Colleges tend to be more relaxed environments over the summer. Without the typical school-year pressure on students, professors, and administrators, these campus community-members are often more available to answer questions from prospective students and their parents. What questions, however, are best to ask? Find out on the Edmit blog, where former Boston University and Tufts University financial aid officer, Shannon Vasconcelos, advises you to dig deeper than the information that can be easily accessed on a college’s website and ask the questions that get to the heart of whether a particular college will be a good financial fit for your family.

There is a scholarship (or many scholarships) out there for everyone.  Every student has some skill, interest, experience, or characteristic that may make them an attractive candidate for one scholarship or another.  And while we often refer to scholarships as “free money,” scholarships don’t actually come for free.  It takes work to thoughtfully consider your strengths and research the scholarships that might be most appropriate for you.  While the effort that goes into finding and winning scholarships may be akin to a part-time job, we at College Coach want to make your job a little easier.  This on-going scholarship series highlights a new scholarship each week.  Check out the below, along with the other posts in the series, and you may discover a funding resource that will make covering that college bill a little (or a lot!) easier.

Each spring, College Coach surveys the high school seniors that we’ve worked with through our private college counseling service to garner their insights on the college application process. We’ve just synthesized the results of our 2019 Senior Survey, and wanted to share the good news with our readers.

If you or your child plan to borrow federal student loans for the upcoming school year, we have some important news for you. We now know what student loan interest rates will be for the 2019/20 academic year.

If you ask about costs while visiting a college campus, you will likely be told something to the effect of, “Don’t worry about it—you can get financial aid!” And while that statement holds true for many students, not everyone is eligible for financial aid. How can you determine whether your family will qualify for financial aid? Check out the latest installment of our video series, We Can Explain.

As we approach the pinnacle of tax season, we’re hearing a lot from taxpayers about the size of their refunds or the size of their bills—for some, much bigger or much smaller than anticipated due to tax reform. The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, passed at the end of 2017, was one of the most sweeping reforms of our tax code in decades, and repercussions of the bill—both positive and negative—will likely be felt through all sectors of our economy for years to come. We thought readers of The Insider, however, may be particularly interested in taking a look back at the education provisions of the bill—how tax reform is affecting students, parents, and the educational institutions that support them. We’ve broken down the key education provisions of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act into categories, based upon the stakeholders most affected, though impacts will certainly be felt across stakeholder groups and through society at large.

With the April 15^th tax filing deadline right around the corner, you want to make sure that you’re taking advantage of every tax benefit you can get. And if you’re a parent paying for college, you may be eligible to claim an education tax break (or, potentially, multiple breaks, depending upon how many kids you have, how you’re paying for college, and a number of other factors). Check out the breakdown of the most common college tax breaks on the Edmit blog.

The college decision can be a stressful one. It feels like your life hangs in the balance, and if you don’t attend the “right” school, you’re setting yourself up for a lifetime of failure.

Plenty of research has shown, however, that this is simply not the case.

If you wouldn’t pay full price for a car or a house, why do you think you need to pay full price for college? While many colleges may not want to let you in on this little secret, their price is often negotiable. If you’ve been offered a scholarship by a college, that offer is a good sign that they really want you to enroll. Use this insight to your advantage, and try to negotiate an increase in your scholarship offer. How, though, should you approach this negotiation? Find out from former Boston University and Tufts University financial aid officer, Shannon Vasconcelos, in her new article on scholarship negotiation on the Edmit blog.

As high school seniors await admissions and financial aid decisions, and juniors begin to think about the college application process, all of these students would be wise to take some time to look for college scholarships. How should a student approach the scholarship search process? Find out in the latest installment of our video series, We Can Explain. In this video, we look at the “Top 3 Ways to Find Scholarships,” streamlining what can be an overwhelming search process into manageable steps.