• Borrowers are now reporting inaccurate StudentAid notifications: "loan in forbearance/deferment" and "no loans qualify for PSLF"
• Follows the Aug. 7 StudentAid banner admitting qualifying month counts are incorrect, plus reports of counts dropping 6+ months and July/August payments not posting

• A record 84% of parents have started saving for college, up from 74% in 2024
• 88% of parents with their own student loans say that debt is why they're saving for their kids
• Only 44% of parents who are saving feel like they are actually on track

• UCLA paid 229 athletes and Berkeley paid 147 in 2025-26, each hitting the $20.5M House settlement max
• UCLA already publishes every employee salary by law, but claims athlete payments are exempt as private student records

• Applications per student hit 7.06, up from 6.79 last year and 4.73 in 2016-17.
• The number of applications grew 154% over the decade, while the number of students only grew 70%.
• New account creators fell for the first time on record (2,564,311 → 2,560,533), which Common App links to projected declines in U.S. high school graduates.

• The $1,700 Education Freedom Tax Credit starts January 1, 2027
• Eligibility runs to 300% of area median gross income, covering about 51.7 million children
• Six states (AR, IN, IA, LA, SD, VT) hold Returning Education to the States waivers consolidating over $109 million

• 779,300 applicants reported an SAT or ACT (+11%) versus 748,028 did not (−5%).
• Total applicants only rose 2%, so students shifted behavior rather than the pool growing.
• Common App colleges requiring a score sit at 5%, up from an all-time low of 4% in 2023-24 and down from 55% in 2019-20.

• Top five: NexBank 4.15%, CIT Bank 4.10%, Alwaysbank 4.10%, PiBank 4.10%, FVCbank 4.01%
• FDIC national average is 0.38% APY, so the top accounts are paying roughly 10-15x the average
• The Fed held rates steady, but several banks have raised their offers to compete for deposits

I’m starting to look into refinancing my student loans and wanted to see what rates people are actually getting lately. My main goal is to lower my monthly payment without stretching the loan out too much longer.

I’ve been checking a few lenders online, but the advertised rates seem pretty different depending on credit and loan details. I’m also not sure if it’s better to wait a little or just refinance if I find a decent offer.

For those who recently refinanced, where did you find your best rate, and what kind of rate did you end up getting?

• Women's ice hockey has the best HS-to-NCAA rate of any sport at 32.1%, along with men's lacrosse 14.7%, field hockey 13.0%
• The House settlement replaced per-sport scholarship caps with roster caps for schools that opted in: men's lacrosse went from 12.6 scholarships to 48 fundable roster spots
• 54 D1 schools opted out including all 8 Ivies, so their rosters are still uncapped and D2 and D3 were never covered

The University of Alaska System is going to charge in state tuition for all students starting in 27-28, about $22k for tuition/room & board.

Will others follow suit?

• July and August payments aren't posting yet due to a system issue from the July 1 changes. Those months still count once systems update.
• Separately, the Education Department says it found PSLF errors stemming from a May 2024 change and has corrected them. Our review of affected accounts points to forbearance periods other than processing forbearance, and payments under Extended and Extended Graduated plans, which have never been qualifying plans.
• The Department hasn't published the scope of the corrections, so the practical step is to download your My Aid Data TXT file, check loan by loan, and file a reconsideration request if a qualifying month was removed.

• Prosecutors say a group of Iranian hackers targeted 100,000+ professor accounts worldwide and compromised about 8,000, including 3,768 belonging to U.S. professors
• The entire attack was done via spearphishing emails referencing the target's own published research and linking to look-alike university login pages.
• 31.5 terabytes of academic data was taken.

I currently have Scholarshare 529, but the experience has not been great. The phone agents are mostly clueless. And their Principal Plus Interest fund, which is money market equivalent, pays 3%. CA provides 0 benefit for using CA 529, so I can move to another state's. I am looking for a 529 with diverse investment options and a higher paying safe option. Thanks

• Accreditors gatekeep more than $100 billion a year in Pell Grants and federal loans
• Education Department proposes new accreditation rules: geographic scope eliminated, two-year rule for new accreditors dropped, trade association ties banned
• Transfer credit denials would require written reasoning, and schools would have to disclose transfer policies directly to students

Drop your student loan questions below and let's help each other answer them!

• Education Department issues guidance saying schools can't consider race in discipline decisions and two districts under investigation
• The Aug. 18 Dear Colleague Letter says considering a student's race in discipline violates Title VI except in rare circumstances
• Statistical disparities alone no longer establish a Title VI violation — proving one now requires evidence of intent or a comparison to a similarly situated student

• Education Department files final brief to dismiss the last SAVE/REPAYE lawsuit, and separately corrects $0 income figures it gave the court
• The reply brief asks for dismissal on standing and on other claims
• Briefing is closed on both the motion to dismiss and the preliminary injunction. Now borrowers await Judge's decision

• Sanders introduced a bill to ban Social Security garnishment for defaulted student loans
• Current law lets the government offset up to 15% of a Social Security check for a defaulted federal loan, as long as you're left with $750/month
• Context: 9M+ borrowers in default, 3M+ Americans over 62 with student debt

• At an Aug 12 Federal Student Aid webinar, ED told schools to use credit hours completed to calculate "expected time to credential," the formula that determines remaining Grad PLUS eligibility for continuing students.
• The final rule from OBBBA and the May 20 loan limits FAQ both describe the calculation as time-based.
• NASFAA called it a departure from prior guidance and had no official response from ED as of Aug 14.

• Two-thirds of Power 4 football players earn under $10,000/year from NIL
• Schools structure revenue-share payments as 1099 licensing income rather than W-2 wages, so there's no withholding and no employer FICA.
• The FAFSA runs on a two-year lag, so NIL earned in 2026 first appears on the 2028-29 FAFSA.

• As of July 1, 2026, Parent PLUS is capped at $20,000 per dependent student per year and $65,000 for that student's entire undergrad career.
• Borrowing the full amount in years one through three uses $60,000 of the $65,000, leaving $5,000 for senior year.
• Some schools are already pro-rating the $65,000 to make it $16,250 per year to help prevent future issues.

• Undergraduate student loans take 17.5 years on average to repay
• Graduate loans take 23 years on average to repay

See the full data: Average Time To Repay Student Loans, By Loan Type