By Marlene Seeklander Schools and interested stakeholders can find updates on the 2025-26 FAFSA BETA testing by going to one central location. The Department of Education is providing updates to the BETA testing process at https://fsapartners.ed.gov/beta/Updates. Listed by date, with the newest information appearing at the top, schools and stakeholders can find updates on such topics
BETA Updates Page for 2025-26 FAFSA Read More »
By Catherine Mueller Scholarships are the best kind of financial aid, but students should be careful to avoid scams. Because so many students are looking for scholarships, there are, unfortunately, a lot of bad actors that want to take advantage of these students. Therefore, it’s important to be careful and make sure the scholarship offer is
Tips for avoiding scholarship scams Read More »
By Catherine Mueller Although students and parents won’t be able to apply for financial aid until December, you can get ready by setting up a StudentAid.gov account. Setting up an account at StudentAid.gov, is also known as creating an FSA ID, which is the username and password for the account. When setting up an account, here
Tips for creating an FSA ID Read More »
Higher Ed News Vol. 16 – Issue 22 First round of 2025-26 FAFSA testing is complete, no major problems found Students are completing the beta-test version of the 2025-26 FAFSA without encountering any critical errors and students are receiving the records of those students. 2024 Virtual FSA Training Conference registration now open Of all the
Mapping Your Future Higher Ed News – October 17, 2024 Read More »
By Catherine Mueller Students are completing the beta-test version of the 2025-26 FAFSA without encountering any critical errors and students are receiving the records of those students. Along with sharing the results of the first round of the 2025-26 FAFSA beta tests, the U.S. Department of Education on Tuesday announced the launch of the second stage of
First round of 2025-26 FAFSA testing is complete, no major problems found Read More »
Tip of the Week Happy Financial Aid Day Over time, I realized I had “been bitten by the financial aid bug.” This was a career field I wanted to continue in and advance myself. I’ve always said that people either like working in financial aid or they don’t. If they don’t, they move on to
Tip of the Week – October 16, 2024 Read More »
By Marlene Seeklander Schools still participating in the Federal Perkins Loan Program need to watch for an important notification from the Department of Education. The Department recently announced that, as part of the wind-down process of the Federal Perkins Loan Program, they require an annual capital distribution from the school’s Perkins Fund. Schools will be
2024-25 Federal Perkins Loan Revolving Fund Distribution of Assets Timeline Read More »
By Marlene Seeklander You can make a note on your 2025-26 planning list to check out the recent additions to the 2025-26 FAFSA Specifications Guide. The Department of Education recently announced the addition of two volumes to the 2025-26 FAFSA Specifications Guide. These volumes include: Throughout the 2025-26 cycle, the Knowledge Center website will be updated
Updates to 2025-26 FAFSA Specifications Guide Read More »
By Marlene Seeklander For those financial aid professionals affected by the recent weather-related disasters, the Department of Education has provided some relief to their offices and for their students. The Department of Education (ED) has announced guidance about regulatory relief to institutions located in federally declared disaster areas due to Tropical Storm Helene or Hurricane Helene.
Tropical Storm Helene and Hurricane Helene Title IV guidance Read More »
Tip of the Week Hurricane Relief The phone call was both a relief and gut-wrenching at the same time. The year was 2005 and, due to his work, my brother was one of the last to evacuate the Houston area as Hurricane Rita was set to hit landfall in a matter of hours. When the
Tip of the Week – October 9, 2024 Read More »
