By Marlene Seeklander Financial aid professionals now have two essential volumes of the 2026-27 FSA Handbook available to them. The Department of Education announced that the following volumes of the 2026-27 FSA Handbook are now available: The digital Federal Student Aid Handbook is available on FSA’s Knowledge Center. Any questions or suggestions about the FSA Handbook
2026-27 FSA Handbook Volumes 4 and 5 now available Read More »
By Marlene Seeklander As new federal student loan limitations are implemented, financial aid professionals may see more students who have exceeded Federal Direct Loan annual or aggregate loan limits. The Department of Education recently announced the availability of the updated NSLDS Reaffirmation User Guide (June 2026) for working with students who have exceeded loan limits. The
Updated guide for helping students who have exceeded student loan limitations Read More »
By Marlene Seeklander The StudentAid.gov website will be unavailable June 27-28, 2026. Federal Student Aid announced that they will be performing extended maintenance to the StudentAid.gov site on June 27-28. Beginning on Saturday, June 27 at 4 p.m. (Eastern) until approximately 1 p.m. (Eastern) on Sunday, June 28, the site will be unavailable. During the outage, users will be unable
Outage alert for StudentAid.gov on June 27-28 Read More »
By Marlene Seeklander Financial aid professionals now have instructions for the reporting of student-level earnings for the Federal Work-Study (FWS) program for the 2025 calendar year. In a June 23 Electronic Announcement, the Department of Education outlines the operational guidance for schools as they begin reporting Federal Work-Study earnings for the 2025 calendar year. The implementation
Reporting Federal Work-Study Earnings to COD System for 2025 calendar year Read More »
By Marlene Seeklander Financial aid professionals will want to make note of recent updates to the FAFSA Specifications Guides for various award years. The Department of Education recently announced updates to several important volumes of the guides. The following volume has been added to the 2027-28 FAFSA Specifications Guide: In the 2026-27 FAFSA Specifications Guide, updates were
Updates to FAFSA Specifications Guides Read More »
Tip of the Week Achieving the dream; the greatness of financial aid A time to celebrate. Just in time for the nation’s 250th anniversary, the NASFAA conference will be in Washington, D.C., next week and celebrating its own 60th anniversary. The conference, of course, is an important time to get the latest information on the
Tip of the Week – June 24, 2026 Read More »
By Marlene Seeklander Institutions required to report on foreign ownership, contracts, and gifts, now have a new functionality in their reporting portal that should make updating older reports easier compared to the previous manual process. In a June 18 Electronic Announcement, the Department of Education announced that, effective immediately, institutions of higher education (IHEs) can now
By Marlene Seeklander In what is likely an attempt to have all bases covered, schools have been adding programs to the Eligibility and Certification Approval Report (ECAR) that aren’t required. The Department of Education (ED) said it wants the practice to stop – in part to reduce the workload on schools. In a June 15 Electronic
Department of Education offers guidance on which programs to add to federal report Read More »
By Marlene Seeklander Financial aid professionals entering the “digital front door” for Federal Student Aid (aka FSA Partner Connect) will notice some enhancements to the platform. In a recent Electronic Announcement, the Department of Education stated that the FSA Partner Connect has had a number of enhancements made to it to make things easier for their
Enhancements to FSA Partner Connect to improve user experience Read More »
By Marlene Seeklander Students interested in pursuing a major in video games or computer science-related majors may want to look into some scholarship opportunities for these majors. Scholarships enable students to pay for an education and avoid student loan debt. In addition, scholarships are recognition of a student’s accomplishments – something that can be included on
