The Answer Sheet: college costs


Posted at 01:13 PM ET, 10/28/2010

New college rankings based on quality, cost
By Valerie Strauss
The folks at Kiplinger.com, which offers financial advice, did some numbers crunching and came up with their list of the best values in private universities and liberal arts colleges, taking quality and cost into consideration.

By Valerie Strauss  |  01:13 PM ET, 10/28/2010 |  Permalink  |  Comments ( 0)
Categories:  College Costs | Tags:  best values in education, caltech, college costs, duke, harvard, higher education costs, kiplingers, kiplingers best values, mit, princeton, private schools, rice university, swarthmore college, total college costs, yale

Posted at 10:50 AM ET, 10/25/2010

College fees: Not just for books and athletics

By Valerie Strauss
Fees aren’t just for books, student clubs and athletics anymore. Schools keep coming up with different ways to squeeze money out of their students.

By Valerie Strauss  |  10:50 AM ET, 10/25/2010 |  Permalink  |  Comments ( 0)
Categories:  College Costs | Tags:  college costs, college fees, freshman orientation, health center, health insurance, late fees, late registration, library fees, parking fees, registration fees

Posted at 01:37 PM ET, 09/13/2010

Student loan default rates increase -- especially at for-profit schools
By Valerie Strauss
The national student loan default rate is rising, according to new statistics released today, and students who obtain loans to attend for-profit loans are more likely to default than those in non-profit institutions.

By Valerie Strauss  |  01:37 PM ET, 09/13/2010 |  Permalink  |  Comments ( 0)
Categories:  College Costs | Tags:  college costs, for-profits and students loans, loan default rate increases, student loans, students and loan student rate

Posted at 01:55 PM ET, 05/04/2010

Who borrows most for college? New report
By Valerie Strauss
Two-thirds of students who graduate from college with a bachelor’s degree also leave with some amount of student loan debt, according to a new analysis.

By Valerie Strauss  |  01:55 PM ET, 05/04/2010 |  Permalink  |  Comments ( 0)
Categories:  College Costs | Tags:  borrowing for college, college board, college board report, college costs, college loans, for-profit schools, paying for college, private student loans, student loans

Posted at 06:31 AM ET, 04/05/2010

Scholarships: Who gets them and why--Flagel, Part 2
By Valerie Strauss
Here is the second part of a primer on financial aid by Andrew Flagel, dean of admissions and associate vice president for enrollment development for George Mason University in Virginia: "No matter how incredible your academic record, you’ll likely be shocked when that kid who slept all through junior year gets a larger scholarship from the same school. How is this possible? Just remember, scholarships are awarded to help colleges and universities get the students they want to enroll, not to be fair, just, or even reasonable.”

By Valerie Strauss  |  06:31 AM ET, 04/05/2010 |  Permalink  |  Comments ( 0)
Categories:  College Costs | Tags:  andrew flagel, college costs, financial aid

Posted at 06:30 AM ET, 04/05/2010

Merit-based aid is "to buy students"--Flagel, Part 1
By Valerie Strauss
Here is the first of four posts on financial aid for college, written by Andrew Flagel, dean of admissions and associate vice president for enrollment development for George Mason University in Virginia. Says Flagel: “The vast majority of merit-based aid is used, to put it bluntly, to buy students.”

By Valerie Strauss  |  06:30 AM ET, 04/05/2010 |  Permalink  |  Comments ( 0)
Categories:  College Costs | Tags:  college costs, financial aid, merit-based aid, need-based aid

Posted at 06:30 AM ET, 03/29/2010

More colleges join $50K-plus a year club
By Valerie Strauss
More colleges are planning to charge more than $50,000 a year for tuition, room and board, and mandatory fees next year.

By Valerie Strauss  |  06:30 AM ET, 03/29/2010 |  Permalink  |  Comments ( 0)
Categories:  College Admissions, College Admissions | Tags:  college admissions, college costs

Posted at 11:55 AM ET, 03/22/2010

Obama's student loan reform -- a no-brainer
By Valerie Strauss
The Obama administration deserves applause by passing major student loan reform that will save billions of dollars over the next 10 years, despite efforts to stop it that sometimes were just plain silly.

By Valerie Strauss  |  11:55 AM ET, 03/22/2010 |  Permalink  |  Comments ( 0)
Categories:  College Costs | Tags:  college costs, student loan reform

Posted at 06:30 AM ET, 01/12/2010

Costs of public vs. private college
By Valerie Strauss
Let’s do a little price comparison, now that Kiplinger Personal Finance has named its best values in both public and private colleges and universities for 2010. As you might expect, the sticker price difference is enormous (depending on your definition of enormous). Kiplinger, which offers financial advice, reported that 39 of the top 100 four-year public institutions of higher education charged about the same or less than the average annual in-state full price, which was $15,213. Many were a lot lower. The average total per year for a student in a private school is $35,600, according to the non-profit College Board, which owns and administers the SAT.

By Valerie Strauss  |  06:30 AM ET, 01/12/2010 |  Permalink  |  Comments ( 0)
Categories:  College Costs, College Costs | Tags:  college costs