses in six states, recently settled a lawsuit involving student-aid fraud allegations and has agreed to pay the federal government $7 million, The Chronicle of Higher Education reports (“Proprietary College to Pay $7-Million to Settle Federal Student-Aid Charges,” April 20, 2009). Unnamed ...

In response to a $274 million loss in state funds, Georgia’s Board of Regents voted unanimously to suspend its “Fixed for Four” program, which guaranteed freshmen entering the University System of Georgia a set tuition rate for four years of school, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports (“Regents Suspend Fixed Tuition Program,” April 14, 2009). ...

An additional 130,000 college work-study students may have jobs next year thanks to the economic-stimulus bill that President Obama just signed into law which allocates approximately $200 million in new funding for Federal Work-Study Programs, reports The Chronicle of Higher Education (“Economic-Stimulus Law Creates Jobs for ...

While some states whose colleges are starving for money due to budget cuts are eagerly awaiting their share of the federal economic stimulus bill, the states that don’t need the stimulus money, or may not want it, may be getting it anyway, reports The Chronicle of Higher Education (“Some States Get Stimulus Whether They Need or ...

At a recent financial aid conference, aid professionals discussed what colleges and universities can do to help struggling families pay for college amid a weakening economy, reports The Chronicle of Higher Education (“Student-Aid Experts Offer Advice to Colleagues on Weather the Recession,” Jan. 26, 2009). Josph Russo, a ...

The University of California is considering a program which would offer certain students free tuition, reports The Chronicle of Higher Education (“U. of California to Consider Covering Tuition for Families Below State’s Median Income,” Jan. 22, 2009). As part of a series of measures intended to “broaden the reach of the ...

As jobs continue to disappear and unemployment soars, large numbers of adult learners may soon be enrolling in online programs, particularly at two-year colleges and for-profit institutions, according to a new online education survey (“Recession May Drive More Adult Students to Take Online Courses,” The Chronicle of Higher ...