5 New Rules on Federal Student Loans
Interest on popular loans will cost more, and grad students will need better credit, but repayment plans will be more generous.
financial aid
How to Decipher Your College Financial Aid Letter
Feel like you need a bachelor's degree in Bureaucracy to figure out your financial aid letter? Here are our Cliffs' Notes for parsing that important but impenetrable document.
How Unwary Grandparents Can Wreck Your College Financial Aid
It's only getting harder for parents to pay for their children's college bills alone -- so help from generous relatives can be a godsend. But be warned: If the college savings plan grandpa is using isn't set up properly, that "help" can actually hurt the student's financial aid package.
Is Budgeting the Best Way to Save? Seven Personal Finance Myths
Can money buy happiness? Does more education equal more money? When it comes to personal finance myths, what you don't know CAN hurt you!
3 College Finance Tips for Scared Students (and Their Parents)
More than 80% of parents of 16- to 18-year-olds believe college is important to their child's future -- and a similar number are worried about how to pay for it. Here are a few tips that could make solving the college financing puzzle a little easier.
Why to Save for Retirement First, Your Kids' Tuition Second
One of the hardest decisions parents have to make is whether to put money toward their kids' college educations or toward their own retirement. But as emotionally charged as it may be, the answer is a no-brainer.
Colleges' Shady Deals With Banks Stack Big Fees on Students' Aid
As many as 900 colleges are pushing students into using payment cards with hefty fees to get to their financial aid, according to new report. Colleges and banks rake in millions from the accounts, often through secretive deals and sometimes in apparent violation of federal law.
Paying for College: Two Websites Offer Outside-of-the-Box Ideas
With student loan debt at a trillion dollars and rising, it's no surprise that more students are searching for creative ways to finance their college educations. Alltuition and CollegeNET are among the companies that want to help.
Why Public Universities Are a Bad Deal for Your Kids
Here's a higher education shocker: Thanks to tuition hikes at California's state universities on one hand, and Ivy League financial aid policies on the other, attending Harvard is actually the better deal for the Golden State's middle-class students. And that's not just a West Coast phenomenon.
Top 10 Private Colleges That Won't Bust Your Budget
You don't have to pay a fortune, or rely on financial aid, to attend a top-quality private college or university. These 10 have the lowest sticker price among Kiplinger's best values in private universities and liberal arts colleges.
Are College Cost Calculators Flunking the Math?
Oct. 29 is the deadline for U.S. colleges to put "net price calculators" on their websites -- tools intended to estimate the real cost of attending for each specific student. But the most widely adopted calculator is inaccurate -- to the tune of thousands of dollars, experts say.
College Admission Numbers Game Is All About the Money
You thought it was your kid's SAT score that prevented him from getting admitted to the college of his dreams, but it may have been your credit score. More and more colleges are looking for students who can pay full tuition, and setting the admissions bar higher for those who need financial aid.
10 Colleges with the Best Financial Aid
Worried about how to pay for college? The Princeton Review this week released its financial-aid ratings for more than 600 U.S. colleges. Find out which ones came out on top.
Money 101: How to Save Cash in College
With college costs rising, it's more important than ever for students to be financially savvy. Here are 15 things you need to know to graduate with a bank account at the top of your class.
Pell Grant Backers Rally to Fight GOP Funding Cuts
More than 1 million of America's poorest college students may have to take out bigger loans, find another way to pay tuition, or drop out in 2012, if Republican budget cuts are passed that shrink the government's Pell grant program. But supporters are mobilizing in an online rally Monday for "Save Pell Day."