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At Edfinancial, getting your students to the finish line is what matters most. Whether it’s answering questions about enrollment, explaining financial aid processes or preventing student loan default, we can help your students succeed. Find out how we do it by visiting us at www.edfinancial.com/HES/Casestudies

NASFAA's new "Off the Cuff" podcast offers an unscripted view of hot financial aid and higher education-related topics. In the debut episode, NASFAA's policy team discusses federal action taken against ACICS. Stephen voices his frustration with presidential debates, Justin offers solutions to federal budgeting woes, and Megan highlights the weirdness that is DC metro’s lost and found. Plus, the new Trump hotel in DC is offering wine by the spoonful?! Listen now and let us know what you think.

It's a narrative that many are familiar with –– the recent college graduate who, unable to find employment in his or her field, is forced to work as a barista, bartender, or sales clerk. But how accurate is this scenario really? Not very, according to a recent study published by the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) that found only about 9 percent of recent graduates begin their careers in a low-skilled service job following the Great Recession.

Borrowers who qualify for the Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) program can get the remainder of their federal student loans forgiven after 10 years of regular payments, but the program—originally projected to save borrowers $135 million in repayment—is now expected to cover $5.4 billion, according to the Congressional Budget Office. In a paper released last week, Brookings suggested that PSLF should be eliminated and the Income-Based Repayment program (IBR) should be used instead to help borrowers in repayment. At the very least, reforms are needed to "limit the most excessive features of PSLF," the paper said. Read the paper in full for more.

This is your last chance to register for the instructor led online course Student Eligibility, which begins today. Learn about student eligibility criteria that must be checked, and how the Central Processing System (CPS), database matches, and the National Student Loan Data System (NSLDS) affect student eligibility. With the implementation of PPY and Early FAFSA, students will need resolution of eligibility issues earlier than ever. This course is an ideal foundation for new aid administrators and a great regulatory refresher for experienced staff. Not offered again until 2017-18 - Register Now.

Learn the answer to this question and learn how to instantly find credible and reliable solutions to your most pressing regulatory and compliance questions with NASFAA's AskRegs Knowledgebase. The Knowledgebase guide and video tutorials highlight the many features of this tool.

The COD Processing Update provides information related to COD System processing and includes the following sections: COD News and Updates, Current Issues (with a subsection for All Programs, Direct Loans, and Grants), and Reminders.

An updated version of the National Student Loan Data System (NSLDS) Gainful Employment User Guide is now available on the NSLDS User Documentation page on the Information for Financial Aid Professionals (IFAP) website.

The final versions of the 2017-2018 Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA^®), 2017-2018 FAFSA on the Web Worksheet, and 2017-2018 Student Aid Eligibility Worksheet for Question 23 are now available in English and Spanish, in Portable Document Format (PDF).

Ronald E. McNair Postbaccalaureate Achievement (McNair) Program grantees must submit the Annual Performance Report (APR) annually. The reports are used to evaluate grantees' performance for substantial progress, respond to Government Performance and Results Act (GPRA) requirements, and to award prior experience points at the end of each project (budget) period.

The surveys are for participants in the fellowship research training programs and the non-fellowship research training programs funded by Institute of Education Sciences (IES).

"Despite the urgency stemming from inaccurate media reports that parents must file for college financial aid using the FAFSA (Free Application For Federal Student Aid) by October 1st, 2016, parents and those advising parents through the college aid and admissions process should remain calm about filing their FAFSA because the October 1st date is not a deadline and never was a deadline. It is an option to file early," Forbes reports.

"In this our quadrennial season of financial hope, we might wish that the major presidential candidates would reckon with one of the large and looming numbers in our lives," The New York Times reports.

"Colleges and universities are entering into risky deals with Wall Street and have created a debt bomb in the higher education. The dramatic increase in a number of debts incurred makes an unnecessary rise in the higher education budget needs putting universities and colleges in a huge financial risk," University Herald reports.

"Student loan debt in the United States is now over $1.25 trillion, nearly three times as much as just a decade ago. ... Although taking on modest amounts of debt in order to pay for college is generally a good bet in the long run, colleges with similar admissions standards and resource levels leave students with different amounts of debt," according to the Brookings Institute's Brown Center Chalkboard.

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