Holding true to the Higher Education Opportunity Act legislation, the Department of Education has started it’s own ranking system for colleges and universities. It is called the College Affordability and Transparency List (or CATL for short).

The government has always asked colleges and universities to report statistical data (including costs) every year through the IPEDS survey (Integrated Post-secondary Education Data System) but this is the first year that the financial data will be made widely available for families to sort through, compare, and contrast based upon specific criteria.

The purpose of this list is aimed at highlighting the schools that have the highest prices AND the highest rate of price increases. Schools at the top of this list for the three year period preceding the release of this list will be required to submit additional reports to the Secretary of Education. From what I understand, over 500 colleges will be required to execute the additional reporting piece this year.

The statistics of the data being presented are a little shocking (maybe even mind-numbing) but numbers don’t lie and usually speak for themselves.  Should you use this data to help you in your college search process? Maybe, but I would probably advise against it. These numbers are already a couple years old and since they provide a statistical average, your individual financial outlook at one of these colleges may actually be better or worse than the average.

Below are a few different categories that I pulled from the CATL report. If you would like to play around with the data and run your own reports or check out your favorite college or university to see where it stands amongst the others, click here to give it a whirl.

4-year Private Schools With The Highest Percentage Increase In Tuition From 2008-2010

Institution

State

2007-08

2009-10

% Increase

4-year Public Schools With The Highest Percentage Increase In Tuition From 2008-2010

Institution

State

2007-08

2009-10

% Increase

4-year Private Schools With The Highest Net Tuition Price (after financial aid)

Institution

State

Net Price(1)

4-year Public Schools With The Highest Net Tuition Price (after financial aid)

Institution

State

Net Price(1)(2)

4-year Private Schools With The Lowest Net Tuition Price (after financial aid)

Institution

State

Net Price(1)

4-year Public Schools With The Lowest Net Tuition Price (after financial aid)

Institution

State

Net Price(1)(2)

Richard Gordon, Chief Information Officer for Federal Student Aid, recently made an announcement about an “isolated” issue they are experiencing with the online FAFSA application.

It appears that anyone saving their FAFSA data after February 4th is currently unable to go back and retrieve their application and start from where they left off.

Federal Student Aid provides two solutions to this predicament:

• Students can restart their application process from the beginning and submit it as required, or
• They can wait until after Sunday February 13th (which is when the Federal Student Aid Office anticipates having the data restored) and complete their saved application at that time.

The Office of Federal Student Aid has sent a notification out to all the colleges and universities to request leniency on any FAFSA filing deadlines that may be missed due to this complication. In addition, all affected students should be receiving an email update today to let them know the status of their FAFSA and the options mentioned above.

If you have any questions on this issue, please contact the Federal Student Aid’s Research and Customer Care Center staff at 1-800-433-7327. You can also reach them via email at fsa.customer.support@ed.gov.

Since it appears that this “issue” is only temporary, I was not going to post anything about the topic on CheapScholar.org.  However, I have already heard from a number of families experiencing this glitch so I thought I would put something out here to provide some guidance.

Hope this helps…

I can tell you that not very many people get excited about seeing the latest and greatest paper FAFSA form being released. However, for those of you that are chomping at the bit to get a sneak peek of the 2011-2012 Free Application For Federal Student Aid, I am happy to satisfy your craving. Even though this form is the draft version, it will be very similar to the final version that applicants will be able to use starting January 1st, 2011.

My hope is that everyone quickly passes over this paper option to filing the FAFSA and goes straight to www.FAFSA.ed.gov to submit the electronic version. Besides being more efficient, the electronic version now has all the cool bells and whistles like skip-logic questioning and IRS/Department of Ed linking.

However, if you still like good old paper FAFSA forms, you can click this link to view a PDF of the 2011-2012 FAFSA application (10 page draft). When you complete the final version, you need to make sure that you use a black pen (easier to scan), print all your letters clearly and make sure they are capitalized, leave an empty box between words, and round your dollar figures to the nearest dollar (no cents allowed). If you encounter problems or have a question that is stumping you, you can always call the FAFSA Help Department at 1-800-433-3243 (4-FED-AID).

Hope this information is helpful…

UPDATE (01/03/2011)

The 2011-2012 paper FAFSA is now available for download or you can complete it online. Click Here to learn more…

Ok.. so Hallmark is probably not creating cards for this momentous occasion but financial aid folks across the nation and their prospective students are sure to enjoy a day filled with more financial aid information than they can ever hope for.

College Week Live is presenting Federal Student Aid Day in collaboration with the Department of Education’s Office of Federal Student Aid. The cascade of events begin today at noon and will end at 6pm (eastern standard time). The day will be full of live video presentations dissecting anything and everything you ever wanted to know about financial aid.

Here is an agenda for some of the key presentations:

• 3:00 PM – 4:00 PM EST “If I Knew Then, What I Know Now: The Inside Scoop About the College Experience”
• 4:00 PM – 5:00 PM EST “Federal Financial Aid 101″
• 5:00 PM – 6:00 PM EST “FAFSA 101: Learn the Ins and Outs of Applying for Financial Aid”

If the presentations don’t satisfy your financial aid cravings, you will also have the opportunity to ask questions and get answers directly from the Office of Federal Student Aid via text message and phone.

If you think you are interested in participating, you can register for free by following this link.

Happy Federal Student Aid Day!

The Department of Education has been making a concerted effort to streamline the FAFSA process for families. This last year they introduced a “skip-logic” technology that eliminated a series of redundant questions from the online application process. In addition, they rolled out a test trial of the IRS data retrieval tool for late FAFSA filers.  And now, earlier this week, the Department of Education stated that this new IRS/FAFSA linking feature will be available for all initial and renewal FAFSA applications being submitted for the 2010-2011 academic year.

It is anticipated that the FAFSA application for the 2011-2012 academic year, which is available online on January 1st 2011, will also have the IRS Linking service capability toward the end of January.

Based upon conversations I have had with some families, this new linking capability is a little much for them to stomach. They made comments along the lines of “big brother watching” and the “government being too involved in too much”. However, after further discussion, they seem open to anything that is going to simplify the FAFSA process for their family each year.

As you can imagine, there are some criteria that must be met in order for a family to be eligible to use the IRS-FAFSA linking feature. The following represents some of the more common rules:

• Must be filing an initial or renewal 2010-2011 FAFSA (IRS Data Retrieval will not be available for corrections entry for 2010-2011)
• Must have a PIN (this is required to access tax information on the IRS database, as well as to sign and submit the FAFSA online); if the student or parent does not have a PIN, they will be provided with the opportunity to apply for a PIN and use it immediately to transfer IRS data to the FAFSA and submit the FAFSA
• Must have a valid Social Security Number (SSN)
• Must have filed a 2009 federal tax return
• Marital status has not changed since December 31, 2009

The following list represents who can not or should not try using the IRS-FAFSA linking option because the data will be incomplete:

• Parents with all zeroes for SSN
• Students using an 888 identifier in place of an SSN (i.e., students from the Pacific Islands)
• Any student or parent with a marital status date of January 1, 2010 or later
• Any student or parent who indicates they have not already filed a tax return or will not file a tax return in response to the “For 2009, have [you, your parent] completed [your, their] IRS income tax return or another tax return?” FAFSA question
• Students or parents who filed an amended federal tax return for 2009 (the IRS database used for this process contains only original IRS information, not information from amended returns)
• Students or parents whose 2009 federal tax filing status was “married filing separately”
• Students or parents who filed a foreign (or Puerto Rican) tax return

This whole IRS-FAFSA data linking process appears to be pretty slick but if you are one of those parents that feels uncomfortable with making the connection between your FAFSA and the IRS, you do have the ability to opt out of the linking application and manually input all your data. However, doing this may increase your odds of being selected for verification.

Hope you found this article helpful. If you know of anyone going through the online FAFSA process anytime in the near future, please feel free to use the “share tab” below to pass this information onto them.

If you are a college student (or about to become a college student) you probably already know that trying to figure out the best college to attend strictly based upon price is a very difficult task. There are a multitude of variables that come into play and inevitably you are never able to compare apples to apples when calculating the cost of one institution verses another. The Department of Education has recognized this issue and is implementing some legislation through the Higher Education Opportunity Act to help make things a little simpler (or so they say..)

Net Price Calculators For All

By October of 2011, all colleges and universities will need to have a Net Price Calculator established and available on their websites. They can use the free template provided by the Department of Education or they can create their own program as long as it includes the same perimeters provided by the Department of Education’s template.  It is unclear which approach most institutions will be utilizing but they will need to have something in place by October of 2011 if they are to adhere to the legislation and maintain their access to Title IV funding (Federal Financial Aid).

These online calculators will use preset data provided by the school and inputted data supplied by the student to come up with a net figure that the student can expect to spend if they attend that college. As you can imagine, there is no perfect formula that can be applicable to all students, so you will need to take the figures with a grain of salt. Basically, the net cost calculator will compare your financial situation to that of similar students from the prior year and tell you the average amount spent by those students (Cost of Attendance minus Financial Aid).

What is really nice about these net cost calculators is that students will now have the opportunity to get past the sticker shock of the schools they are interested in and look at what comparable students attending that school are actually paying out-of-pocket after financial aid is factored in. This is sure to take a lot of the guesswork out of the financial aspect of your college search process. The only significant downside I can see to this program is that it is only as good as the data provided by the school (and I guess the student). So, if the school misrepresents (miscalculates?) something in the net price calculator tool or the student inadvertently provides the wrong information, the net price figure may be drastically off from what the end result actually turns out to be (the amount of the check from your checkbook).

The First College Ranking That Nobody Wants To Be On

Colleges and Universities love to be at the top of ranking lists. Some schools even actively make decisions on their campus based upon the outcome they think it will have on some of these rankings.

Well… the Department of Education is introducing it’s own ranking and it is called the “College Affordability and Transparency List” (CATL). This list will be published by July of 2011 and it is aimed at highlighting the schools that have the highest prices AND the highest rate of price increases. Schools at the top of this list for the three year period preceding the release of this list will be required to submit additional reports to the Secretary of Education (kind of like being summoned to the Principal’s office..never a good thing).

Click Here To Access The List

I am really unsure how the Department of Education will be calculating these figures but I can guarantee you that no college or university wants to be on this list and will do whatever possible to steer clear of being in the top ranking slots.

Ultimately, I think these changes in legislation are a good step to helping more students find the right college (academically and financially). However, I am cautiously optimistic on how this new legislation will mold the educational sector for the long-term. For example, if a college or school continues to be at the top of the CATL, will they eventually lose partial or full access to federal financial aid? I know that this would be of great detriment to the school but I think it would probably financially impact the students attending that school even more… I guess time will tell. For now though, lets enjoy these new legislative initiated tools that help us to make the college experience affordable.

The following article is provided by the good folks at The Real College Guide. We are pleased to have them as a Contributor for CheapScholar.org. This article provides a good foundation for the information covered by SAFRA. If you have additional questions or would like me to provide additional details on any aspect of this legislation, don’t hesitate to drop me a line.

Understanding SAFRA and What It Means To You

The college tuition system has been turned upside down now that the Student Aid and Fiscal Responsibility Act (SAFRA) is law. The Student Aid and Fisc-huh?!?

SAFRA is legislation President Obama tacked on to his infamous health care reform bill.

“The White House succeeded in not only getting the health care bill passed, but in making a huge change to the college loan system,” says Eric Yaverbaum, education expert and author of Life’s Little College Admissions Insights. “It’s gone largely unnoticed because it’s seemingly unrelated to the blockbuster changes in the health care industry.”

There’s been some controversy surrounding the issue of combining student aid reform with the seemingly unrelated matter of health care reform. But political views aside, let’s see how SAFRA affects students:

No. 1: You’ll get loans directly from the government — without a middleman.
While some schools have participated in the Federal Direct Loan Program since its inception in the early ’90s, SAFRA requires that all federal student loans now be originated through the U.S. Department of Education. This means funds come directly from the federal government, which provides the loans at a low interest rate.

“It’s so advantageous to students,” says Yaverbaum. “My daughter is about to enter her freshman year, and as a parent I couldn’t be more excited about it. College students are really going to benefit. Paying back college loans kills kids forever. Now it doesn’t have to be such an awful experience.”

Your credit score and employment status are not factored into your application for a direct loan … unless you have extreme adverse credit (say, your car got repossessed or you’re more than 90 days past due on that Urban Outfitters account). If you get denied, you can appeal or get a qualified co-signer.

No matter where you are in the borrowing process, visit StudentLoans.gov to find out if you qualify for one of the four types of Federal Direct Loans:

1. Federal Direct Subsidized Stafford Loans are based on financial need. The government pays the loan interest until you’re out of school.

2. Federal Direct Unsubsidized Stafford Loans are not need-based, and students are required to pay all interest charges.

3. Federal Direct Parent PLUS Loans (“PLUS” stands for “Parent Loans for Undergraduate Students”) allow parents to borrow money to help pay for their child’s education.

4. Federal Direct Graduate PLUS Loans offer the same terms as Parent PLUS for graduate and professional-degree students.

No. 2: You can consolidate loans you already have.
Federally guaranteed student loans will no longer be made by private lending institutions through what many of you already know as the Federal Family Education Loan (FFEL) Program.

What to do if you have an existing FFEL loan? For a one-year stretch — from July 1, 2010 to July 1, 2011 — current students who have FFEL loans can roll those into the Direct Loan program. The benefit is that you’ll only have to deal with a single lender (the Direct Loan Servicing Center) which means paying one monthly payment for all loans. Plus, your minimum monthly payment on a consolidated loan may be lower than the combined payments for FFEL loans.

No. 3: You’ll pay back less per month (and overall) and be done in fewer years.

Carrie Meyer, a rising senior at Ohio State University, has had to rely on three loans to cover her college tuition over the years: federal subsidized, federal unsubsidized and a personal loan. Meyer, a hospitality management student who currently works part time, still worries about paying off her loans after graduation: “With what I want to do, you don’t start out getting a big salary.”

Direct Loan borrowers can choose from several friendly payment plans, depending on needs — and you can switch to a different repayment plan if your situation changes. Beginning in 2014, the Income Based Repayment option will cap monthly loan payments at 10 percent of income and forgive remaining balances after 20 years of repayment. Sound like a lot? Actually, this is a major improvement from the current terms of capping repayments at 15 percent and 25 years, respectively.

No. 4: You could save big-time on loan payments if you go into public service.

Public Service Loan Forgiveness provides incentive for students to enter into full-time public service employment. The program forgives the remaining balance of a Direct Loan after a borrower has completed 120 monthly payments (that’s 10 years) while employed full time in public service. This includes government jobs, military service, safety professions, law enforcement, health care, social work, legal advocacy and some teaching positions.

No. 5: Maximum Pell Grant amounts will increase with inflation.

While SAFRA does not change the process for applying for federal grants, it does increase the amount of money awarded through the ever-popular Pell Grant program, which provides financial aid to low-income undergraduate students. For the 2009 to 2010 school year, the maximum Pell Grant was $5,350. The max will be upped to $5,550 for 2010 to 2011 and will gradually increase based on inflation costs beginning in 2013.

Students interested in applying for aid should complete a Free Application for Federal Student Aid at Fafsa.ed.gov or call 1-800-4-FED-AID. Keep in mind that this is not a one-time thing — students who want to be considered need to apply for aid for every school year, so it’s important to stay on top of application procedures.

A recent report released by the College Board found that millions in financial aid are left untouched by community college students. In the 2007 to 2008 academic year, 58 percent of Pell Grant-eligible students who attended community colleges applied for federal financial aid, compared with 77 percent of eligible students at four-year public institutions.

No. 6: Community colleges and minority schools will get big bucks for improvements.

Says College Board President Gaston Caperton: “Community colleges are a critical part of the education system, serving nearly half of all undergraduates in the United States.” The terms of SAFRA reflect this sentiment, as $2 billion is being committed to improving educational programs and updating facilities at community colleges. In addition, SAFRA has earmarked $2.55 billion to be invested in historically black and minority institutions.

Talk It up!

What do you think about SAFRA and its impact on the college student aid system?