Throughout April, we are celebrating Financial Capability Month by featuring a variety of financial education programs and resources that you can put to use in your classroom right away. The tenth of these is a series of financial education websites from the Pennsylvania Higher Education Assistance Agency – more commonly known as PHEAA.
Providing student financial aid is far from the only thing PHEAA does. Did you know that PHEAA offers three online platforms aimed at helping students understand the financial implications of higher education – both the benefits and the costs? Check out each of these sites for more information. You can also view the Making Cents Webinar from October 2017 that featured PHEAA’s Marla Kane sharing information about the sites.
Education Planner (Audience: middle and high school students and their families)
MySmartBorrowing (Audience: students in grades 8-12) This site takes students through a series of questions: what career they aspire to, what college they hope to attend, and how much their family will contribute towards their education. It then calculates an estimated student loan amount and determines whether that amount is realistic using the rule of thumb that students should not borrow more than their estimated starting salaries.
YouCanDealWithIt.com (Audience: college students and older)