A new student loan consolidation application is literally arriving every 4 seconds now. I’ve never seen it this busy in the years I’ve been here. Insane. Absolutely insane. Our phones are so busy that if you pick up the handset, you hear an “All lines are busy. No outbound lines are available. Please try later.” from our phone system.
Thank heavens CC Chapman put out a new Accident Hash today - nice and upbeat to keep things moving here. Between that and the summer CD show I did, there’s enough high energy music to keep chewing on these apps.
Student Financial Aid News
+ 16 hours left to consolidate federal student loans at today’s interest rates
+ Just a bit of amusement - Financial Aid Podcast listeners who consolidated through the links on the site got moved to the front of the line
+ This is the busiest I think it’s ever been
+ Fed moves funds rate to 5.25%
+ Recent indicators suggest that economic growth is moderating from its quite strong pace earlier this year, partly reflecting a gradual cooling of the housing market and the lagged effects of increases in interest rates and energy prices.
+ Education Secretary Margaret Spellings’ Commission on the Future of Higher Education released a draft report on Monday recommending “a substantial increase in need-based aid” and overhauling student financial aid to create a “streamlined” system. The draft harshly criticized the current financial aid system, describing it with words like dysfunctional, confusing, inadequate, unwieldy, inefficient, convoluted, counterproductive and redundant. It offered many general recommendations like consolidating the aid system and some specific recommendations like eliminating the FAFSA and using tax information to determine student need.
+ Education Department officials said Thursday that the department had approved alternative ways for residents of 37 states to qualify for a new federal grant program. In a telephone news conference, department officials said that they had granted requests from the states for additional ways that students could show that they had taken a “rigorous” high school curriculum, which is a requirement to receive the new Academic Competitiveness Grant created by Congress as part of budget cutting legislation last winter. In several states, the department approved dual-enrollment programs, in which students attend high school and community college at the same time, and in others it endorsed programs in which graduating students must take coursework that fulfills their state’s higher education admission requirements.
+ A brief mention about PodCamp - www.PodCamp.org
+ Looking for a venue
Scholarship Update
+ Scholarship to foster Native American Economic Development
+ Six graduate scholarships of $5,000 each will be awarded to Native American graduate students who are studying in the areas of law, business, or planning, and who are committed to economic development in Native American communities
+ enrollment in an American Indian tribe, recognition as an Alaska Native by an Alaska Native government, or status as a Native Hawaiian
+ experience and background in Indian Country or other Native communities
+ commitment to economic development in Native communities
+ potential for leadership in Indian Country or other Native communities
+ other available financial resources
+ Detailed information at our free scholarship search secrets web site
+ Search term: economics scholarship deadline
I thought I’d share this with you, a little secret of sorts. If you applied for a student loan consolidation through the Financial Aid Podcast by clicking on any of the links on FinancialAidPodcast.com, then your consolidation application has been moved to the front of the line and chances are it’s already been taken care of one way or another. If eligible, you’ve received an application. If not, you’ve received an email detailing what you should do neither. Either way, it’s a small but helpful reward to my loyal listeners - when everyone else is queued up before the student loan consolidation deadline, podcast listeners get to go first. Thanks for listening - membership has its privileges!
Student Financial Aid News
+ No more Stop & Shop sushi, please
+ Federal reserve announces rate hike today - anticipated 0.25% increase
+ Does race matter for lending? A new business announced Wednesday believes it may matter. Robert L. Johnson, the founder of the BET empire and the first black billionaire, has created a loan business that will focus on urban students and on those who attend historically black colleges and other institutions with large minority enrollments.
+ Democrats in the U.S. Senate on Wednesday released a state-by-state look at how rising tuitions and mounting loan debt are affecting students, a report intended to bolster legislation party leaders have put forward to halve loan interest rates and sharply increase the size of the maximum Pell Grant. “The federal government needs to do more to help families,” Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.) said in a news release. “The American Dream is at risk if we fail to make college more affordable. Graduates should not have to choose between paying off their college loans and buying a home or having a family.”
+ Lots of numbers - and reasonably well cited, too
+ 40 hours left to consolidate your student loans
+ Just 40.
+ We’re swamped - our toll free podcast comment line, 877-328-1565 may be busy
+ Alternate comment line - 775-406-3672 (toll charges may apply)
+ Was searching for a credit card that is fixed rate, and actually found one - 7.99% fixed if you have good credit
+ Be sure to pull your credit report first - a FICO credit score under 700 will probably get you the much worse term
+ Full disclosure: we have an affiliate agreement with the company
+ In lighter news, Google Checkout debuts. Integrates with AdWords and has coupon codes for vendors.
+ 2% transaction fee for merchants unless you use AdWords - then it’s 10x your AdWords budget
+ You know what would be intensely cool? Checkout credits - we spend a lot on ads but don’t have much you can actually buy - we’d love to resell AdWords credits
Mail Bag
+ Sean Potucek writes in: I have a quick question for you. I am a rising junior, and have existing loans for my freshmen and sophomore year. I will not need one for the upcoming year. should I, one consolidate, two Get Fasfa aid, or both? are there any downsides i
need to look out for before committing to these plans?
+ Always file your FAFSA - you have nothing to lose and everything to gain
+ Consolidation while in school is a good idea - but be aware that some lenders are refusing to cooperate
+ Are there downsides to loan consolidation? Of course.
+ Longer repayment terms
+ If you step down to the new monthly payment, you will pay more in interest overall
+ Best strategy - try to get as close to or above your original payment
+ Consolidation delivers a fixed rate - so you don’t need to worry about your minimum payment changing - it’s a fallback position
+ Jesse on MySpace writes in - what the **** is financial aid? welfare? food stamps?
+ It’s the strategy and process of paying for college using as little of your own money as possible
Hey- as you probably know, in addition to being your host, I’m also the chief technology guy here at the Student Loan Network. On Friday night at 11:59 PM, I’m turning the key on our student loan consolidation database system and locking it up, getting it encrypted, and sending it to our servicing department. If you aren’t in it, then you will NOT be able to get this year’s lower rates on your student loans. Want to be in it? You must file a request as soon as possible to get in. Time is running out - as I write this, there are 2 days, 9 hours left. Don’t get left behind.
Hello. My name is Chris, and I’m back at the U-Turn Cafe for a very special visit. Recently, your host and my good friend, CC Chapman, lost a loved one, his grandmother. I got together with a few friends from the New England Podcasting community and the Podshow community and decided that the best way we could lend our condolences was to put something together, something with music, for CC, his family, and to a greater extent, anyone who has lost a loved one. This show, then, is dedicated to the survivors, the people who carry on, reminded of the impermanence of life and how vitally important it is to live it to its fullest.
Our first selection is by Rob Costlow, Family. For many of us, losing a family member cuts the most deeply. They’re the people we grow up with - or who grow up with us.
All of the music tonight is from the Podsafe Music Network at music.podshow.com.
The hardest part of losing someone is knowing when to let go - not just of the person, but of the emotional turmoil inside of you. It’s okay. Okay to cry, to feel anguish, to mourn. In some ways, it’s even a cause for celebration later on, because it means you really love them, and that’s always worth celebrating. So let it out, let it all out, and rejoice in the memories you’ll have forever.
Let it Rain, by Laura Clapp.
The wounds may never disappear, but they will heal, and as the pain fades, slowly, surely, peace begins to creep in. No matter what you believe, we are united in our hope and belief that beyond this life is something better - another chance, another opportunity to make a difference, a paradise free of pain, reunion with loved ones who have gone before us. We believe and know in our hearts that our loved ones lived life as much as they could while they were with us, and that love sustains us through our trials.
Amazing Grace, by David Spak.
As our trials end, as sadness is washed away by time, we are reminded of the most important lesson that death brings us - that life is impermanent, life is precious. The loss of our loved one inspires us in ways that nothing else can. Every moment is an opportunity to experience life to its fullest, to fight for what we believe in, to make the world a better place. Every day is a renewed chance to love, to live, to be a beacon of brightness in a world that needs the light of love so badly. In a word, to shine.
Shine, by Kevin Reeves.
My time at the cafe here has come to an end again. To CC, our thoughts, prayers, and hopes are with you and your family, and you have our support as you’ve heard throughout the show. To everyone who is listening, whether you are undergoing your own trials or not, I hope you leave the cafe today inspired to shine a little brighter in your own life, to live and enjoy life as much as you can, and to make a difference.
As you have doubtlessly heard in many media outlets, the interest rates for federal student loans go up on Saturday, July 1, 2006. If you have existing federal student loans, this is your last chance to consolidate them and lock in this year’s rates before they change. It’s incredibly important to file an application request now (even if you change your mind later) so that you have the opportunity to lock in today’s rates.
Consolidate your federal student loans now and lock in your rates before the change, save more money each month by reducing your monthly payment, and protect yourself from having to pay hundreds, even thousands of dollars more in unnecessary interest.
Student Financial Aid News
+ Consolidation countdown is now at 3 days, 16 hours
+ Student loan consolidation at StudentLoanConsolidator.com or 877-328-1565
+ High student loan debt is steering new doctors toward more lucrative and specialized fields and away from careers in general medicine, according to the American College of Physicians.
+ The percentage of third-year doctors intending to pursue general medicine has dropped to 20% in 2005 from 54% in 1998.
+ The trend is leading to more medical centers that are staffed only by nurse practitioners - registered nurses with advanced degrees - a group that has grown to 115,000 today, up from 30,000 in 1990.
+ For railroads and steel manufacturers, the best days are past. Do American colleges and universities face the same fate?
+ That’s the grim prospect laid out in a draft report released Monday by the Secretary of Education’s Commission on the Future of Higher Education, which the panel’s chairman, Charles Miller, in a hastily written e-mail note that accompanied the document’s release, described as “very rough.”
+ “History is littered with examples of industries that, at their peril, failed to respond to — or even to notice — changes in the world around them,” the report said, adding: “Our year-long examination of the challenges facing higher education has brought us to the uneasy conclusion that the sector’s past attainments have led it to unseemly complacency about the future.”
+ Insufficient access to higher education for many Americans, caused by inadequate student preparation, poor alignment between high school and college standards, and informational and financial barriers.
+ “The seemingly inexorable increase in college costs,” driven by “colleges’ and universities’ failure to seek institutional efficiencies and by their disregard for improving productivity,” and a system of higher education finance that is “increasingly dysfunctional, inefficient, and inadequate.”
+ “Evidence that the quality of student learning at U.S. colleges and universities is inadequate and, in some cases, declining.”
+ A “woeful lack” of publicly available and rigorously accurate information about colleges, most of which “make no serious effort to examine their effectiveness on the most important measure of all: how much students learn.”
+ Overhauling the “entire financial aid system” in ways that would increase the availability of need-based aid and eliminate the complex federal financial aid form. Although it talks about a “streamlined” system, the draft, as written, stops short of calling for radically reducing the number of federal grant and loan programs, although some commissioners favor that.
+ Improving colleges’ productivity by insisting that they better control costs and prices (”college tuition should not rise faster than family incomes”) and encouraging competition from “new competitors to traditional four-year institutions,” notably “community colleges and private for-profit providers,” which can be accomplished by “reducing barriers to the transfer of credit between institutions.”
+ In lighter news, Kent State University has ordered all of its athletes to abandon their profiles in Facebook, the popular social-networking site, The Columbus Dispatch reported.
Scholarship Update
+ NASE Future Entrepreneur Scholarship
+ Must be a member of NASE or a child of a parent member
+ $24,000 award 12/4/4/4
+ This unique opportunity is awarded each spring to a single ambitious and driven individual who demonstrates the characteristics of a future micro-business owner.
+ Deadline April 25 of each year
+ Detailed page at our student scholarship search site
+ Search term: entrepreneur scholarship
Student Financial Aid News
+ This week, the Fed will move to rate hike #17
+ Prime Rate to 8.25%, Funds Rate to 5.25%
+ No more FAFSA filing after June 30, 2006 for this year
+ You MUST have your FAFSA done.
+ FAFSAonline.com to file your FAFSA before the deadline
+ Commission on Higher Education having serious internal schism about tone of report
+ Which more accurately describes the situation: Does the United States have the best postsecondary education system in the world, but one that is facing some significant problems that need addressing? Or is it a once-great system that is under such stress that it needs a major overhaul to keep up with the rest of the world?
+ The fact that you have to ask the question leads me to believe the latter
+ HEA reauthorization again
+ Unlikely to be any changes in the 109th Congress to the HEA
+ No significant changes in student aid
+ 4 days, 16 hours left to file a student loan consolidation
+ 877-328-1565 x1 or StudentLoanConsolidator.com
+ Why everything on June 30? It’s the end of the fiscal year for gov’t and lots of agencies
JobCast
+ Selling picks and shovels
+ Selling gold
+ Identify a business to get into
+ Identify a company you might want to work for
+ The reality is that if you want to get really ahead, you have to join a very forward thinking company or start your own
+ Not work in a cubicle mill where all you are is a cog in the machine
+ Rule #1 in the New Economy: You have only as much job security as you create
+ Rule #2: Creative companies are strong companies, flexible companies
