Navigating College Loans

A CBS report Sunday focused on the Massachusetts Educational Financing Authority (MEFA)'s recent announcement that it will be unable to provide any more private student loans this year. Every year, thousands of local students rely on MEFA and other lenders to help finance their college educations. Governor Patrick, Treasurer Tim Cahill and others are working to find solutions for families left struggling after the MEFA announcement. The subprime mortgage crisis, however, has reverberated across lenders shaking the stability of student loan programs all together. Congress has cut subsidies for federal loans and around 120 lenders have stopped participating in the federal loan program, putting many families into the difficult position of having to choose among loans with higher than average interest rates and no guarenteed rate cap.

Now, talk to me about any of that when I was an 18-year-old heading off to my first semester at Boston College and I would have shrugged it off in favor of the course catalog. The figures on my financial aid forms, the interest rates, the tuition estimates, they seemed fictious to me - larger than any debt I had ever seen or been responsible for before. Today, students entering college have entirely new aspects of the loan process to navigate.

In September, just as school opens and many students start the tabs on their college careers, United Way is hosting its third annual Mothers, Daughters, and Money conference, a free and public event aimed at helping young women learn how to build secure financial futures. The recent news about student loans, the trends around youth and credit card debt and a not-so-vague memory of how scary those first major financial commitments can be encouraged me to spread the word about Mothers, Daughters, Money here. There's never been a better time for it. If you're interested, you can learn more or register here. If you can't make Mothers, Daughters, and Money, here are a few other resources:

• Financial aid workshops for Boston Public School graduates (August 18th)
• Paying for College A very helpful resource page run by Boston Public Schools for any student.
• Lowell Sun list of financial aid resources, including two local college-affordability summits in October hosted by Rep. Tsongas
• The Beehive: A website stocked with resources on everything from money to schools to jobs and careers.