"The 'Path to Prosperity' report issued by House Budget Committee Chairman Rep. Paul Ryan calls for limiting the growth of financial aid to college students," Gary C. Fethke, professor and former dean of the business school at the University of Iowa, and Andrew J. Policano, dean of the Paul Merage School of Business at the University of California, Irvine write for the Washington Post Answer Sheet blog. "The report claims that 'increases in Pell Grants appear to be matched nearly one for one by increases in tuition at private universities.'"
"Regardless of your parents' contribution, chances are they'll want you to take part in the discussions about financing your education," Scholarship America writes for U.S. News and World Report's Scholarship Coach blog. "With college tuition more expensive than ever, more than likely they'll throw the word 'scholarships' out there several times over the next three years."
"With prices at state universities continuing to spiral ever higher, affording college has become increasingly difficult for many families," Lynn O'Shaughnessy writes for CBS MoneyWatch. "Some states, however, are making it even tougher for students to afford college by directing much of their state grant aid to more affluent students who don't need the financial help."
The Department of Education's federal offices as well as some of its Title IV processors and call centers will be closed on Monday, May 28, 2012 to observe the Memorial Day federal holiday. See the attachment for the various centers’ operation status on the holiday.
"In 2006, Democrats, trying to capture control of Congress by pandering to students and their parents, proposed cutting in half the statutory 6.8 percent rate on some federal student loans," George F. Will writes for the Washington Post. "The low 6.8 percent rate — private loans for students cost about 12 percent — was itself the result of a federal subsidy. And students have no collateral that can be repossessed in case they default, which 23 percent of those receiving the loans in question do."
"Economists are increasingly worried that many young Americans will spend coming years buried under student debt. Joe Mihalic was determined not to be one of them," Josh Mitchell writes for the Wall Street Journal Real Time Economics blog. "Faced with $90,000 in student debt from his days at Harvard Business School, Mihalic vowed last August to eliminate every penny by this summer. He did -- three months early."
The Department of Education is in the process of implementing an upgrade to all components of the Student Aid Internet Gateway (SAIG). New versions of TDClient and EDconnect were posted to the Federal Student Aid Download (FSAdownload) website in early March 2012.
"Despite growing pressure from policy makers and prospective students for colleges to prove their value, the institutions have often insisted that their unique missions make simple measurements forbiddingly difficult," the Chronicle of Higher Education reports. "Now they have documented proof."
"College-bound students and their parents typically want to make every dollar and every minute of the college experience count including money spent on tuition and time spent on the college financial aid application process," New Jersey Today reports. "The Internal Revenue Service is helping minimize the time spent on the completion of the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) form by automating access to federal tax returns with the IRS Data Retrieval Tool."
"On the new 'college scorecard,' a proposed federal tool intended to give a one-page picture of a college's tuition prices and financial aid policies, one factor is considered crucial -- and unavailable," Inside Higher Ed reports. "Students should consider the average debt per student at graduation, the department wrote."
"The Department of Education has different repayment plans available for federal loans," Equal Justice Works writes for U.S. News and World Report's Student Loan Ranger blog. "If payments under a standard 10-year repayment plan seem high and unsustainable, remember that you may not need to select this plan."
"With the economy struggling to rebound, more adults have been returning to college to get master's degrees -- and leaving with a rising amount of debt," Annamaria Andriotis writes for the Wall Street Journal's SmartMoney blog. "Master's degrees account for about $200 billion in outstanding student loan debt, according to FinAid.org, while other advanced degrees make up another $100 billion."
"The federal government is asking big nonprofit organizations like universities and hospitals to spend too much time and money reporting on their finances and other activities, nonprofit officials told members of Congress at a hearing on Wednesday held by the House Ways and Means Committee," the Chronicle of Higher Education reports.
"Competition, we are constantly told, encourages individuals, institutions and companies to take the risks necessary for innovation and efficiency," Mark C. Taylor, professor and chairman of the department of religion at Columbia University, writes for Bloomberg. "But in higher education, competition often discourages risk taking, leads to overly cautious short-term decisions, produces a mediocre product for the price, and promotes excessive spending on physical plants and bureaucracies."
"Your credit score will play a vital role in your financial future, as it gives lenders a general idea of how financially responsible you are, how much you rely on credit and whether you make your payments," the San Francisco Chronicle reports. "Student loans have the same effect that most forms of debt have on your credit. If you make timely payments, your credit score will not be adversely affected."
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