10 Avoidable Mistakes Parents Make that Increase Student Debt

grad and parents representing college financial planning mistakes

We have all heard the horror stories of college graduates with staggering debt and little hope of repaying it before retiring. The obvious cause of the problem is the seemingly ever-increasing cost of college. But here’s the thing. When you read the stories about graduates struggling with student loans after graduation, you’ll almost always see … Read more

50-50 Highlights: Colleges Where Students Are Most Likely to Graduate with Debt

golden figure holding onto debt representing Colleges Where Students Are Most Likely to Graduate with Debt

In case you’ve been in a coma and haven’t heard, there is a student loan crisis. According to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, the total student loan debt of $1.46 billion exceeds that of consumer credit card debt. Apparently, students are borrowing too much to pay for college. Of course, you could argue that … Read more

How Much Should Students Borrow for College?

Money representing how much should students borrow for college

Anyone who pays attention to the media has heard the alarming reports about student debt. In the United States student loan debt is about $1.7 trillion which exceeds the total credit card balance. Scary numbers. You would expect the question, “How much should I borrow for college?” to be the question that all students and their … Read more

50-50 Highlights: Colleges with the Lowest Student Loan Default Rates

Piggy bank being crushed representing Colleges with the Lowest Student Loan Default Rate

Given that paying for a college education now rivals buying a house, it isn’t surprising the New York Fed reports that “Balances of student loans have eclipsed both auto loans and credit cards, making student loan debt the largest form of consumer debt outside of mortgages.” Faced with limited financial aid and the prospect of … Read more

The First Step to Avoid College Debt

grad chained to debt representing need to avoid college debt

As the cost of college has sky-rocketed, students are accumulating more and more debt. You hear horror stories of student graduating with over $100,000, $150,000, or $200,000 in college debt just for an undergraduate education. And with tuition at some schools exceeding $60,000 a year, you have to wonder if that high student debt is … Read more

50-50 Highlights: Colleges Where Parents End Up With Debt

Piggy bank on calculator representing colleges with the most PLUS loans

I’ve mentioned before that not all 50-50 schools are affordable or generous with financial aid. Recently, I’ve started looking at Parent Loans for Undergraduate Students (PLUS) loans. As the name indicates, these loans are usually not taken out by the student but by parents on the student’s behalf. This means that they aren’t generally counted … Read more

The First Step Towards Debt-Free College

The following is a guest post by Tom Bottorf of GetCollegeFunding.org. I’m not sure exactly when the shift occurred, but sometime in the last 20 years, attending college has become synonymous with student loan debt. It’s pretty much assumed that the student should have some “skin in the game” by borrowing money to achieve their … Read more

12 Days of Christmas 2021: Day 10

Day 10: Ten ways to contribute to student debt.

(I’m taking a break from regular blogging and newsletters during the holidays. Hope you enjoy the DIY College Rankings version of the 12 Days of Christmas.) On the tenth day of Christmas, DIY College Rankings wrote to me: Ten ways to contribute to student debt. 10 Avoidable Financial Mistakes Parents Make When Planning for College … Read more

It Takes More Than Rankings to Find Good Colleges

Person looking out of computer screen for good colleges

Why? Because it all depends on how you define good colleges. And that’s the problem. How do you know what makes a college “good?” Are good colleges the ones where the good students go? After all, the colleges that admit only a small percentage of students with high GPAs and college test scores are the … Read more