A Sign Of The Times: FAFSA Filings Rise 17.5% In First Quarter 2010

Filings of the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA), a necessary first step in accessing financial aid, rose 17.5% to 8.1 million filings in the first quarter of 2010, based on an SLA analysis of Dept. of Education information. Here is the trends for the first quarter over the last four years, breaking out [...]

In Case You Missed These Two Friday Posts

Pell Grants Surge 60% in Third Quarter; $11.4 Billion Quarter Highest on Record Updated my Pell Grant table based on new data on the Federal Student Aid site this evening.  The growth in Pell Grants reached unprecedented levels in the quarter ending March 2010, with grants up over 60%. Highlights: Overall, Pell grants rose 60.4% [...]

Pell Grants Surge 60% in Third Quarter; $11.4 Billion Quarter Highest on Record

Updated my Pell Grant table based on new data on the Federal Student Aid site this evening.  The growth in Pell Grants reached unprecedented levels in the quarter ending March 2010, with grants up over 60%. Highlights: Overall, Pell grants rose 60.4% to $11.4 billion driven by a 36% increase in recipients and a 17% [...]

Six Experts Help To Demystify the Financial Aid Process

The Wall Street Journal recently held a panel discussion titled “Paying for College:  What You Need To Know.  Here are the highlights from the transcript that I had prepared (Download Six Experts Demystify the Financial Aid Process): On why college has gotten so expensive: Mark Kantrowitz of FinAid and FastWeb:  “Colleges have a different mix [...]

CP-LIBOR Spread Working In FFELP Lenders Favor

The Department of Education released their Special Allowance rates for the quarter ending March 30, 2010 and the average three month commercial paper rate used to calculate the special allowance is 0.21 percent.  The average 3 month LIBOR rate over that same period was 0.256% leading to a CP-LIBOR spread of 4.6 basis points below [...]

Use of ECASLA Financing Programs Up 28% To $29.6 Billion

Highlights: ECASLA financing programs, including the loan participation and loan purchase programs, rose 28% to $29.6 billion from $23.2 billion over the same period last year.  Note that there may be some minor double-counting as participation units owned by the Department at end of February could have been sold to them by late March. Sallie [...]

Who Are Top Holders of Federal Student Loans?

Observations: Reflecting the concentration in the industry, the top 10 loan holders comprise 70% of total FFELP loans oustanding and the top 50 loan holders comprise 96% of FFELP loans.  Overall, $421 billion in FFELP loans were outstanding as of September 2009, a 4% increase over FY2008. Lenders that saw the largest increases  in loan [...]

What’s Happening With Tuition At State Schools?

I quickly perused the news over the past 3-4 days to see what I could discern.  I found many examples of mid-high single digits increases.  Why?  Declining state support. At Idaho State University, tuition will increase by 9.0%:  “Idaho State University had asked the board for a 9.9% increase but the board after one substitute motion reduce [...]

Apollo (Parent of University of Phoenix) Comments on Gainful Employment Proposals

From their 2Q 2010 conference call (thanks to Seeking Alpha) earlier this week in which they lay out their position that new regs. would limit college access: “To that end, we continue to actively monitor the rule making process and other developments in Washington. It is important to support the Department’s efforts to enhance accountability [...]

CBO Report On Federal Student Loan Program Yields Useful Insights

Rushing to get this post out before the 1am deadline (look for updates on the blog tomorrow).  Skimming recent CBO report “Costs and Policy Options For Federal Student Loan Programs.”  Useful reading for anyone seeking a better understanding of how the programs operate and the cost implications using two different methodologies (FCRA and “fair value”).  [...]