What this is, what it is not, and how it pays for itself — all three on one page, because in this sector the third one is the question that matters.
Everything on this site is built around one idea: that an hour spent understanding the vocabulary saves a week of guessing later, and that the understanding should not cost anything or be traded for a phone number.
We are a small team writing explanations, not a service you sign up to. There is no account, no dashboard and nothing to subscribe to.
We write plain-language explanations of how student aid works: the vocabulary, the sequence of a funding year, what each form asks for, and which office answers which question. Where an official page is the authoritative answer, we link it rather than paraphrasing it into something that goes stale.
We do not award, lend, broker or guarantee any funding. We do not file anything on your behalf and we have no view of any application you file. We do not tell you what you qualify for, because no website can know that — the programme and your school's aid office decide it.
Education providers advertise with us. Using the site is free and we never ask for payment details. An advertiser has no say in what any page says, and we are not paid per enrolment — a per-head fee would be a reason to push people toward a particular school, which is the opposite of the point.
People approaching this for the first time: school leavers, adult learners returning after a gap, parents and partners helping someone else, and anyone who has been handed an offer letter full of terms nobody explained.
Nothing here will tell you that you qualify, or for how much. Any site that does is guessing, and a guess dressed as an answer is worse than no answer.
Not for information, not for a guide, not for being contacted. Federal aid is free to apply for and we will keep saying so on every page that touches it.
Where a federal or state page is authoritative, we send you there. If something here ever contradicts it, the official page is right and we are wrong.