Rachel Fishman

When I worked in the College Planning Center in Boston’s public library, students started trickling in as early as October with questions about how they could apply for financial aid for the next academic year. We would have to turn them away explaining that the Free Application for Federal Student Aid, known as the FAFSA, […]

Today, New America’s Education Policy Program released the first in a series of College Decisions Survey briefs that analyze new survey data about what prospective college students know about the college-going and financing process. Part 1: Deciding to Go to College focuses on why students decide to pursue college in the first place and the […]

Since American community college students are more likely to be older, commute to school, work part-time, and care for dependents than their public four-year and private nonprofit counterparts, they need access to more flexible pathways that meet their needs and move them toward a credential. Community College Online, a new report released today by New […]

Last week, President Obama announced an ambitious proposal that would make the first two years of a community college free to many students. This announcement comes at a time when there is growing national anxiety about the rising costs of college and the increased indebtedness of students. Now that more details have come out, here […]

Yesterday, I wrote about Starbucks’ innovative partnership with Arizona State University (ASU) Online to offer a free higher education for its employees. While the program will certainly provide many employees with a low-cost higher education, the education won’t be free because of the many strings attached. Student employees will have to bear significant upfront costs […]

Starbucks and Arizona State University (ASU) Online announced yesterday an innovative partnership to provide a free online college education to thousands of its employees. At first blush, this sounds like a great idea. According to Starbucks, more than 70 percent of its 135,000 employees are currently college students or are aspiring college students. Given the […]

After months of negotiations, the U.S. Department of Education’s Program Integrity Negotiated Rulemaking Committee last week came to a tentative consensus about the definition of adverse credit for PLUS loans. This agreement on PLUS loans is a clear middle-ground approach designed to assuage the institutions that experienced significant revenue loss due to recent changes to […]

Lisa, a single mother who receives approximately $700 a month in Social Security disability payments, qualified for over $45,000 in federal Parent PLUS loans to send her daughter to school. “…It’s something that in my lifetime I couldn’t pay back. Let’s be realistic. With what I get, there was no way,” Lisa explained to Marian […]