financial aid
President Obama has been making heated calls on Congress to prevent interest rates on federally-subsidized Stafford student loans from doubling this summer. This week, he cooled it down a notch in a “Slow Jam the News” segment on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon. Obama – or the Barackness Monster, as Fallon called him – kept his tone serious during the five-minute jam. “On July 1 of this year, the interest rate on Stafford student loans – the same loans that many of you use to pay for college – are set to double. That means some hard-working students will be...
Whether you’re thinking about going back to school, or paying the slightest attention to national news, you’ve surely heard that student loan debt in America has grown to gargantuan proportions. Estimates vary, with the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau reporting that America’s outstanding debt in private and federal student loans appears to have topped the $1 trillion mark. Sobering news—especially if you’re currently trying to figure out how you’re going to pay for school. Consumer Reports just released some helpful tips about keeping student debt in check, including: Starting out with small repayment amounts that increase every couple of years. Signing...
If you missed President Obama’s fired-up speech at the University of Michigan, where he outlined new details about his plans to lower the cost of higher education, here are some highlights as outlined in the Washington Post: $8 billion in funding for the Perkins loan program (up from $1 billion) A new formula for distributing Perkins loans that rewards schools that make strides in lowering tuition and serving low-income students $1 billion in aid to states that curb higher-ed costs $55 million in start-up funding for higher-ed institutions that pursue innovation to boost productivity A “College Scorecard” for all schools with easy-to-read...
The process of gathering the necessary paperwork for the Free Application for Financial Aid (FAFSA) form and searching for scholarship information can be daunting, but a new online tool that can help speed up the process has been launched from an unlikely source: MTV. The cable network, which is slowly evolving away from purely entertainment-oriented programming, has unveiled a financial-aid application for Facebook called My College Dollars. By using personal information stored on the prospective students’ Facebook profiles, the app provides a customized list of available scholarships that can be customized for the user’s age, location, field of study and...
Searching for money for school can be a serious business, but there are times when it can seem downright odd, especially when it comes to scholarships. There are thousands of scholarships out there, but there are the occasional few that are so specific you just have to laugh … or wave your arms frantically yelling, “Pick me! Pick me!” The once and former American Quarter Horse Foundation Nursing Scholarship is a good example. Unfortunately, it ran out of funding last year, but when it was a going concern, it was awarded, of course, based on membership in the AQHA as...
Filling out financial aid forms can be a perplexing process. Fortunately, there’s plenty of time before the June 30 Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) deadline for the 2012-13 school year. But to help students get their questions answered before the 11th hour, the U.S. Department of Education’s financial aid office hosted a virtual office hour on Twitter. Here’s a sampling of some questions and answers we found helpful (with a few minor edits to improve readability): Q: With getting help to pay for school, is there a limit in how much a person makes? A: There’s NO income...
Times are tough for many American students trying to foot the bill for college, graduate school and career education programs. As TIME Moneyland reports, state funding for higher education has fallen by nearly 8 percent over the past year. That’s—gulp—$6 billion that schools in some 41 states are doing without, according to the annual Grapevine report from Illinois State University’s Center for the Study of Education Policy. To make up the difference, many schools have jacked up tuition, and some are scaling back need-based financial-aid programs while enrolling more out-of-state students who pay higher tuition—making it harder for in-state students...
If you’re on the ball and raring to go back to school, perhaps you’ve already filled out your 2012-13 Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA). If you file electronically, you can find out in just three to five days how much financial aid you’re eligible to receive. (It takes a bit longer, up to three weeks, for those who prefer to mail in a paper application and don’t provide an email address.) So, what happens if you don’t get as much aid as you were counting on—or if you’re flat-out denied? You can appeal. Some of the most common reasons for...
All colleges, universities and post-secondary schools that offer federal student aid such as Pell grants and Perkins loans are required to disclose lots of detailed information to help prospective students make well-informed choices. It’s the law. Back in 2008, when Congress reauthorized the federal Higher Education Opportunity Act (HEOA), it added more than 25 new information requirements. The most talked-about additions to the list of facts and stats it requires schools to disclose include: Graduation rates for low-income Pell grant recipients Credit transfer policies Percentage of students employed after graduation or enrolled in graduate school Textbook prices Private student loans...
Going to school and pursuing the career of your dreams can be the beginning of an exciting new chapter in life. It might also be your first step on a long path of student loan debt—so long you might wonder how you’ll ever be able to pay it all off. Take Vanessa and Chris Christman, two public law librarians in California featured in a recent LifeInc. blog post, “Loving the job, but hating the student loan debt.” They owe more than $150,000 in combined student loans, and they’re struggling to pay it off, despite making more than $100,000 a year....
We know you’ve got a lot on your mind during the holidays. After all, you’ve got parties to go to, food to prepare, presents to buy—and you might be anxious about how you’re going to pay for it all. But if your New Year’s resolution includes going back to school in 2012, now’s an important time to start thinking about how you’re going to pay for that, too. We know it’s not as fun as putting up your holiday decorations, but this is when you should start preparing to file your Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA). Over two-thirds...
So, you’ve resolved to improve your professional future in 2012 by going back to school? Well done. Whatever your motivations—better opportunities, a bigger paycheck, job security, getting away from Horrible Bosses—the idea of getting your new education might seem a little daunting. Throw in a resolution to lose weight and it’s enough to make you want to snarf down a cookie. Fortunately, Seattle career coaches David Goodenough and Elise Touchette have a few calming words of encouragement that are fat-free food for thought. Both have helped hundreds of people follow through on their resolutions to go back to school and...
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The All Allied Health Schools blog covers what you need to know about preparing for a career in health care today, whether you’re just starting to think about your new career or you’re ready to enroll in school.
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