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Great Lakes. It’s about time. Time for a change… to save you time. From financial literacy tools with loan counseling and selection through streamlined loan application, certification, and disbursement, our one-stop shop makes private loan processing fast, easy, and effective for you and your students. Contact your representative or visit schools.mygreatlakes.org

"It's like déjà vu all over again." The famous quote attributed to the late baseball player Yogi Berra, who passed away on Tuesday, fits perfectly in most political debates in Washington, D.C. Perhaps no major issue feels so persistent as the annual congressional scramble to avoid a government shutdown. While congressional leaders in both parties hope to avoid a shutdown, anything is possible with only days until October 1, the beginning of the federal fiscal year and the deadline for Congress to approve a budget and have it signed by the President.

While the efficacy of reverse transfer policies vary among states that have them, early data show that such policies are helping states to confer additional associate degrees to students who have some college credit but no degree, according to a policy brief from the Education Commission of the States (ECS).

The idea of debt-free and tuition-free community college has gathered steam as policymakers increasingly focus on the issues surrounding college access and affordability. But rather than focusing federal dollars on an initiative to make community college free, a new paper from the Manhattan Institute argues the money should be funneled into initiatives that improve graduation rates and lower student loan default rates.

The primary purpose of the One Grant/One Loan Task Force is to discuss the different possible structures of a one grant/one loan model and the implications of each; identify the trade-offs related to simplification, targeting, transparency, etc.; discuss the school’s role; consider other implications of the model, such as consumer information and loan servicing; examine the potential impacts to existing campus-based aid programs; and provide recommendations and considerations to the NASFAA board in a final report. Review the complete task force charter for more details and, if interested, complete the volunteer form by COB tomorrow.

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.

The Department announces the posting of the draft 2016-2017 Electronic Data Exchange (EDE) Technical Reference including the Institutional Student Information Record (ISIR) Record Layout and the ISIR Cross-Reference table.

On September 26 and 27, 2015, the Department 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.

"Driven in part by underutilization of income-driven repayment plans and elevated federal default rates, TG, in consultation with the National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators (NASFAA), conducted a study on the efficacy of federal student loan counseling," according to Inside ARM.

"Education Secretary Arne Duncan is a mild-mannered, even-tempered, introverted kind of guy, but he’s spent much of his six and a half years in Washington in combat," according to Politico.

"Higher education is putting young Americans in a bind: As a degree becomes more crucial to their professional futures, it also becomes more daunting to their finances," Politico reports.

"What's the tiniest change you can think of to create the biggest improvement in someone's well-being? That's the question at the heart of the first annual report by the new Social and Behavioral Sciences Team inside the White House," NPR reports.

"Consumer Financial Protection Bureau student loan ombudsman Seth Frotman recently shared his concern over predatory practices in student loan repayment programs to those that led to the mortgage crisis nearly a decade ago," Diverse: Issues in Higher Education reports.

"... For all the progress in improving educational outcomes among African-American children, the achievement gaps between more affluent and less privileged children is wider than ever, notes Sean Reardon of the Center for Education Policy Analysis at Stanford," according to The New York Times.

"Immigration advocates say some colleges and universities in Missouri are discriminating against undocumented students by charging them higher tuition," St. Louis Public Radio reports. "Students and organizers rallied Monday outside St. Louis Community College’s downtown office, demanding officials reverse course."

"As college students resume classes this month, it prompts many of us to recall our first college semester: fresh out of high school, moving into a dorm room, and buying books at the campus bookstore," Jamie Merisotis of the Lumina Foundation writes for The Hill. "That experience no longer reflects the reality for most of today’s college students."

"A little over a week ago the Obama administration released version 2.0 of its College Scorecard, a dramatic expansion of the one created in 2013 to help students and parents find key information about colleges and universities. The new scorecard is the end result of the administration’s ambitious — and misguided — goal of rating each college that participates in federal student aid programs, a goal it finally abandoned after years of criticism from a wide array of observers," Kevin James and Andrew Kelly of the American Enterprise Institute write for the Boston Herald.

"Do today’s high school students have what it takes to succeed in college? If you look at the latest numbers from the nonprofit organization that administers the SAT and Advanced Placement testing programs, most don’t," Mitchell Weiss writes for Credit.com. "The College Board recently released a report in which it determined that 58% of SAT test-takers in the class of 2015 were not ready for college-level work or, for that matter, a successful post–high school career for those who choose to forgo continuing their institutional education."

"Universities do a lot to make college costs more palatable for families," according to U.S. News & World Report. "In fact, among private universities, slashing high tuition prices is par for the course. The tuition discount rate, a measure of how much tuition and fee revenue a college forgoes, for first-time, full-time freshmen was 48 percent in the 2014-2015 school year, according to the most recent discounting survey from the National Association of College and University Business Officers."

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