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Schools have been struggling over the past year to provide accurate data to NSLDS about student enrollment in their gainful employment (GE) programs, which entailed a new reporting framework designed by the Department of Education (ED). That data will now be used to determine the continued Title IV eligibility of those GE programs. As a result, two more deadlines related to GE programs are approaching.

The majority of incoming college freshmen who fill out the FAFSA list just one school to send their financial aid application – a sign that they applied to only one school for admission, according to last week’s quarterly data release from the Department of Education (ED).

The 2016-2017 COD Technical Reference contains development information for the 2016-2017 Award Year.

The Department provides the following information regarding the designation of Title III or Title V status for institutions and the resulting waiver of the non-federal share requirements for the Federal Work-Study (FWS) and Federal Supplemental Education Opportunity Grant (FSEOG) programs.

"The federal government is preparing to forgive billions of dollars in student loans to doctors and other white-collar Americans with expensive educations, under a law designed to help modestly paid workers in public service," The Wall Street Journal reports.

"Montana Sen. Jon Tester says he’s fighting in Washington to revive college student loans, expand federal grants for poor students and make FAFSA forms easier for students and families to file for financial aid," the Bozeman Daily Chronicle reports.

"When Pennsylvania's community college movement bloomed in the mid-20th century, the two-year public colleges tasked with providing an affordable path to higher education and jobs were seen as the wave of the future," Trib Total Media reports. "Over the years, as educators and policymakers pushed the value of a four-year degree, that message was muted."

"The strain on Louisiana colleges and universities from seven years of deep state budget cuts shows in myriad ways. Students may not be able to get into all the classes they need to keep their degrees on track, which means it could take them longer to graduate. And that could cost them more money," according to the editorial board of the Times-Picayune.

"The U.S. Department of Education (“USDE”) is continuing to move forward with issuing new regulations regarding the “Borrower Defense to Repayment Rule” (“BDRR”). The BDRR concerns the ability of a Direct Loan borrower to seek relief from his or her Direct Loan repayment obligations if the educational services provided by a college were in some way deficient. In the absence of the BDRR, the borrower’s obligation to repay a Direct Loan would arguably be entirely separate and independent of any grievances the borrower might have against the college," according to JDSupra Business Advisor. NASFAA's Karen McCarthy is quoted.

"The Public Service Loan Forgiveness program (PSLF), once a sacred cow among Democrats, has a problem. As reported in the Wall Street Journal, 40 percent of doctors now plan on pursuing the program. The 'Doctors’ Loophole,' as the article called it, goes like this: Doctors graduate with astronomical levels of debt, but then make low incomes for their first eight years while they are in training. They enroll in Income-Based Repayment (IBR) which makes their payments for their first eight years very low, and even if they make higher incomes in their last two years, they still will see the vast majority of their loan forgiven after ten," according to New America's EdCentral blog.

"A curious thing is happening. Despite an increase in the number of people enrolling in the government’s generous student loan repayment plans, more people are in default on their federal loans," according to The Washington Post's Grade Point blog.

"For the vast majority of students applying to top schools, the odds of acceptance pivot based on how much money their parents make. The old adage that 'if you're poor and smart, you can write your own ticket' is simply no longer true. In college admissions, money counts," Harold Levy, executive director of the Jack Kent Cooke Foundation, writes for The Huffington Post.

"... In this article, we will examine the rising cost of education and compare it to general inflation and health care. What may be surprising is the rate at which each is ascending. In short, the rate of inflation for education expenses has been far greater than for health care, which is surprising since the latter has risen sharply. Let’s look at some numbers," Mike Patton writes for Forbes.

"This October, the Social Mobility Memos blog at Brookings tackled a topic that is top of mind for many American families and politicians alike: paying for college. In their Big Ideas for Reforming College series, Brookings experts and guest writers proposed ideas that could lead to a more cost-effective college education system that promotes social mobility," Alison Burke writes for the Brookings Institution.

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