MIKE’S MEMOS

The One Place To Get Insider Strategies On College Admissions, Saving Money On Tuition & Much, Much More

Financial Safety Schools Belong On College Lists

Financial Safety Schools Belong On College Lists

A high school student’s College List is the set of institutions to which they’ll apply in senior year. They are colleges that that students determine are exceptionally well suited to their needs, goals, financial circumstances, talents, and preferences. A strong...

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Farm Families Harmed by New FAFSA Rules

Farm Families Harmed by New FAFSA Rules

Nearly 18 million college students receive some type of Federal financial aid every year. Due to pending FAFSA rules changes, the percentage of these students who are from farm families can be expected to drop significantly. The new rules will take effect this...

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The 2024-25 FAFSA Roadmap

The 2024-25 FAFSA Roadmap

The 2024–25 Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) integrates major changes in the way students will apply for Federal student aid. According to the U.S. Education Department (ED), these changes will help students by enabling a better and simpler FAFSA...

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FAFSA Delay Will Cause Problems 

FAFSA Delay Will Cause Problems 

Three years ago, Congress enacted long-overdue reforms in the passage of the FAFSA Simplification Act of 2020, which substantially improves Federal student aid process. Among the many changes in the Act are a reduction in the number of questions from 108 to 36, the...

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Understanding a College’s Cost of Attendance

Understanding a College’s Cost of Attendance

Students and families should analyze the cost of attending a particular college. Cost of Attendance (COA) is the term used for the total of the direct and indirect costs of one academic year of undergraduate study at a college. It’s the maximum amount that a...

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Appealing Financial Aid Awards – Part 1

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...

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The U.S. Military Pays College Costs

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...

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Gifts, Endowments, and Financial Aid

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...

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New 529 Account Rollovers to Roth IRA’s

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...

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FAFSA Rules Regarding Parents

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...

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Income-Driven Repayment Plans

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...

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College Net Price Calculators

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...

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Get Ready for the Digital PSAT and SAT

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...

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Inflation and 529 Plans

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...

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Find the Colleges That Give the Most Merit Aid

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...

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The Public Service Loan Forgiveness Program

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...

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Student Debt Relief Is Blocked By Texas Court

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...

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Tuition Discounts Offered as Merit Aid

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...

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Launch of the Loan Forgiveness Application

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...

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Parent PLUS Loans Lead to Risk-Taking

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...

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The Federal Loan Forgiveness Plan – Part I

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...

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The Use of a Crummey Trust for a College Education

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...

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Coverdell Education Savings Accounts

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...

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Using a CollegeSure CD to Save for College

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...

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Shifting Income to Fund a College Education

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...

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Divorce Planning to Cover the Cost of College

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...

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Using Distance Education for a College Degree

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,...

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The College Level Examination Program

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,...

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Using Testamentary Trusts for College Education

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...

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AP Exams Can Reduce the Cost of College

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...

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Do Families Know Enough About Paying for College?

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...

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State Financial Aid Programs

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...

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Finding the Right College

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...

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Simplified FAFSA To Be Released in July

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...

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Should the Pell Grant be Doubled?

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...

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“Administrative Bloat” and Tuition Increases

“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...

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Beware of Financial Aid Scams

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...

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The 2022-23 College Financing Plan

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...

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Update on Public Service Student Loan Forgiveness

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...

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Funds to Reverse Declining Enrollment

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....

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