Student Loan Blog

Roy Brown, a Montana state senator and candidate for governor, would like to reward companies that repay their employees’ student loans with a tax break, reported the Great Falls Tribune (“Brown Says Companies Could Help With Student Loans,” Aug. 6, 2008).The senator says that his plan would offer an incentive for Montana students to remain in ...

Five years overdue, the House and the Senate may finally reach a compromise on the re-authorized Higher Education Act, the law that predominantly governs student aid, according to an article in The Chronicle of Higher Education (“With Compromises, Higher-Ed Bill Could Move Through Congress This Week,” July 28, 2008). If the bill makes it out ...

Sen. Charles Grassley, ranking member of the Senate Finance Committee, wants colleges to be held more accountable in both their academic research and their endowment spending, according to a recent article in The Chronicle of Higher Education (“Sen. Grassley Pressures Universities on Science Conflicts and Financial Aid,” July 25, 2008).In an ...

Some small, private schools are beginning to offer internship grants to students who would otherwise have been unable to accept an unpaid or low-paying intern position, according to an article in The Chronicle of Higher Education (“Subsidizing the Internship,” July 18, 2008). “That’s one of the more important aspects of career ...

Berea College is drawing the attention of lawmakers for its no-frills approach to education and its free tuition policy. The private Kentucky college — founded 150 years ago to educate freed slaves and “poor white mountaineers” — accepts only applicants from low-income families and charges no tuition, according to an article in The New York ...

This year, college students who are still struggling to get the money they need to pay for school may be able to take advantage of a phenomenon, colleges and universities refer to as the “summer melt” — the phase where students make last-minute decisions not to attend a school because of high tuition costs. When that happens, schools are ...

A Harvard University education professor is challenging undergraduates at elite colleges to forgo high-paying consulting and finance jobs, for careers in public service. The professor, Howard Gardner, is leading seminars at Harvard and, Amherst College in Massachusetts, and Colby College in Maine, to encourage undergraduates to reflect more ...

State spending on financial aid for undergraduates increased 6 percent or by a total of $9.3 billion in 2006-07 academic year, after growth slowed to 3.4 percent during the 2005–06 academic year, according to a recent report by the National Association of State Student Grant and Aid Programs. States spent the majority of their ...

The Howard Hughes Medical Institute, one of the largest sources of private funds for biomedical research, named 56 of the nation’s most gifted biomedical scientists as HHMI “investigators” this week (“HHMI Selects 56 of the Nation’s Top Scientists,” May 27, 2008).HHMI investigators, who maintain faculty positions at universities and other research ...

Students at the Stanford School of Medicine will not be offered the same type of tuition breaks students attending rival medical schools Harvard and Yale will see next year.Harvard Medical School and the Yale School of Medicine recently announced they are eliminating the expected family contribution for households that earn less $120,000 and ...