Insider tips financial aid tips for the week of January 13, 2020

College savings cheat sheet – Financial aid guru Mark Kantrowitz shares some tremendous advice with Katie Couric on how parents can best approach the financial aspect of college. Among my favorites: Parents overestimate eligibility for merit aid, underestimate eligibility for need-based aid, and aren’t aware that most colleges meet financial need with loans, not just grants. Also, a good rule of thumb for parental borrowing (including co-signed loans) is to not borrow more for all children combined than your annual income.

She wrote the book on letting kids fail, but when her son applied to college, forgot her own advice – Jessica Lahey wrote a best-selling book on things like middle school failures can lead to medical school success, but the college admissions process even got the best of her. Check out this humorous and honest read about the challenges of parenting through the college process.

13 mistakes that affect financial aid eligibility – Take a minute to scan this list from Edvisors to be sure you aren’t making any of these mistakes.

The salary race – The NY Times has an interesting piece about the relationship between college major and future earnings and the findings may surprise you. Take a few minutes and check it out.