Meet Student Financial Aid Expert Mark Kantrowitz

Mark Kantrowitz/Illustration by Bankrate

Mark Kantrowitz is a nationally recognized expert on student financial aid and student loans. He often contributes comments on Bankrate’s student loan coverage (such as the recent court decision blocking the SAVE plan). Now, as a member of Bankrate’s Expert Contributor program, he will be penning several articles a month analyzing student loan news and offering savvy advice for borrowers.

Here’s a deeper dive into Mark’s background and what he’s learned in three decades of watching this industry.

Mark Kantrowitz’s background

Your educational background is in math and computer science — how did that lead to the career you’ve built as a recognized expert on financial aid and college planning?

When I was a student, I won a gazillion dollars in scholarships. At the time, there were no books specifically about scholarships for math and science students, so I compiled my own list of scholarships, grants and fellowships in STEM fields.

This list was eventually published as a book in 1993, around when the web was emerging. Soon, I began receiving countless questions about planning and paying for college. Rather than answer the same questions again and again, I created a web page where I posted answers for students and families. I started proactively answering questions before they were even asked. This web page took on a life of its own, with traffic doubling every month.

My training is as a research scientist. I approach financial aid challenges with an analytical mindset, focusing on generating new knowledge and deriving insights from first principles. My goal is to bridge the gap between policy, data and real-world financial planning, ensuring that complex financial aid concepts are accessible and actionable.

A key focus of my work has been on helping students and families make informed decisions about college admissions, financial aid and student loans.

By making complicated topics easier to understand, solving practical problems and delivering clear, data-driven guidance, I strive to empower families to navigate the financial aspects of higher education with confidence.

Could you tell us about some high points in your career to date?

A few key numbers illustrate the real-world impact of my work in financial aid, college planning and student loan policy.

• $2 billion
  

  My discovery of the early repayment status loophole allowed millions of borrowers to lock in historically low interest rates while they were still in school, ultimately saving them billions of dollars in interest over the life of their loans. (This loophole was closed by the Higher Education Reconciliation Act of 2005.)

• 400 million
  

  In 1996, I provided the U.S. Department of Education with a prototype implementation of an online Free Application for Federal Student Aid. Since then, more than 400 million FAFSAs have been filed online.

• 100 million
  

  I founded and served as publisher of several financial aid and college planning websites, which collectively have been visited by well over 100 million people over the past 30 years, helping them navigate the complexities of paying for college.

• 10 million
  

  I have had more than 10 million answer views on Quora in response to questions about financial aid, with more than 100,000 additional answer views each month.

• 10,000
  

  I have been quoted in more than 10,000 newspaper and magazine articles, a figure that far surpasses the combined media presence of all other financial aid experts. My insights have shaped public discourse on student loans and higher education funding.

• 5,000
  

  I pioneered the concept of net price, the actual cost of college after subtracting gift aid from total annual college costs. The net price is the discounted sticker price — the amount of money families have to pay from savings, income and loans to cover college costs. This metric, now widely used, has led to the availability of net price calculators on over 5,000 college websites.

• 400
  

  I have created more than 400 rules of thumb about planning and paying for college. These twisdoms (tweetable wisdoms) are designed to be memorable and actionable. These simple yet powerful guidelines influence student behavior by providing clear financial principles, such as:

  • “Aim to graduate with total student loan debt that is less than your expected starting salary and, ideally, a lot less. If your total student loan debt is less than your annual income, you should be able to repay it in ten years or less.”
  • “It is never too late to start saving. Every dollar you save is a dollar less you have to borrow and every dollar you borrow will cost you about two dollars by the time you repay the debt.”
  • “Save a fifth of your income for the last fifth of your life.”
  • “Live below your means, so you have the means to live.”

What Mark’s watching in the industry

You’ve been observing and writing about the student financial aid space for decades now. Are there themes or trends you’ve seen repeating themselves during that time?

Despite historic levels of student loan forgiveness, student loan debt continues increasing. President Joe Biden canceled $188.8 billion in student loans — more than any previous president — yet total outstanding student loan debt was higher when he left office than when he began.

The root of the problem? College affordability continues to decline.

The cost of higher education has risen faster than income growth, leaving graduates with increasing levels of debt.

Without significant changes to college affordability and repayment plans, student loan debt will likely continue its relentless climb — outpacing relief efforts and placing an ever-growing financial burden on students and graduates.

How have economic shifts over recent years changed your views on student loan debt and how it should be handled?

Student loans are too complicated. The student loan system is unnecessarily complex, with a dozen different repayment plans that confuse borrowers and complicate loan repayment. A simpler, more effective approach would include just two repayment options:

• A standard 10-year repayment plan for borrowers who can afford fixed payments.
• A single income-driven repayment plan, similar to Income-Based Repayment, where payments adjust based on income.

Borrowers who want to pay off loans faster can make extra payments toward the principal, as student loans have no prepayment penalties.

Loan limits are stagnant. Federal student loan limits have not kept pace with rising costs and wages. Aggregate loan limits should be pegged to the average starting salary for the degree level and adjusted every three years.

Annual student loan limits should be set proportionally based on aggregate limits, enrollment status, and time remaining to graduation. A student who is enrolled half-time should have half the annual limits of a student enrolled full-time, ensuring proportional access to funding.

Loans should be replaced with grants in the financial aid packages of low-income students. Low-income students are more likely to graduate with student loan debt, and more of it, despite having limited means to repay it. To level the playing field, financial aid packages for low-income students should replace loans with grants. Tripling the average Pell Grant would significantly reduce or eliminate the need for student loans among low-income students, making college more affordable without saddling them with debt.

Mark’s top advice for students

My advice is generally to minimize debt. Borrow as little as you need, not as much as you can. Live like a student while you’re in school, so you don’t have to live like a student after you graduate.