Q. I will be attending college in the fall, and like many other graduating seniors I am worried about managing my finances. I plan to attend the School of Visual Arts and, like many art conservatories, it is very expensive. I have no job experience or a savings or checking account, and I know [...]

With the media focusing on high levels of student debt and potential conflicts of interest between universities and student-loan companies, figuring out how to pay the college bills may be more stressful than usual this year.
So today I’m starting a series of columns in which I’ll tell you how [...]

For years, as college costs have climbed to back-breaking levels, more families have begun socking money in tax-advantaged 529 savings plans. Now, as these 529 plans mark their 10th anniversary this year, they are fast becoming the principal way for parents and grandparents to save for college.
Why? Costs associated with the plans have dropped. Investment [...]

A lawmaker has proposed a bill to the Legislature that would allow the cash-strapped Northern Marianas College to enter into a loan for its campus renovation.
Rep. Arnold I. Palacios introduced to the House last Feb. 19 House Bill No. 15-222 to authorize NMC to engage into a commercial loan agreement for the sum of $250,000 [...]

A private student loan provider is moving to Austin with plans to hire more than 200 people.
Education Finance Partners Inc., based in San Francisco, will open a customer operations center in North Austin. The location will house loan operations, customer service, technology and human resources. It expects to bring the site up to full capacity [...]

A White Paper describing a new educational loan program has been released by a group of school financial aid administrators. The paper urges all entities involved in student loans to rethink the structure of the student loan programs.
Loans have become the major college financing option for students and parents, but as currently structured, these [...]

Kilgore College’s board of trustees voted to re-enter the Federal Family Education Loan Program in the fall, said Chris Moore, school spokesman.
“Kilgore College had gotten out of the federal loan administration business about 15 years ago, when the default rate on our loans was just under 19 percent,” Moore said.
Most of the burden has been [...]

Four Malden banks have committed $8 million to a loan pool for a first- and second-time homebuyer program run by the Malden Redevelopment Authority.
Eastern Bank, Century Bank, Central Bank, and BankMalden each pledged $2 million to fund the program over the next two years.
The loan pool will make below-market-rate loans to low- and moderate-income home [...]

One of the big promises made by Democrats when campaigning for Congress was to cut interest rates in half for student loans.
The Democratic plan for college tuition would lower interest rates on federally subsidized college loans from 6.8% to 3.4%, but can it be done?
At Indiana State University, 70% of students receive some type of [...]

Although his party has denounced an audit of the state’s higher education loan authority, Republican Gov. Matt Blunt has endorsed it.
Blunt said yesterday that he supported Democratic State Auditor Susan Montee’s review of the Missouri Higher Education Loan Authority, which is targeted as a funding source for his $350 million college construction plan.
In a [...]

If Congressional Democrats make good on a promise to cut interest rates on college student loans, Oregon students could benefit more than nearly any other state in the country.
A study released Thursday by the Public Interest Research Group, OSPIRG, found that college-bound Oregonians would save more than $4700 in loan payments. Rob Manning has more.
Democrats [...]

A proposal before Congress that would halve interest on federally subsidized student loans in the next five years would save students thousands of dollars, according to an analysis by the Massachusetts Public Interest Research Group.
The so-called College Student Relief Act of 2007 is expected to be voted on next week by the House of Representatives [...]