Recent college graduates must learn to navigate lots of new experiences—new freedoms, new responsibilities, and, yes, new bills. Graduates who borrowed student loans to help finance their undergraduate educations will soon be entering the world of student loan repayment—a domain that can be challenging to traverse, particularly on an entry-level salary. Borrowers wanting to get the lay of the repayment landscape should head on over to the Fortuna Admissions blog to learn about their loan repayment options from College Coach finance consultant, Shannon Vasconcelos.

Did you receive a scholarship from a US college or university? Consider yourself fortunate; everyone loves free money! For many college students and their families, education loans are part of the paying strategy. Loans are not free money. If you are an international student and regular reader of our blog, you already know that there are certain types of financial assistance that you will not be eligible for if you decide to pursue a US degree.

What about loans? Can they be part of your paying strategy if you don’t receive enough in scholarships or haven’t saved enough to cover your education? Given the reality that student loans are a big part of how families are covering college costs today, we wanted to explore the options available to international students.

Breaking news for student loan borrowers: We now know what interest rates will be on federal student loans for the 2018/19 school year.

If you’re a high school senior or a parent of a high school senior, congratulations! You have officially made it through the college admissions process! The May 1^st deposit deadline having just passed, you have likely made your college decision and put a deposit down at the school of your choice. The next decision point for many families will now be which college loan to choose. How does one go about making this important decision of how to finance their college education?

When families ask us about the pros and cons of using private education loans, the finance educators at College Coach are quick to point out that private loans can be less flexible and riskier than federal loans. In mid-March, the Senate passed a bill that, if eventually approved by the House and signed by the President, will make private student loans a little less uncertain.  The Economic Growth, Regulatory Relief, and Consumer Protection Act is a revision of parts of the 2010 Dodd-Frank financial reform bill, and there are two obscure but troublesome features of private loans that it addresses.

Over the years, I’ve worked with many families who are shocked to hear that their children cannot borrow the full amount that they need to cover all college expenses not covered with financial aid. Undergraduates are actually quite limited in the amount they can borrow in their name alone: $5,500 for their first year, $6,500 for sophomore year, and $7,500 for junior and senior years. That’s only $27,000 in Federal Direct Loans for a student who is enrolled for four years. With high college expenses, these limited amounts may not go far in terms of covering that tuition bill.

High school seniors are starting to receive their financial aid notifications from colleges, and most of these notifications will include one or more versions of a Federal Direct Loan—be it a Direct Subsidized Loan, Direct Unsubsidized Loan, and/or a Direct PLUS Loan. If you have been awarded a Direct Loan, you may be wondering what is it, exactly, and what are the differences between the various Direct Loan programs? Former Boston University and Tufts University financial aid officer Shannon Vasconcelos answers, “What is a Federal Direct Loan?,” in this installment of the College Coach video series, Ask the College Finance Expert.

College Coach is thrilled to announce that we will be participating in a Facebook Live event sponsored by U.S. News and World Report on February 15th at 2:00pm ET, discussing what parents need to know about borrowing college loans.

Considering pursuing an MBA, but worried about the debt burden it would require you to take on? Well, I’ve got good news for you. It is possible to get your student loans forgiven. Qualifying for repayment assistance can be tricky, however, so check out Shannon Vasconcelos’ guest post on the Fortuna Admissions blog for the details on the complex requirements for student loan forgiveness.

Bad news for student loan borrowers: We just learned what interest rates on Federal Direct Loans are going to be for the next academic year, and, unfortunately, they’re going up.