MIKE’S MEMOS
The One Place To Get Insider Strategies On College Admissions, Saving Money On Tuition & Much, Much More
Appealing Financial Aid Awards – Part 1
At this time of year, many students are concerned about how they can select the best college for them from among the colleges that have accepted them. Before making that choice, students should ensure that they have received the best possible financial aid offer from...
The U.S. Military Pays College Costs
High school seniors seek ways to avoid the college debt burden that has proven such a hardship for millions of their predecessors. In a recent post, we reviewed six strategies for obtaining a college education at an expense level so moderate that incurring student...
Entrance Counseling for Federal Student Loans – Part 3
This post is a continuation of the last two that summarized Modules 1 and 2 of the Student Loan Entrance Counseling (SLEC). Module 3, “Federal Student Loans”, is summarized in this post. When a student is approved for a Federal loan for the first time, they’re...
Entrance Counseling for Federal Student Loans – Part 2
When a student is approved for a Federal student loan for the first time, they’re required to complete Student Loan Entrance Counseling (SLEC), an online course offered by the Office of Federal Student Aid (FSA), the agency within the U.S. Education Department (ED)...
Entrance Counseling for Federal Student Loans – Part 1
Federal financial aid programs for college students include scholarships, grants, work-study programs, and loans. Among these only loans need to be repaid, making them the least attractive type of Federal aid. Nevertheless, more students participate in the loan...
Gifts, Endowments, and Financial Aid
Attending a college that receives major gifts from deep-pocketed benefactors and possesses a multi-billion dollar endowment has advantages. Among these is the possibility that some of that money will trickle down to students as financial aid. As preoccupied as seniors...
Sallie Mae’s “How America Pays for College”
SLM Corporation (commonly known as Sallie Mae; originally the Student Loan Marketing Association) is a publicly traded U.S. corporation that conducts consumer lending services. It has changed dramatically since it was set up in the early...
The Disabled Are Eligible for Loan Forgiveness
If a former college student with an outstanding student loan balance becomes disabled, he or she may not need to repay the debt under the provisions of the Total and Permanent Discharge (TPD) program. To obtain debt forgiveness, the individual needs to apply...
New 529 Account Rollovers to Roth IRA’s
Congress recently passed a $1.7 trillion omnibus spending package that made substantial changes to retirement and tax rules. These have been referred to as Secure Act 2.0 because they extend the retirement provisions of the original Secure Act of 2019. One of the...
FAFSA Rules Regarding Parents
Every year, parents of enrolled and prospective college students should complete their part of the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) for financial aid from the Federal government, their state, and the student’s college. Over 13 million students file the...
Income-Driven Repayment Plans
Student loan balances have spiked in the last few years. The average balance increased from $29,000 in fourth quarter 2016 to more than $36,000 in fourth quarter 2021. To reduce this burden, President Biden announced the Student Loan Forgiveness Plan (the Plan) in...
College Net Price Calculators
College is expensive. Fortunately, most students pay less than a college’s published price by taking advantage of the financial aid that’s available to them. Rather than looking at published prices when researching colleges, students should focus on net price — the...
Get Ready for the Digital PSAT and SAT
The PSAT and SAT will soon be taken exclusively by computer. This is a welcome change because it affirms the continuing relevance and usefulness of standardized tests in a digital, post-pandemic, test optional era. There is likely to be a significant increase in...
Inflation and 529 Plans
College remains the highest savings priority of parents of college-bound children. Over 75% of parents in this group, when surveyed by The College Investor (TCI), indicated that they’re currently saving for college. TCI found that over 80% of parents are concerned...
Find the Colleges That Give the Most Merit Aid
Last month, we featured a post titled, “Tuition Discounts Offered as Merit Aid” about the common practice of colleges to provide partial merit scholarships, or discounted tuition. There are two reasons why this has become routine at mid-tier schools as a way to...
The Public Service Loan Forgiveness Program
One of the most popular student financial aid programs managed by the U.S. Education Department (ED) is the Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) program, and it’s easy to figure out why. PSLF promises Federal loan holders that, upon meeting requirements pertaining...
Student Debt Relief Is Blocked By Texas Court
The U.S. Education Department (ED) is no longer accepting applications for its student debt forgiveness plan (the Plan) after a Texas judge halted its rollout in a November 10th ruling. Studentaid.gov, the ED’s website for student aid programs, announced the following...
Private Scholarships — Are They Worth the Effort?
College tuition is on the rise again after a two-year hiatus brought about by the pandemic. Increases have been substantial — usually in the range of 3 to 4%. Families are more concerned than ever about the affordability of college, so they seek options to avoid...
Tuition Discounts Offered as Merit Aid
Colleges have conflicting motives when considering applicants for admission. Their prime motive is to accept qualified applicants who will pay full tuition, assuring the college that it will be able to operate at or above its desired educational level. However, the...
Launch of the Loan Forgiveness Application
In August, President Biden announced the Federal Student Loan Forgiveness Plan (the Plan), which will cancel 20% of the outstanding Federal student loan debt of $1.5 trillion. Debt relief will be granted to 43 million borrowers, eliminating the entire remaining...
Parent PLUS Loans Lead to Risk-Taking
Federal Direct PLUS Loans, commonly referred to as a Parent PLUS loans, are available to parents of dependent undergraduate students to pay for their child’s college education. There are no fixed annual or aggregate limits for these loans. The amount that a parent can...
Use the CSS Profile to Obtain Aid from Colleges
Most families welcome financial aid from outside sources to help them pay for a college education. Although they may not accept all financial aid offered to them, they prefer as wide an array of choices as possible. Two important applications should be submitted by...
The Federal Student Loan Forgiveness Plan – Part 3
In August, President Biden announced the Federal Student Loan Forgiveness Plan (the Plan), which will cancel 20% of the outstanding Federal student loan debt of $1.5 trillion. Debt relief will be granted to 43 million borrowers, eliminating the entire remaining...
The Federal Student Loan Forgiveness Plan – Part 2
Last month President Biden announced the Federal Student Loan Forgiveness Plan (the Plan), which will cancel up to 20% of outstanding Federal student loan debt. Loan relief will be provided to about 43 million borrowers and it will eliminate the entire...
The Federal Loan Forgiveness Plan – Part I
The cost of college has nearly tripled since 1980 and Federal financial aid has not kept pace. Pell Grants once covered about 80% of the cost of a four-year public college degree for students from working families, but now only covers a third. This erosion of tuition...
The Use of a Crummey Trust for a College Education
A Crummey Trust is one of several strategies for accumulating and protecting funds that are to be dedicated to a child’s education. None of these methods is superior to the others, but they have unique features that appeal to parents in different circumstances. In...
Coverdell Education Savings Accounts
Coverdell Education Savings Accounts (Coverdell ESA) are trusts set up to pay the college expenses of a beneficiary. They involve two parties: a custodian, who manages the account, and a beneficiary, who receives distributions from the account. The parties are usually...
Using a CollegeSure CD to Save for College
According to the U.S. Department of Commerce, the cost of college tuition is 1,447% higher in 2022 than it was in 1977. During that time, tuition has experienced an average inflation rate of 6.28% per year, so a college charging $20,000 for four years of tuition in...
Shifting Income to Fund a College Education
Gifts of Business Interest In previous posts, we covered methods of deferring investments in the equity markets such as Qualified Tuition Plans (529 Plans). However, a better strategy is to defer all of the child’s income taxes to their college years. There are...
Divorce Planning to Cover the Cost of College
Careful college and tax planning through a divorce transition can result in the preservation of more of the income and assets of both parents and their children. The preserved income and assets can be used to fund future college costs of the children. Property...
Using Distance Education for a College Degree
The traditional image of college education features students in a classroom with a professor lecturing them. But lately, more and more students are opting to take college courses online from home. Instead of a classroom, students engage with their coursework,...
The College Level Examination Program
The College Level Examination Program (CLEP) is the most widely accepted college credit-by-examination program in the United States. While Advanced Placement (AP) courses are usually taken by above-average students, CLEP exams benefit average and non-traditional,...
Using Testamentary Trusts for College Education
When a grandparent does estate planning, they often wish to provide for their grandchildren’s education. The grandparent may want to ensure that funds left for grandchildren are used to cover the expenses of college and nothing else. To achieve this result, a...
AP Exams Can Reduce the Cost of College
There are two signs of the success of a student’s college admissions campaign: being accepted by targeted colleges and being able to afford them. The achievement of high grades on Advanced Placement (AP) exams fosters both outcomes. A proven way for students to stand...
Do Families Know Enough About Paying for College?
While 81% of college-bound juniors and seniors view college as a path to a better life, only half of them feel confident about being able to finance their college education, according to a recent survey conducted by Ipsos Research for Sallie Mae. The survey examined...
State Financial Aid Programs
With the cost of tuition sky-high and climbing, most families need to secure funds from external sources to help pay for a college education. The most easily accessible and largest source of financial aid is the Federal government, which awarded $46.4 billion to...
Finding the Right College
The first of four steps in identifying the right college for you is determining your educational and career goals. Once you have completed this important first step, the next is to consider your strengths, weaknesses, interests, goals, skills, and talents. This...
Hire Your Child to Lower Taxes and Save for College
Business owners hire their children for several reasons, such as instilling a strong work ethic, teaching responsibility, encouraging entrepreneurship, saving on taxes, and helping save for college. These benefits are the result of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2018...
Simplified FAFSA To Be Released in July
The FAFSA Simplification Act was signed into law on December 27, 2020, as part of the Omnibus Act for 2021. The purpose of the FAFSA Simplification Act is to make it easier for students to complete the FAFSA form and to make the allocation of Federal student aid...
Should the Pell Grant be Doubled?
The Pell Grant program has been the foundation of Federal student aid since it was created in 1972. The program provides student assistance grants based on need to low-income students to help pay for college education. Students from all 50 states rely on the Pell...
“Administrative Bloat” and Tuition Increases
The astoundingly rapid rise in college tuition in past decades is well known. Perhaps less well known is the increasing unwillingness of students to pay exorbitant tuition prices at all but a few elite institutions. Applications and enrollments have declined at most...
Beware of Financial Aid Scams
The U.S. Department of Education (ED), like most other public agencies and large consumer-oriented companies, conducts most of its business with individuals over the Internet. Although doing business this way is far more secure than paper-based systems, there are...
The 2022-23 College Financing Plan
Students face a confusing array of options as they consider where to go to college and how to finance their education. The U.S. Department of Education (ED) has developed and maintains the College Financing Plan (CFP) to assist them. The CFP is a consumer-oriented...
Update on Public Service Student Loan Forgiveness
For some time, a public policy controversy has raged over the excessive debt burden that a high percentage of college students owe after graduation. These debt loads are attributed to the skyrocketing of tuition at public and private institutions over the last few...
Funds to Reverse Declining Enrollment
Many students experience a constant struggle to remain enrolled in college due to financial insecurity. In early 2020, this situation worsened as a result of the pandemic, which brought about a steep decline in service sector jobs and affordable off-campus housing....
Comparing College Financial Aid Offers
Late March and early April is happy season for college applicants. It’s when they receive letters of acceptance and financial aid offers from the schools that have admitted them. The happiest are those who receive more than one offer. But these students won’t simply...
How Inflation Affects College Tuition
In the Opinion section of the March 1, 2022, edition, the Wall Street Journal ran an article titled “How Inflation Affects Universities: Rising Tuition Is a Concern for Students”. Yet on December 2, 2021, Forbes had run an article titled, “Why College Tuition Is...
Be Ready for Loan Payments to Resume in May
On December 22, 2021, U.S. Department of Education extended the COVID-19 student loan repayment moratorium through May 1 of this year. The moratorium has been providing the following relief measures for eligible Federal student loan holders since the enactment of the...
Mistakes in Financing an Education
Some parents view the need for student financial aid as a sign that they haven’t earned enough money or didn’t do a good job of saving for their child’s college education. It’s important for these parents to realize that the cost of college tuition has been spiraling...
Financing Education with UTMA’s
The Uniform Transfers To Minors Act (UTMA) is a law recommended by the National Conference of Commissioners on Uniform State Laws in 1986 and subsequently enacted by most U.S. states. It provides a mechanism under which gifts can be made to...