If they haven’t already, millions of seniors graduating from high school will turn their attention over the next few weeks to paying for college.
Scholarships and grants — which don’t have to be paid back — are the best option, of course. But not everyone has the academic record for merit aid, or a great jump [...]

As college graduation season comes to a close, the newly anointed degree holders finally have to face a new reality — life with hefty education debt.
There is plenty to be done before the debt starts to come due — in about six months for most — but graduates will need to act fast and think [...]

Sallie Mae, the nation’s leading saving- and paying-for-college company, awarded $25,000 to 11-year-old Gracie Maddox on “Dr. Phil” to help pay for her college education. The presentation is part of Sallie Mae’s ongoing awareness campaign to remind students and families that college is possible. Dr. Phil McGraw presented the award to Gracie on behalf of [...]

New York’s attorney general has written a highly critical letter to college financial-aid officials saying their proposed new code of conduct would not curb abuses in the student loan industry.
Andrew Cuomo’s office has been investigating the industry for months. He says the new code cites only general, “vague lofty goals.” In a letter [...]

The director of student financial services at Johns Hopkins University has resigned — nearly a month after a nationwide probe of the student-loan industry revealed she was accepting fees and graduate-school tuition payments from a lender.
Ellen Frishberg, director of student financial services at the Homewood campus since 1989, resigned Friday, a university spokesman said.
She had [...]

The state Legislature last week quickly pushed through and unanimously passed legislation to prohibit revenue sharing agreements between colleges and student loan companies after Attorney General Andrew Cuomo began investigating these practices two months ago.
“New Yorkers will have the confidence in knowing that state law will be on their side when dealing with the college [...]

The Justice Department is reviewing an audit that found hundreds of millions of dollars have been improperly paid to a student loan company, House Education Committee chairman George Miller said yesterday.
Miller, a California Democrat, made the review public during a hearing in which he pressed Education Secretary Margaret Spellings on her decision to ignore a [...]

New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo’s office said Thursday it reached a settlement with CIT Group Inc. and CIT’s Student Loan Xpress unit arising from the state’s investigation of abuses in the U.S. student loan business.
The New York-based commercial and consumer lender agreed to pay $3 million into a fund that will educate students about [...]

It’s a good thing you got that college education. You can put it to good use navigating the complex maze that is the student loan industry as you consider whether to consolidate your federal student loans.
For those who have never done it, it’s a question that comes up every year in anticipation of the [...]

The Justice Department is reviewing an audit that shows hundreds of (m) millions of dollars have been improperly paid to a student loan company.
The audit was made public by House Education Committee Chairman George Miller at a hearing today. It was conducted by the Education Department’s inspector general, who recommended the 278 (m) million dollars [...]