The College Investor

Working toward PSLF? Screenshot your payment tracker every month. A new AFT lawsuit says some borrowers lost credited months this summer, and others have July through October payments that never posted.

Borrow the full federal limits as a dependent student and you'll accrue about $4,173 in interest over four years at 6.52%. Invest that interest each year instead, and at a 7% return it's worth about $8,765 a decade after graduation.

The AFT just sued the Education Department over PSLF. One plaintiff filed his PSLF Buyback request in November 2024 and still has no decision. Pending buyback requests stood at 88,000 in the latest court report.

New lawsuit alert: the American Federation of Teachers is suing the Department of Education over failing to process PSLF timely along with other PSLF errors:

Paying student loan interest while you're in school feels responsible. Sadly, it's usually a waste of money. If PSLF is the plan, in-school payments don't count toward the 120 qualifying payments, and the balance gets forgiven anyway.

The University of Providence in Great Falls, Montana, will close in 2027. About 630 students are enrolled, and the school is losing roughly $8 million a year in support from the Providence health system. We added it to our list of 2027 closures: thecollegeinvestor.com/79342…

Accreditors control access to more than $100 billion a year in federal student aid. Under the new rule, they'll weigh graduate earnings against the total cost of attendance. Should a degree have to pay for itself to keep federal aid?

The government skipped the HEAL default list for five years. Now it's back in the same year Treasury took over defaulted student loan collections, with about 10 million federal borrowers in default. Read that as a signal about what's coming.

Add UMaine's earlier $10 million academic cut and the flagship is trying to remove $19 million from its fiscal 2028 budget. Penn State, Oregon, and Syracuse have made similar moves this year.

Using CLEP, AP, and dual enrollment is the best way to cut college costs!

Went to an Art Institute, Le Cordon Bleu, Virginia College, Brightwood or Argosy and left without a degree? Check your last day of attendance. A 2025 Education Department decision moved the closed school cutoff back years for these chains.

The four things that actually lower the cost of college, per student per year: Earn credits before college: $25,850 Start at community college, then transfer: $13,554 at UC prices Skip the dorm: $9,300 to $15,200 Online program built for it: $1,100 to $5,000+ Everything else moves the bill to someone else.

Students who transfer lose an average of 43% of their credits, according to GAO. The Education Department estimates accepting those credits could cut federal aid spending by up to $3.8 billion a year as students stop retaking classes.

The average balance on the new HEAL default list is about $161,500, roughly seven times the typical defaulted federal student loan. The largest single balance is about $1.79 million, and interest is still building on it.

Parents can't wait on their state to fix this. Since July 2025, a 529 plan can pay for K-12 tutoring with a licensed teacher or subject expert, up to $20,000 a year starting in 2026.

Two days after we updated our college closure tracker, another school announced it's shutting down. The University of Providence in Montana will close after the 2026–27 school year. Its last day of classes is August 20, 2027. thecollegeinvestor.com/79342…

Kendrick Gaussoin was enrolled at Brooks Institute on May 6, 2015, the cutoff the Education Department set for CEC schools in 2025. His closed school discharge was denied anyway in August 2026. The lawsuit says the denial letter never mentioned the 2025 decision.

Since 2022, the top 10% of eighth graders gained 3 points in NAEP math. The bottom 10% lost 5. Pandemic recovery is happening for the students who needed it least.

UMaine's plan covers about $6 million of a $9 million non-academic shortfall. Only $1 million of that is new revenue. The other $3 million still has no plan.

The Education Department just published the names of 574 doctors, dentists, chiropractors and other health professionals in default on HEAL loans. They owe about $92.7 million combined. It's the first time the list has come out since 2021.