How is your student feeling about being stuck at home due to COVID-19?  Stressed?  Lonely?  Bored?  To learn about ways that virtual volunteering can help alleviate those feelings, read our blog post “Virtual Volunteering: How to Stay Engaged from Home” on the College Coach Insider Blog at blog.getintocollege.com.

Planning to borrow a Federal student or Federal parent loan this coming school year?  The interest rates for those loans have just been announced and they are much lower than the previous year.  For loans borrowed between July 1, 2020 and June 30, 2021, the interest rates are as follows: Undergraduate students borrowing the Federal Direct loan (both subsidized and unsubsidized) will have a fixed interest rate of 2.75%. Graduate students borrowing the unsubsidized Federal Direct loan will have a fixed interest rate of 4.3%. Parents and graduate students borrowing the Direct PLUS loan will have a fixed interest rate of 5.3%. For more details, see the special College Coach Breaking News blog post at blog.getintocollege.com.

by Kara Courtois, former admissions officer at Barnard College

“The greatness of a community is most accurately measured by the compassionate actions of its members.”  – Coretta Scott King

As we settle into another week of trying to slow the spread of this virus nationwide, I’m having more conversations with students who have started to adopt a routine with schoolwork and accept a “new normal” for learning. But this will continue to be an emotionally taxing time for everyone, so it’s important to look for ways to relieve anxiety—and giving back can be a great way to do that. Way before COVID-19, research showed that stepping outside of ourselves to help someone else is a great way to stave off loneliness, boredom, and stress. As an educator for the past 25 years, I can truly say that I have never met a student who didn’t feel better after volunteering.

by Shannon Vasconcelos, former financial aid officer at Tufts University

In a welcome reprieve from the sea of bad news we’ve been drowning in lately, today we have some good news for student loan borrowers.  We now know what federal student loan interest rates will be for the 2020/21 school year, and… drum roll, please… those interest rates have dropped to historic lows!