Financial Aid

A company called College Financial Advisory in San Diego is sending email notifications to students and parents requesting a $59 check in order to process financial aid for the 2010-11 academic year.   This is NOT a request from the Department of Education or from Allegheny College.   The company is using a logo that looks very much like the U.S. Department of Education logo, emails a “report” that looks very much like the FAFSA Student Aid Report, is using a telephone number very similar to FSA’s toll free number, and is using terminology (such as the “Student Aid Profile Form”) that is very misleading.   Students and parents are NOT required to pay a fee for financial aid processing and should disregard any correspondence they receive from this company. 

Often overlooked by taxpayers, tax deductions and tax credits are another way to save money for college.  Deductions reduce taxable income and credits directly reduce tax obligation dollar for dollar, allowing taxpayers to keep more of their money to pay for college.   For an overview of current education tax benefits, check out the comparison chart at https://www.finaid.org.   For detailed tax filing information regarding tax benefits for education, see IRS publication 970:  https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/p970.pdf.