What’s the secret sauce of 529s? It’s how great they are for financial aid purposes.

Happy 2023! Last year I made a New Year’s Resolution and kept it. That makes me a self-appointed expert on New Year’s resolutions. Here are some resolutions for parents planning for college— and my expert advice on how to keep your resolutions.

The FAFSA will be available on Dec. 31. Here’s what you need to do to file it.

If your student comes home for the holidays unenthusiastic about their school and considering transferring, your first impulse might be to tell them to tough it out for the year and reconsider come summer.

Rhodes Scholars are announced annually on the Saturday before Thanksgiving, and this year’s recipients once again represent a diverse group of colleges.

Recent guidance from the Department of Education includes an actual date for the FAFSA and a welcome change to 529s in the formula.

I’ve spent a big chunk of this fall speaking to a variety of groups about college planning. Here are the most important pieces of the plan.

One of the best ways to save for college is to have other people do it for you. Here’s how.

How do you know what a college will cost you? Here’s how to figure out.

Changes to the FAFSA have many families worried that they’re going to have to pay more for college. Is that true?

You’re probably asking about size, major and location. What else should you ask about?

I write a lot about the FAFSA, but there’s a second financial aid form that’s also important: the CSS Profile. While all schools use the FAFSA to allocate federal funds such as Direct Student Loans, a subset of schools– primarily private schools– use the CSS Profile in their financial aid calculations. There are a few key differences between the two forms.

Parent assets seem to be the area that most families and planners focus on, despite the fact that they typically have the smallest impact on the formula of each of the components. Strategies and tactics to minimize parent assets abound, but for most families these result more in nibbling around the edges than actually making a significant dent in SAI.

College provides a lot of economic benefits— better wages and lower unemployment rates at the top of the list. But does college make you a better person, too? Survey says Yes!