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For the fourth year in a row, Washington Monthly analyzed data from hundreds of colleges to compile a list of those that best serve low- and middle-income students, based on measures of affordability and student success.

On Friday, PBS NewsHour hosted a Twitter chat as part of its recent series on “Rethinking College,” discussing the role of merit- and need-based scholarships. NASFAA joined four other panelists and participants from the general public to consider college costs and enrollment gaps, the role of tuition discounting, and the value of using different aid. NASFAA advised a balanced approach to schools using their own merit- and need-based funds and argued that we cannot judge value based on graduation rates. NASFAA also highlighted the importance of filling out the FAFSA as early as possible, and using federal and private loans as a last resort. Read NASFAA’s tweets from the chat and weigh in by tweeting @nasfaa.

In this archived webinar, NASFAA 2014-15 National Chair Eileen O’Leary, President Justin Draeger, and Ethics Commission Chair Mary Sommers present the key elements of NASFAA's Code of Conduct, which offers detailed ethical guidelines to govern the conduct of financial aid professionals. The webinar is available for viewing at no additional cost for members.

"Tuition-discount rates at private, nonprofit colleges have once again hit an all-time high, and appear to be holding down net tuition revenue, according to preliminary estimates from the National Association of College and University Business Officers’ annual survey," The Chronicle of Higher Education reports.

"The Education Department has grown into one of the biggest money lenders in the country, overseeing a $1.2 trillion portfolio of student debt rivaling the entire loan business of JPMorgan Chase with a staff roughly the size of the National Weather Service," The Washington Post reports.

"After three months of studying at Damascus University in Syria, Omar Alhalabi's life was uprooted ... He's exactly the type of student that University of the People is trying to reach out to and help," according to Inside Higher Ed.

"Thousands of new college students this week will descend upon area campuses to start gathering knowledge and experiences that will serve them a lifetime. Most also will begin accumulating something less desirable – student loan debt," according to The Buffalo News.

"The average room and board costs have been rising steadily between 2.5 and 3 percent annually at many schools nationwide, said Tom Ellett, the former president of the Association of College and University Housing Officers - International," iSchoolGuide reports.

"Sabrina Marcum came to Volunteer State Community College earlier this month to finalize her classes and meet with a financial aid staffer when she got news that left her stunned," The Tennessean reports.

"When I was wait-listed at my first choice college, I enrolled in a tech school. I qualified for a Pell grant and received state lottery assistance, so I only spent $250-$300 per semester," former student Kristin Bastian told Business Insider. "When I transferred to the College of Charleston in 2005, I assumed I'd be granted a full scholarship, thanks to my strong GPA and SAT scores. But after meeting with the financial aid office, I was floored to learn I was fully responsible for my tuition."

"Last week, an op-ed by Victor Fleischer in The New York Times launched a firestorm of criticism at elite universities with huge endowments," David Brodwin, a cofounder and board member of American Sustainable Business Council, writes in an opinion piece for U.S. News & World Report.

"Once upon a time, we were a nation of farmers. ... We now live in the age of the Information Technology Revolution. That age demands a whole new skill set — one that can be taught only in the halls of higher education," Elisabeth A. Mason, co-founder of Single Stop USA, writes in an opinion piece for Fortune.

"The arc of progressive politics these days seems to be hoping to benefit from proposing policies to solve the problems their previous policies have created—and hoping nobody notices the cause and effect," according to The Wall Street Journal.

"In his op-ed 'How to fix student debt crisis,' Steven DiSalvo argues that we need to reform our student loan programs. I agree that reform needs to happen now, but I disagree with most of the methods he suggests," Howard E. Horton, president of the New England College of Business, writes in a letter to the editor of The Boston Globe.

"State cuts to higher education funding have been the major driver behind the large tuition increases at public two- and four-year colleges in recent years," Michael Mitchell, a policy analyst for the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, writes in a blog post. "Claims that rapid increases in administrative and support staff are ballooning campus budgets are overstated."

"Did you know that Federal subsidized student loans, measured in dollars lent, have dropped more than forty percent over the last five years? It suggests a bit of a flaw in the 'student loan bubble' discussion, if nothing else," according to Inside Higher Ed's Confessions of a Community College Dean.

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