This is not a college success site. It's a site about using college to succeed.
There’s a tool that can help you figure this out. It’s called the “net price calculator.” And all colleges are now required to post a net price calculator on their website.
The calculator asks a series of questions about the student and the family’s financial situation. At the end, you get a page that shows the school’s sticker price, the scholarships and grants you’d be likely to qualify for, and the price you’d be likely to pay.
Government is to blame for rising higher education costs — but not for the reasons the GOP tells you
“Families think their sons and daughters are awarded a merit scholarship because of the fact that they are wonderfully smart and talented,” says Robert Massa, a vice president at Lafayette. “[T]he primary reason for awarding a non-need-based merit scholarship is to change a student’s enrollment decision from another institution to our institution. That’s why colleges do it.”
How Colleges Fight For Top Students
The number of students enrolled in college and the proportion who receive financial aid are both increasing, as are graduation rates, slightly, according to a report of 2010 data published on Tuesday by the U.S. Department of Education.
The “First Look” report, “Enrollment in Postsecondary Institutions, Fall 2010; Financial Statistics, Fiscal Year 2010; and Graduation Rates, Selected Cohorts, 2002-7,” is based on information from 7,165 institutions that receive Title IV federal student aid.
In the fall of 2010, about 22 million undergraduate and graduate students were enrolled in such institutions, compared with 21 million the previous year. Of the 19 million undergraduates in 2010, 56 percent were enrolled at four-year colleges and 42 percent at two-year institutions.
More Students Are Enrolled in College and on Financial Aid, Annual Report Shows
Alejandra Bautista-Landin: I had way too much going on. I was in a folkloric dance troupe, working at Rite Aid and manning a health hotline. I thought lots of extra-curriculars would get me into a good law school. But my grades started to suffer; I was put on academic probation and my financial aid was suspended.
I wasnt able to ask for help. I wanted to fix my problems secretly without disappointing anybody, so I robbed a bank.
Although final details were still elusive late Thursday, members of Congress appear to have reached a compromise on a federal budget for 2012 that would preserve the maximum Pell Grant while changing the program’s eligibility criteria. The spending plan would also slightly increase funding for the National Institutes of Health and end the grace period for interest on subsidized student loans.
Budget compromise would preserve maximum Pell grant, NIH funding
The State of California enrolls about 10 percent of the countrys full-time students attending public four-year colleges, and about 15 percent of those at public two-year colleges. So when the states public colleges have a big tuition hike—as they did this year—it has a big impact on the average tuition increase at public colleges across the country, says a new report from the College Board.
Rise in Sticker Price at Public Colleges Outpaces That at Private Colleges for 5th Year in a Row
The aid form, the Free Application for Federal Student Aid, is the single most important document in determining how much and what type of financial aid students receive. But the form, informally called Fafsa, has not kept up with the changing composition of families, in large part because the federal agency that issues it has to abide by the Defense of Marriage Act, which recognizes only heterosexual marriage. Because these students cannot fully portray their family’s finances, the amount of aid they receive may not fairly reflect their needs.
Eight for-profit colleges collected a combined $1.02-billion in veterans education benefits last year, about 23 percent of all of those benefits disbursed, according to a Senate report released on Thursday.
For those eight colleges, thats a 159-percent increase from the previous academic year.
The report is part of an investigation of for-profit higher-education companies by the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee. Sen. Tom Harkin, a Democrat of Iowa and the committees chairman, said at a news conference on Thursday that the for-profit higher-education sector had aggressively recruited veterans and service members eligible for Post-9/11 GI Bill benefits.
8 For-Profit Colleges Collect More Than $1-Billion in Veterans Education Benefits
Record $166M program includes ‘net price calculator’ to help students, families planThursday, September 1, 2011
Harvard College will expand its investment in undergraduate financial aid this year by more than $10 million, providing a record $166 million in need-based scholarships to undergraduates. Beginning in the fall of 2012, financial aid will be further increased for low-income students by raising the income level under which parents pay nothing for the cost of attendance. More at Harvard Gazette
