Author name: Marlene Seeklander

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Updated guide for helping students who have exceeded student loan limitations

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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

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Outage alert for StudentAid.gov on June 27-28

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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

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Reporting Federal Work-Study Earnings to COD System for 2025 calendar year

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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

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Updates to FAFSA Specifications Guides

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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

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Tip of the Week – June 24, 2026

Newsroom, Financial Literacy, Latest, Mapping Your Future features, Newsletters, Student Loans, Tip of the Week / By

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

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New functionality added to foreign ownership, contracts and gifts reporting portal; institutions can now update older reports

Newsroom, Department of Education / By

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

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Department of Education offers guidance on which programs to add to federal report

Newsroom, Department of Education / By

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

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Enhancements to FSA Partner Connect to improve user experience

Newsroom, Department of Education / By

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

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Scholarship opportunities for students pursuing video game and computer science-related majors

Newsroom, College preparation, Paying for College / By

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

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Tip of the Week – June 17, 2026

Newsroom, Financial Literacy, Latest, Mapping Your Future features, Newsletters, Student Loans, Tip of the Week / By

Tip of the Week Updated interest rate information available on Mapping Your Future website July is just around the corner and that means student loan borrowers will see slightly higher interest rates starting July 1. To help your students know the upcoming July 1 interest rates, Mapping Your Future staff recently updated several references to

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