Category: Financial Aid

2015, College Affordability, Financial Aid, Politics, Research/Policy, Student Success

The Broken Record of Student Debt

By Dr. Watson Scott Swail, President & Senior Research Scholar, Educational Policy Institute I recently read an article by Mitchell Weiss of credit.com in USA Today titled “Student Loan Debt: America’s Next Big Crisis.” Weiss points out that the percentage of delinquent student loans rose from 11.1 percent to 11.5 percent between the first two quarters in 2015. On the surface, that doesn’t sound like much. But … Continue reading The Broken Record of Student Debt

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2015, College Access, College Affordability, Financial Aid, Research/Policy, ROI/College Outcomes

Revolution, Not Reformation

By Dr. Watson Scott Swail, President & Senior Research Scholar, Educational Policy Institute Well, it’s another school year. Students around the country have started the sojourn back to their elementary, secondary, and postsecondary schools—the pathway to enlightenment for some; the tunnel of darkness for others. This year’s return is framed by a political discussion that has raised the platform of education as a federal issue. Although we … Continue reading Revolution, Not Reformation

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2014, College Affordability, Financial Aid, Research/Policy

The Nature of the Beast: College Tuition and Fee Charges for 2014-15

By Watson Scott Swail, President & Senior Research Scholar, Educational Policy Institute Last week the College Board released the 2014 Trends in College Pricing and Trends in Student Aid reports. As a former co-author of these reports, I remain critically interested in tuition and cost of attendance trends. Each year, I update our annual projection of the future tuition and fee costs at US institutions of higher … Continue reading The Nature of the Beast: College Tuition and Fee Charges for 2014-15

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2014, Financial Aid, Research/Policy, Student Success

FM and IM—You Say Potato, I like Potahto: But We Can’t Call the Whole Thing Off

By Dr. Watson Scott Swail, President & Senior Research Scholar, Educational Policy Institute A recent article published by the Chronicle of Higher Education titled “Are Poor Families Really Paying Half Their Income at Elite Colleges?,” penned by Beckie Supiano and Soo Oh, reminded me of the old Gershwin tune, “Let’s Call the Whole Thing Off.” The graphic-based brief uses data from the University of Notre … Continue reading FM and IM—You Say Potato, I like Potahto: But We Can’t Call the Whole Thing Off

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2014, College Affordability, Financial Aid

The Continuing Nightmare: Tuition and Fees will Double in Less than 20 Years

by Watson Scott Swail, President & CEO, Educational Policy Institute There is always a lot of talk about college costs and future issues in higher education. I’ve written extensively about our inability to recast the higher education system due, in part, to the sheer weight of historical antecedents. That is, the system is burdened by the largess and bureaucratic nature of the system itself. Large systems … Continue reading The Continuing Nightmare: Tuition and Fees will Double in Less than 20 Years

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