The FAFSA’s Expected Family Contribution (EFC) for college expenses has two components. I dug previously into the Expected Parental Contribution (EPC) and how to minimize it. Today, we’ll look at the second component, the Expected Student Contribution (ESC). Obviously, the expectation for how much a student contributes to their own education is higher than for… Continue reading Financial Aid: Student’s Contribution
Recently, I was talking with a Maryland resident about 529s, financial aid, and tuition. You know, my favorite subjects. After the conversation, I poked into the costs of attending the University of Maryland and found a surprise: differential tuition. Huh. What is lurking behind this obfuscation? Let’s find out. What Good Is Differential Tuition? In… Continue reading What is differential tuition?
Happy Labor Day! I graduated from graduate school over 16 years ago and got my first “real” job at MegaCorp. I switched jobs in January 2013 to LittleCorp, which was bought within a year by DumpsterFire. Later, in January 2017, I left DumpsterFire for StartupInc, and I’ve been here for over 4 ½ years. Over… Continue reading A Tale of Salary and Inflation
Fridge Temperature Sensor Our main refrigerator has started showing its age by staying slightly ajar when it’s not closed carefully. I’m tired of getting up in the morning and finding it ajar with ice forming on the chiller. With six kids, you can imagine this happens often. This month, I bought temperature sensors for both… Continue reading August 2021 Update
As a parent of a current college student and five more in the near future, I’ve been trying to understand the student aid calculations. Last time, I wrote about how much the parents are expected to pay for their child’s education. The focus of this post is to see what it would take to drive… Continue reading Financial Aid: Minimizing the Parent Contribution
Recently, I scrambled down a rabbit hole as I dug into student financial aid. When I was a college student, I don’t recall putting much effort into understanding the Free Application for Federal Student Aid, or FAFSA. All I knew was that I needed to do it to maximize the financial aid I could get… Continue reading Financial Aid: Parents’ Contribution
Last week, I highlighted the Circuit Playground, an inexpensive platform I use to engage my kids in programming. I wholeheartedly endorse the Playground for its simplicity and plethora of sensors. But what if you really want a screen, a feature the Playground is missing unless you attach a TFT Gizmo? If that’s what you’re looking… Continue reading Continuing the Search for STEM Toys
Domain Name Redemption In late June, I started brainstorming domain names for a new project I’m working on. The registration on one of the domain names that I was kicking around had expired in April. However, the domain name still hadn’t been released back into the pool, and I started poking around to see why… Continue reading July 2021 Update
As Marc Andreessen, a co-founder of Netscape put it, “software is eating the world”. I’m a big believer that any amount of coding experience will put you light years ahead of someone who has no experience, regardless of the work. Even a tiny exposure to coding demystifies the modern world. One of my favorite activities… Continue reading Searching For The Perfect STEM Toy
Last week, during my research on Virginia’s Tuition Track Portfolio option, I discovered that Virginia’s advisor-sold 529 plan is twelve times the size of Virginia’s direct-sold 529 plan! Not only that, it’s the biggest 529 plan in the nation. And it’s not even close! It’s 2.4 times the size of the runner up, New York’s… Continue reading Taking a peek at CollegeAmerica, Virginia’s advisor-sold 529
