NASFAA Mention: Congressional Deal Would Give Higher Ed $23B December 22, 2020-"A $900 billion coronavirus-relief package, passed by Congress late Monday night, gives colleges and universities another $23 billion in relief aid, which the head of the American Council on Education blasted as 'wholly inadequate.' The Senate shortl...
NASFAA Mention: Congress Poised to Simplify FAFSA, and Help People in Prison Go to College December 21, 2020-"U.S. lawmakers have announced an agreement on a handful of higher education measures that would provide meaningful help to marginalized students, students of color and many of the schools that serve them. The aid is part of a broad new set of legisl...
NASFAA Mention: Congress Close on Simplifying FAFSA December 7, 2020-"Congressional education leaders are hopeful about reaching a deal in the coming days to simplify applying for student aid, a major priority for Lamar Alexander, the chairman of the Senate education committee, who is retiring shortly after the new ye...
NASFAA Mention: Financial Aid Officers Could Use Powers to Help Students, Paper Says December 4, 2020-"At a time when the economic impact of the pandemic is disproportionately hurting the incomes of Black and Latino families, financial aid officers at universities and colleges could use their professional discretion to help keep students of color in ...
NASFAA Mention: What Biden's Plans Could Mean for Affording College November 30, 2020-"Trapped, hopeless and frustrated with the system that got them there, millions of student loan borrowers feel their futures hinge on President-elect Joe Biden's plans for loan forgiveness," U.S. News & World Report reports.
NASFAA Mention: Colleges Ask DeVos to Extend Break From Repaying Student Loans November 24, 2020-"With federal student loan borrowers facing having to resume paying back their debt again, associations representing the nation’s colleges and universities and financial aid administrators are asking Education Secretary Betsy DeVos to extend th...
Financial Aid Basics November 20, 2020-In a special topic paper for WCET, NASFAA Policy Analyst Jill Desjean dives into the basics of financial aid. In this piece, Jill gives a primer on financial aid audits and reviews, aid for distance education, and key considerations for financial aid...
NASFAA Mention: Parent Plus Loans Are Burying Families in College Debt November 19, 2020-"Jay Rife was sitting in his pickup truck on the outskirts of Las Vegas when he answered a phone call that would permanently alter his life. A man from the federal government was on the line and told him that the loan he had taken out so his son and ...
NASFAA Mention: How to Help College Applicants Get Financial Aid During Covid November 17, 2020-"Applying to college was already difficult, but in the age of Covid-19, it’s become a hill too steep for many high school students to climb. They simply aren’t applying to college at the rates they used to, despite everything colleges are...
NASFAA Mention: More Black and Latinx Students Were Going to College. Then Covid Hit November 16, 2020-"Largely low-income, Hispanic, and with parents whose own educations didn’t get past high school, the young people in the Rio Grande Valley of Texas over the past decade started doing something few of their predecessors had done: going to colle...
NASFAA Mention: Fewer Students Enrolling Into College as Pandemic Rages On November 13, 2020-
"With so much uncertainty around the coronavirus pandemic, some families are faced with making difficult decisions like whether or not to send their kid to college. A new study shows a gradual decline in undergraduate enrollment, especially f...
NASFAA Mention: Changes in Student Loan Servicing to Impact Borrowers November 12, 2020-"Servicers of student loans are ending their contract with the Department of Education after suffering financial difficulties. Currently, there are at least nine different servicers responsible for the management of nearly $1.5 trillion in federal st...
NASFAA Mention: Student Debt Cancellation Tests Progressives' Sway Under Biden November 10, 2020-"Joe Biden embraced progressive demands for student debt cancellation after he won the Democratic nomination. Whether he agrees to use executive authority to grant loan relief will test how much influence progressives hold in his administration," Blo...
NASFAA Mention: How to Pay for College November 5, 2020-"Going to college has a ton of benefits — it’s fun, educational and can lead to a roughly $30,000 annual earnings premium for people who graduate with bachelor’s degrees. But it is also undeniably expensive," Money reports.
NASFAA Mention: Study: 8 in 10 Say College Plans Have Been Significantly Altered November 3, 2020-"With the coronavirus pandemic upending higher education, many are reconsidering what a college education looks like for them — and how much it’s worth. According to Student Loan Hero’s analysis of the mid-to-late September Househol...
NASFAA Mention: Is Your Data Safe When Applying for Financial Aid? November 2, 2020-
"Consumer Confidence in the ability of companies to protect their users' private data is falling. Yet, while applying for college financial aid often requires families to submit an incredible amount of personal information online – inclu...
NASFAA Mention: Biden Offers More Hope for Higher Education Than Trump October 31, 2020-All bets are off when it comes to the winner of Tuesday’s United States presidential race. Polls show former vice president Joe Biden with a stable and consistent lead nationally. But against the backdrop of a pandemic that has polarised the el...
NASFAA Mention: Cleveland Students Organize to ‘Ban the Box’ on College Applications October 26, 2020-"When Kevin Ballou was released from prison in 2017, he knew exactly what he wanted to do. As an inmate in the Marion Correctional Facility in Ohio, he’d earned nearly sixty academic credits and understood that completing an undergraduate degre...
NASFAA Mention: Financial Aid Officials Share How They're Advising College Students Now October 16, 2020-"The clock turned over on the financial aid calendar with the launch of the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) earlier this month. With fall enrollment tracking far below last year's numbers, ensuring students are aware of the...
NASFAA Mention: Why Are Fewer Students Seeking College Aid? They’re Not Going October 15, 2020-"Students are not submitting as many financial aid applications as they typically would this fall because fewer would-be students are attending college — another example of economic fallout from the pandemic, experts say," NerdWallet reports.
NASFAA Mention: Financial Aid Appeals in a Pandemic October 15, 2020-"The pandemic and resulting recession have made college less accessible to many students, and household financial situations at the time of applying for federal financial aid were often significantly more stable than compared to when this academic ye...
NASFAA Mention: 6 Views on Growing Nontraditional Student Credentials October 9, 2020-"While many in higher ed want to see more adults earning credentials and certifications, hurdles remain for institutions trying to grow their short-term programs for nontraditional students, a new report finds," University Business reports. "Colleges...
NASFAA Mention: New Research Paper on Short-term Postsecondary Programs October 8, 2020-"Today, the National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators (NASFAA) released a new report on short-term postsecondary CTE programs. ACTE, along with Advance CTE, partnered with NASFAA on the research for the report, including helping to...
NASFAA Mention: Pandemic Increases Importance of Filing Early for Financial Aid September 28, 2020-"It’s especially important to apply early for financial aid this year, college experts say, because many families have suffered economically during the coronavirus pandemic and may have to take extra steps to qualify for maximum help," The...
NASFAA Mention: What to Know Before You Apply for Financial Aid During COVID-19 September 16, 2020-"The pandemic has already prompted many students to rethink their college plans, but on the financial front, there are some tips to consider if you're looking for assistance," ABC News reports. "The 'free application for federal student aid' or FAFSA...
NASFAA Mention: The Typical Way You Apply for Financial Aid May Not Work This Year September 14, 2020-"The process of applying for financial aid for college is going to look different for some families in the fall because of the pandemic. Financial aid experts talk about what to do if you don't receive the aid you were hoping for," Scripps National N...
NASFAA Mention: The College Quandary Today September 1, 2020-"First came Covid. Then came online college. Then came the lawsuits. There’s a firm in South Carolina, the Anastopoulo Law Firm, that says it’s suing some 30 higher learning institutions for tuition and board payback (including Columbia, ...
NASFAA Mention: Here's the Latest on Student Interest Rates and Current Refinance Rates August 25, 2020-"Starting college always comes with new challenges, but this year, students are up against a unique set of hurdles. From fully remote classes to strict social distancing rules to reduce the chances of a COVID-19 outbreak on campus, this fall semester...
NASFAA Mention: College Going Online? Student Loans Still Cover Living Costs August 24, 2020-
"Attending college from a laptop in your childhood bedroom might not be the experience you had in mind. But just because you’re not living in a dorm this fall doesn’t mean that expenses disappear. Your cost of attendance might have chan...
NASFAA Mention: Pandemic Increases Number of Students Seeking Financial Aid August 24, 2020-"College students and their parents plan. God laughs. In 2020, the Covid-19 crisis has thrown a lot of kids’ college education plans into disarray. While many schools planned to reopen in the fall, some institutions have walked that back now th...
NASFAA Mention: A New Paper Series Recommends Ways to Simplify the FAFSA August 13, 2020-"The National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators (NASFAA) recently came out with a series of ten papers on ways to streamline the notoriously complicated FAFSA, the application for student financial aid," Diverse: Issues in High...
NASFAA Mention: Is Help Coming From Washington? August 10, 2020-"Executive orders President Donald Trump signed this weekend may bring a little help to Americans, including continuing to excuse many student loan borrowers from making payments through the rest of the year," Inside Higher Ed reports.
NASFAA Mention: Donald Trump: Where He Stands August 10, 2020-
"He's been a businessman, willing fodder for New York gossip columns, and as of Jan. 20, 2017, the leader of the free world. But President Donald J. Trump is above all a brand – one that propelled him to an unexpected victory in 2016 and one ...
NASFAA Mention: The 'Indirect' Costs at College Can Involve Nasty Surprises August 7, 2020-"Students and their families often focus on tuition and fees when budgeting for college. But there are costs that typically don’t appear on college bills, and they can add up — costs like books, laptop computers, transportation, and off-c...
NASFAA Mention: Student Aid Administrators Recommend Improvements August 6, 2020-"The Free Application for Federal Student Aid should be further simplified by automatically including more data from IRS filings, including exploring whether wage information from W-2s could be used, the National Association of Student Financial Aid ...
NASFAA Mention: How to Ask for More College Financial Aid Due to COVID-19 July 28, 2020-"The spring of 2020 brought a lot of change for high school seniors and college students, but not the kind that most could have envisioned or wanted. Instead of enjoying graduation celebrations and taking on internships, the COVID-19 pandemic has lef...
NASFAA Mention: Amid Pandemic, Fewer Students Seek Federal Aid for College July 6, 2020-"The number of high school seniors applying for U.S. federal college aid plunged in the weeks following the sudden closure of school buildings this spring — a time when students were cut off from school counselors, and families hit with financi...
NASFAA Mention: Inconsistent Information on Indirect Expenses June 26, 2020-"... These students are not alone. They spoke at a news conference sponsored by Representative Ayanna Pressley, which focused on a new study on indirect college expenses from uAspire, a nonprofit focused on making college affordable for all," I...
NASFAA Mention: Politics, Legal Fights Bedevil DeVos Doling Out Covid Aid June 17, 2020-"Education Secretary Betsy DeVos faces legal challenges and political pushback over her handling of $2 trillion in coronavirus relief. The disputes threaten to slow aid to students and schools. Restrictions that blocked assistance to undocu...
NASFAA Mention: FAFSA Renewals Still Down, But More Students Appealing Aid June 13, 2020-"Roughly 3% fewer students renewed their Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) as of May compared to a year ago, according to new data from the National College Attainment Network (NCAN)," Education Dive reports."
NASFAA Mention: Survey Suggests Increase in Requests to Re-Evaluate Financial Aid June 12, 2020-"Results from a survey by the National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators suggest that financial aid offices are expecting an increase in the number of students and families requesting their financial aid packages be re-evaluate...
NASFAA Mention: DeVos Formally Limits Emergency Aid June 12, 2020-"After a series of fits and starts that colleges say has confused the distribution of emergency aid grants to help students dealing with the coronavirus pandemic, the Education Department finally issued an interim formal rule saying undocumented stud...
NASFAA Mention: More Confusion Over Emergency Aid June 10, 2020-"The U.S Department of Education on Tuesday appeared to be on the verge of issuing an interim rule saying again that undocumented college students and others not eligible for regular financial aid couldn’t get the emergency grants created in th...
Insight Into Key CARES Act Questions June 9, 2020-
Congress and the president quickly approved the CARES Act in March to provide $14 billion in emergency funding to colleges and students to help them with challenges resulting from the coronavirus pandemic. The U.S. Education Department ...
NASFAA Mention: DACA Students Left Out of the CARES Act June 4, 2020-"Students who are undocumented may not be able to receive the emergency grant that is part of the $2 trillion coronavirus relief act. U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos has said the aid will not go to undocumented students, even those who p...
NASFAA Mention: The Secret Grants Displaced College Students Should Be Getting June 3, 2020-"The Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act was passed on March 27, 2020 with the goal of providing more than $2 trillion in relief and aid for businesses and American families. Major components of the act included the Payche...
NASFAA Mention: Community Colleges Struggled With Emergency Aid Distribution June 2, 2020-"Many community colleges already have disbursed aid from the federal CARES Act relief package to their students. Leaders of two-year colleges said they are grateful for the support, but also that it's not enough money, and that federal guidance ...
NASFAA Mention: Continued Confusion Over CARES Act Money May 27, 2020-"In a statement on its website and a court filing over the Memorial Day weekend, the U.S. Department of Education said it does not intend to enforce guidelines it has issued that say only those eligible for regular student aid can get emergency stude...
NASFAA Mention: Ed Dept Backs Off CARES Grant Eligibility Guidance — Sort Of May 26, 2020-"The U.S. Department of Education says it will not enforce previous guidance limiting which students can receive federal emergency grants through the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act. It made the announcement Thursday e...
NASFAA Mention: Higher Education Will Be Transformed By the Coronavirus Pandemic May 22, 2020-"Over a decade ago, the Great Recession dealt a seismic blow to colleges and universities in the U.S. State funding for higher education was drastically cut, and it never fully recovered. Institutions increased reliance on tuition revenue, ...
NASFAA Mention: Coronavirus News Roundup for May 18 May 18, 2020-"Everything you need to know for Monday and the week ahead about higher ed and the coronavirus in one easy-to-read package (with some distractions to help your sanity). Plus, a special Q&A with a university psychologist," Inside Higher Ed reports...
Emergency Grants: Congress Must Step In May 12, 2020-"A full two months after Congress appropriated emergency grants for students through the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security (CARES) Act, dollars are finally landing in some students’ bank accounts. But even after all of the funds are...
NASFAA Mention: Getting Emergency Financial Aid During COVID-19 May 11, 2020-"Most colleges suspended in-person classes when the coronavirus began sweeping the U.S. in March, but as May progresses, many students still have not received the federal emergency financial aid grants designated for them by Congress. As colleges beg...
NASFAA Mention: Top Higher Ed Groups Create New DACA Resources Website May 11, 2020-"Several influential higher education groups have created a new website, ‘Remember the Dreamers’, that will provide information and resources for students and institutions on what efforts are being made to help Deferred Action for Childho...
NASFAA Mention: Universities Get Aid They Can’t Share With DACA Students May 11, 2020-"Colleges and universities across the country are getting emergency federal aid for COVID-19, but some of the most vulnerable students won’t be eligible for assistance. Education Secretary Betsy DeVos has said the emergency grants — part ...
NASFAA Mention: The Coronavirus Enrollment Crash May 7, 2020-"... With unprecedented turmoil over standardized testing, the unmooring of the admissions calendar, and uncertainty around whether campuses will reopen for the fall-2020 semester, enrollment managers and consultants are confronting gr...