TuitionCents Blog

This post was updated on August 5, 2021. It was originally published on May 3, 2019.  Do Washington D.C. Residents Get In-State College Tuition in All States? This is the most common question I hear when I give our live workshop, Little-Known Secrets of Paying for College. The short answer is…. No! But there is…

Origin of the American Opportunity Tax Credit The American Opportunity Tax Credit, proposed by President Barack Obama and passed by Congress in 2009 to replace the Hope Credit, became a permanent education tax credit with the passage of the PATH Act of 2015. How Does the American Opportunity Tax Credit Work? Per the IRS, for…

The only thing that rises proportionately with college costs is the stress of the college application process. Every year, there’s more you need to know and more you need to do to get your kid into college. The whole process is enough to make parents and students lose their minds. Take, for instance, the concept…

Many people have heard of college 529 savings plans.  Every state has an option for its residents.  Many states offer tax deductibility for contributions to their state plan if you are a resident.  Some states even let you, as a resident, deduct contributions to any state 529 plan. 529 savings plans have taken center stage…

Growing up, my father struggled in school. His grades were not strong enough to receive any scholarships and his family could not afford to send him to college on their own dime. Instead, my dad did what he knew best when he graduated high school: he worked. Looking back at my dad’s financial situation, and…

Putting the Student Loan Problem in Perspective In total, almost 45 million Americans owe about $1.7 trillion in student debt. About 70 percent of college grads have student debt when they graduate; the average debt among all graduates now pushes $37,000. These statistics look really scary, but the story is more complicated than “everyone’s crippled…

What is a Tuition Discount? A tuition discount is an all-encompassing term that refers to any gift aid that the college offers to reduce your tuition cost. Most people use tuition discounts to describe automatic merit aid awarded by colleges. The money may actually appear on the award letter as a tuition discount, entrance award,…

This article was updated on May 4, 2021. It was originally published on July 15, 2016. Many students now attend public universities to reduce the cost of higher education. Unfortunately, students often face a huge premium if they want to attend a public university that is not in their state of residence. This can be…

The Ivy League Dream: A Generational Holdover That Overlooks Disproportionate Cost I grew up in a family that valued higher education tremendously. My late grandfather was a Cornell graduate and worked for IBM as an engineer for 35 years. Although he was not a wealthy man, he was financially comfortable and able to put all…

The Truth Hurts: The Unseen Burden of Student Debt In 2015, I walked into one of my first referral meetings and was immediately in awe of this family’s home and style of living. It was a small family. The father was the breadwinner and worked a comfortable job from home in the oil and gas…