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The College Board. For more than six decades, the College Board has been a leader and innovator in financial aid. College Board’s fully integrated financial aid solutions are designed to help your institution develop equitable, effective, and efficient financial aid policies and processes. Visit us at collegeboard.org. 

More than 2,500 education, national security, health, science, labor, and other domestic groups and organizations called on Congress on Thursday to raise the caps on domestic federal budget programs and to work together on a bipartisan compromise to avoid the dire impacts of continued budgeting under sequestration.

The Department of Education (ED) on Thursday held the first of two negotiated rulemaking hearings, beginning the process to develop a framework for debt relief for students who feel they were defrauded by their institutions.

The purpose of the Rapid Response Network is to become familiar with NASFAA’s policy positions, as adopted by the Board of Directors; provide timely, relevant feedback and examples to inquiries related to proposed legislation, regulation, and/or related initiatives; assist NASFAA policy staff in aggregating and analyzing feedback, including identification of common themes and /or trends among responses; and based on feedback, engage in discussion with NASFAA policy staff to help inform potential recommendations and official policy positions. Review the complete task force charter for more details and, if interested, complete the volunteer form.

We'll be heading to Orlando, FL next June for the 2019 NASFAA National Conference and we need your great ideas for engaging, relevant, and interesting conference sessions. All types of session proposals are welcome, from those focused on advocacy, training, and professional development, to sessions structured as open-forum discussions. All proposals must be received by Wednesday, October 24. Refer to our Presenters and Moderators page for more information.

On September 12 and 13, 2015, the Department of Education plans to execute extended Web site maintenance and operating system upgrades to several Federal Student Aid Web sites and systems. This work is in addition to the regular weekly maintenance that occurs each weekend.

This announcement is intended to share the performance results and allocation information with the financial aid community.

Federal Student Aid is pleased to announce the availability of several updated modules of the Common Origination and Disbursement (COD) Computer Based Training (CBT).

"The face of the student debt crisis looks less like a doctor or lawyer with six-figures in loans and more like Danielle Adorno," MarketWatch reports.

"The leading Democratic presidential hopefuls have unveiled complex -- and expensive -- proposals for making college more affordable. Their Republican counterparts, however, have largely avoided the wonkier side of higher education policy in their speechifying, with the exception of Senator Marco Rubio," Inside Higher Ed reports.

"Roughly 600 colleges are in the design phase for a new competency-based education program, are actively creating one or already have a program in place. That’s up from an estimated 52 institutions last year," Inside Higher Ed reports.

"Hillary Clinton’s 2016 presidential campaign will make its first stop in the Badger State on Sept. 10, 2015," Politifact reports. "The visit, with a private fundraiser and a public event at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, comes one month to the day after Clinton proposed a 10-year, $350 billion college affordability plan. That plan aims to reduce the cost of four-year public schools, make two-year community colleges tuition-free and cut student loan interest rates."

"As growing numbers of Hispanic and first-generation students set their sights on college, the State University of New York is expected to approve a sweeping effort on Thursday to make campuses from Long Island to the foothills of the Adirondacks feel more welcoming to those and other diverse groups," The Chronicle of Higher Education reports.

"... Last week Liberty University announced it was ending the scholarship program for [Liberty Christian Academy] and three other Christian schools," WDBJ reports. "Current students will still get 10% off at Liberty for every year they attended LCA up to this year."

"A May ruling by the Arizona Board of Regents granted Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals recipients the ability to pay in-state tuition. Despite this ruling, many DREAMers still continue to struggle financially due to the lack of federal aid available to undocumented students," The State Press reports.

"Students all across Massachusetts are off to college. It’s an exciting time, but for many families it also means confronting the exploding cost of higher education," Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) writes in an opinion piece for the Milford Daily News.

"An air of mystery has long surrounded student debt. We know the total number of borrowers and their combined debt — 40 million people owe $1.2 trillion — but beyond these headline numbers, the data has been frustratingly thin. Who borrows? Who defaults? Why are so many borrowers in distress? The answers have been unclear, leaving analysts and policy makers to prescribe remedies without an accurate diagnosis of the disease," Susan Dynarski writes for The New York Times' The UpShot blog. "But now the picture has become significantly sharper."

"The top Senator in charge of higher education policy is on a campaign to convince policymakers, the news media and the general public that college is eminently affordable, even for the most financially needy students and their families," Stephen Burd writes for New America's EdCentral blog. "... But when it comes to low-income students, Alexander, who heads up the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions, is just plain wrong. The Senator’s argument is misleading because he only takes into account the tuition that students pay, leaving out a range of related costs and living expenses. These include room and board, textbooks, transportation, and other education-related expenses."

"Congress may have passed on President Barack Obama’s free community college proposal, but a newly formed coalition will continue to promote the initiative," according to the National Association for College Admission Counseling's Admitted Blog. "And instead of focusing on a federal mandate, the College Promise Advisory Board will encourage states and cities to adopt their own tuition-free programs."

"Milwaukee Area Technical College announced Wednesday that it is creating a privately funded program so low-income, academically qualified high school seniors can attend tuition-free, starting next fall," according to an article in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. "Called the MATC Promise, the college considers it a game-changer for families who otherwise could not afford to send their kids to college."

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