By Marlene Seeklander The Department of Education released new content for the FSA Handbook and announced it will be seeking input from financial aid professionals as they “reimagine the content” of the handbook. In a March 16 Electronic Announcement, the Department announced the availability of the Appendices of the 2025-26 Federal Student Aid Handbook and said
By Marlene Seeklander Students seeking additional funds for their college education may want to review these scholarship opportunities to determine if they are a good fit. College Now Adult Learner Scholarship– This scholarship is available to adult students age 19 and older who have interrupted their education for at least one year and who are pursuing a
State specific and national scholarship opportunities for students Read More »
Reminder of upcoming scholarship strategies webinar hosted by Mapping Your Future Scholarships can often be a critical source of funding when it comes to paying for college. Mapping Your Future’s “Four Components of a Successful Scholarship Strategy” webinar will address tips and techniques for applying for scholarships. The webinar will benefit high school and college
Tip of the Week – March 18, 2026 Read More »
By Catherine Mueller Nearly 8 million student loan borrowers with $180 billion federal student loans are in default, according to the latest data from the Department of Education. The number of defaulted borrowers mirrors the count from December 2019, prior to the payment pause, when 7.7 million recipients with approximately $168 billion in federal student loans
Number of student loan borrowers in default matching pre-pandemic levels Read More »
By Marlene Seeklander The Secretary of Education is seeking comments on proposed regulatory changes impacting the Federal Pell Grant program. In a Federal Register Notice published on March 9, 2026, the Secretary proposes to amend the Federal Pell Grant program regulations in order to implement changes that were part of the Budget Reconciliation Bill that was
Comments sought on proposed changes to Federal Pell Grant program regulations Read More »
Tip of the Week Your Lucky Day I’ve won a few prize drawings in my lifetime, like a department store gift certificate, free groceries, and, oh yeah, a car. It was a used car, and I had just turned 16 so I considered myself pretty lucky. The feelings of luck generated by those types of
Tip of the Week – March 11, 2026 Read More »
By Marlene Seeklander Schools, state agencies, and vendors need to be aware of updates coming in April 2026 to various Department of Education systems resulting from the Budget Reconciliation Bill. In a March 9 Electronic Announcement, the Department of Education outlined updates that will be implemented to several Federal Student Aid (FSA) systems and the
FAFSA processing updates resulting from the Budget Reconciliation Bill Read More »
Higher Ed News Vol. 18 – Issue 5 Three factors for measuring an education’s return on investment The amount of money we make in our lifetime is just one way, albeit an important one to many people, to measure how well we’ve done in our careers. Keys to a successful scholarship strategy topic of upcoming webinar When
Mapping Your Future Higher Ed News – March 5, 2026 Read More »
By Marlene Seeklander Financial aid industry professionals now have some of the information they need to plan development of products and services for 2026-27 award year. The Department of Education announced that they have posted a partial version of the 2026-2027 Common Origination and Disbursement (COD) Technical Reference which contains development information of interest to vendors, servicers, partners,
2026-27 Common Origination and Disbursement (COD) Technical Reference partially updated Read More »
By Marlene Seeklander EDExpress for Windows users have a new service release available that resolves two recent issues. In a February 27 Electronic Announcement, Federal Student Aid announced a new service release for EDExpress for Windows 2025–26, Release 2.0 that resolved the following issues: Users must have EDExpress 2025–26, Release 2.0 installed before running the service
EDExpress 2025-26 Service Release now available – resolves two recent issues Read More »
