Junior

The provision of need-based financial aid, at a need-blind school, may be frustrating sometimes in its outcome, but at least it is fairly easy to understand for parents and straightforward to administer for the college or university.

Since September 2003, with your support, I have been steering College Parents of America's advocacy efforts in Washington, D.C., supporting legislation and rule-making that reduces the complexity of the education planning process and makes college more affordable for families. If your family members, friends and neighbors can be convinced to join you as a member of our organization, then our advocacy efforts can become even more effective, as they will be "on behalf of" an even greater number of people.

He is the son of a shipyard worker. He will be a first-generation college student from a hard-working family in an old industrial town. He dreams of becoming a lawyer and, someday, serving in Congress. He is, in short, the American dream.

At College Parents of America, one of our goals is to encourage colleges and universities to develop strong programs in support of the current parents at their institutions. Many of you have asked me over the past 14 months what the hallmarks are of such a program. Following is my take on the "Top Ten" attributes of a supportive parent program:

With football season in full gear, I thought it would be helpful to give you today’s starting lineup of federal student aid programs. No matter what your budget resources, or where your child is in the process of preparing for, applying to or attending college, these are the eleven federal programs (eight undergraduate and three graduate) of which you should be aware. It’s time for the first snap!

It’s not exactly a newsflash that one of the many ways that U.S.-based businesses are gaining productivity – and saving money – is through outsourcing of certain functions. So it shouldn’t come as a surprise that some colleges and universities, in searching for ways to keep their own expenses down, are also looking to outsource. […]

At College Parents of America, we strive to provide valuable resource information to our members, as well as vigorous advocacy. While many of my recent columns have centered around some of the key advocacy issues that we are focusing on – to serve you – here in Washington, DC, we also work to benefit you […]

Dear Parents:When your children leave home for college, they will face a host of new experiences and responsibilities. As a parent, you recognize that now they will be "on their own" to tackle life's basic functions - at the same time that they are adjusting to a new environment and new freedoms. To help your student in this transition, he/she should know the "financial facts of life" before opening that first checking account or making that first purchase on credit.

Last week, in this column, I wrote about the upcoming “road to reauthorization” for the Higher Education Act, certain provisions of which are already being considered in the U.S. House Education and the Workforce Committee, chaired by Rep. John Boehner of Ohio.

For current college parents, the twelve days of Christmas don't end with a partridge and a pear tree.In fact, the year-end holidays don't seem to end at all. Increasingly, colleges and universities are scheduling longer and longer periods of time between the last day of fall finals and the first day of spring semester.Beginning as early as mid-December, those of you who are current college parents began to have your sons and daughters come home for the holidays. And their rooms were probably still waiting to be cleaned from the mess they left at Thanksgiving.