FAP522: Scholarship search secret, FFEL vs. Direct Loans, Misbehavior at SLM, Chloe Leigh

Student Financial Aid News
+ From Banknet360: The Missouri Senate passed by a vote of 23-11 Gov. Matt Blunt’s plan to use money from the state’s student loan agency to fund university building projects. The plan now awaits House approval.
+ The controversial $350 million plan includes new limits on tuition increases, enhanced oversight, and a new scholarship program. Democrats are widely opposed to the plan to sell the assets of the Missouri Higher Education Loan Authority, which has already set aside $212 million — generated partly by selling loans held by non-Missourians — toward its initial payment of $230 million by Sept. 15.
+ MOHELA staff believe the agency can sell existing loans, provide the state money, buy new loans, and still maintain low interest rates and loan-forgiveness programs. But critics think the sudden depletion of fund will leave MOHELA incapable of competing with deals offered by competitors. Blunt has been pushing the plan since January 2006.
+ From Inside Higher Ed: The Higher Education Authority of Missouri, known as Mohela, announced last week that it was forgiving $500 in the students loan debts of each of more than 9,300 freshmen in the state who are Pell Grant recipients.
+ Minor controversy about Coke sponsoring part of the Secretary of Education’s Commission on the Future of Higher Education, according to Inside Higher Ed.
+ From NASFAA: The chairmen of the Senate and House education committees continued their investigations into lender practices and U.S. Department of Education officials on Thursday.
+ Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-MA), chairman of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee accused Nelnet and Sallie Mae of possibly breaking federal law because they may have used “harsh and inappropriate tactics” to collect student loans from borrowers. Kennedy sent letters to the loan companies requesting documents regarding borrowers whose federal loans have entered collection or become delinquent.
+ Kennedy’s aides said they believed Sallie Mae may have tried to collect debts that were not owed, fired employees who attempted to help borrowers and intentionally sent loan bills to incorrect addresses to get borrowers to default, according to the Washington Post. In addition, Kennedy accused the lender of possibly threatening jail time for borrowers that did not pay, and possibly using abusive language and harassing borrowers’ families and friends.
+ If you have a dispute with any federal student loan lender, contact the FSA Ombudsman office.
+ U.S. Department of Education
FSA Ombudsman
830 First Street, NE
Fourth Floor
Washington, DC 20202-5144
Phone: 1-877-557-2575
Fax: 202-275-0549
Online: http://www.ombudsman.ed.gov/about/contactus.html

Scholarship Update
+ Scholarship search secret today
+ Search term: “savings bond” scholarship deadline
+ For parents of younger children than college age
+ Start finding bond contests and scholarships
+ When a bond matures, roll it over into a 529 to escape the FAFSA consequences

Focus on Financial Aid
+ FFELP versus Direct Lending
+ What are the two programs?
+ Detailed history from StudentLoanFacts.org
+ Disclosure: this is a lobbying association for FFEL lenders
+ Which program is better?
+ Senator Kennedy says Direct Loans are better because they cost the government less money
+ FFEL lenders say FFEL Loans are better because they provide better benefits to the borrower
+ Example: if you take out a Stafford loan from the Department of Education, there’s a 1% origination fee, so you don’t get the full amount of the loan
+ More often than not, FFEL lenders will waive the fee
+ Get a Stafford federal student loan from StaffordLoan.com
+ Example: direct loan consolidation with the government gets you 0.25% off your rate for automatic checking
+ FFEL consolidation with StudentLoanConsolidator.com gets you 0.25% off your rate for automatic checking, plus 1% off after the first 36 on time payments
+ On $30,000 in student loans, Direct saves you $1,633 over the life of the loan
+ We’ll save you $6,076 over the life of the loan

Podsafe Music
+ Chloe Leigh, My Everything
+ Music via the Podsafe Music Network

Reminders
+ Private student loans available at any time - visit AlternativeStudentLoan.com
+ Stafford federal student loans at StaffordLoan.com
+ Student loan consolidation at StudentLoanConsolidator.com
+ FAFSA form tutorials and free help at FAFSAonline.com
+ Financial Aid Podcast Show Notes at FinancialAidPodcast.com.
+ The Financial Aid Podcast is a publication of the Student Loan Network.

Questions? Comments? Suggestions? Email me at financialaidpodcast {at} gmail {dot} com, visit http://www.FinancialAidPodcast.com, or call 206-350-1208. AIM: FinAidPodcast Add me to your iTunes by visiting http://www.FinancialAidPodcast.com/itunes/

Direct MP3 file download: MP3 file

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FAP521: Free stuff Friday, Cuomo blames Dept. of Education, AAU code of conduct, Rayko KRB

Student Financial Aid News
+ From Inside Higher Ed: The Association of American Universities on Thursday issued a “statement of principles” on student loans, designed to respond to the growing scandal over allegations that some institutions encourage borrowing from lenders that provide certain payments to colleges or aid officials. The principles state that the “first priority” of institutions must be “the best interests of student borrowers.” Specifically, the guidelines state that colleges should be sure that their arrangements with lenders do not raise questions about the integrity of their decisions, that students not be penalized for borrowing from a lender not recommended by the college, and that institutions disclose the criteria used to select recommended lenders.
+ Congressional Democrats continued to turn the heat up on the U.S. Education Department over its student loan oversight Thursday, as Rep. George Miller (D-Calif.) asked the department’s inspector general to undertake an independent investigation into possible conflicts of interest involving department officials with responsibility for the loan programs. Miller’s request came a day after his counterpart as head of the Senate’s education committee, Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.), asked Secretary Margaret Spellings for “complete personnel files, including financial disclosure forms,” for 27 department employees. Kennedy said his request was prompted by concerns about a department official’s ownership of stock in a student loan company.
+ Also from Inside Higher Ed: Johns Hopkins University also agreed Wednesday to adopt the code of conduct, and said it would end all of its preferred lender lists, in response to its continuing investigation into monetary benefits its financial aid chief received from lenders.
+ NYSAG Andrew Cuomo testified before Congress on Wednesday and laid most of the blame for the current situation on the Department of Education. “The U.S. Department of Education has been asleep at the switch,” the NY Attorney General said. “The practices we have uncovered were not undiscoverable until now. Rather, the entity charged with maintaining the integrity of the student loan market failed. The failure of the Department to pass adequate regulations is disappointing and irresponsible.”

Scholarship Update
+ Fleet Reserve Association Americanism Essay Content
+ The FRA National Committee on Americanism-Patriotism sponsors an annual Americanism Essay Contest, based on a theme announced each Spring. The contest includes a Grand National Prize of a $15,000 U.S. Savings Bond, with $5,000, $3,000 and $2,000 Savings Bonds awarded to the first, second and third place winners in each grade category. All regional winners are judged at the national level and receive a certificate of recognition. Other prizes are awarded at the branch and regional levels.
+ FRA’s Essay Contest is open to all students grades 7 through 12 (including those who are home schooled). Each entrant must be sponsored by an FRA member in good standing or by a currently chartered branch or unit.
+ Entries sponsored by branch or unit members must be submitted to their respective Branch Americanism Chairman by 1st December.
+ Details at our free college scholarship search site

Free Stuff Friday
+ Fernando submits Half.com - one of the dotcom bubble 1.0 places
+ Bit of trivia: the town of Halfway, Oregon
+ NOT free but worth mentioning, the For Today memorial CD. Collegiate a cappella groups across Virginia are creating a 2 disc set for $20. All proceeds go to the memorial funds.
+ Mozy backup software
+ Typetester
+ Burn expense tracker
+ Bankrate tutorial on how to beat a speeding ticket
+ More free audiobooks from Simply Audiobooks
+ Earn some spending money with DoMyStuff

Promo
+ Private student loans from Act Education Loans

Podsafe Music
+ Got my free Rayko KRB promo CD in the mail!
+ Rayko KRB, Simple Love Song
+ Music via the Podsafe Music Network

Reminders
+ Private student loans available at any time - visit AlternativeStudentLoan.com
+ Stafford federal student loans at StaffordLoan.com
+ Student loan consolidation at StudentLoanConsolidator.com
+ FAFSA form tutorials and free help at FAFSAonline.com
+ Financial Aid Podcast Show Notes at FinancialAidPodcast.com.
+ The Financial Aid Podcast is a publication of the Student Loan Network.

Questions? Comments? Suggestions? Email me at financialaidpodcast {at} gmail {dot} com, visit http://www.FinancialAidPodcast.com, or call 206-350-1208. AIM: FinAidPodcast Add me to your iTunes by visiting http://www.FinancialAidPodcast.com/itunes/

Direct MP3 file download: MP3 file

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FAP520: Presentation from the PESC 4th annual Technology and Standards Conference in Washington, DC

+ Slides
+ Matthew Ebel’s music

Reminders
+ Private student loans available at any time - visit AlternativeStudentLoan.com
+ Stafford federal student loans at StaffordLoan.com
+ Student loan consolidation at StudentLoanConsolidator.com
+ FAFSA form tutorials and free help at FAFSAonline.com
+ Financial Aid Podcast Show Notes at FinancialAidPodcast.com.
+ The Financial Aid Podcast is a publication of the Student Loan Network.

Questions? Comments? Suggestions? Email me at financialaidpodcast {at} gmail {dot} com, visit http://www.FinancialAidPodcast.com, or call 206-350-1208. AIM: FinAidPodcast Add me to your iTunes by visiting http://www.FinancialAidPodcast.com/itunes/

Direct MP3 file download: MP3 file

Technorati Tags: financial aid financialaidpodcast

FAP519: Conference in review, NASFAA code of conduct, Boston scholarship, Sheila Swift

Student Financial Aid News
+ From NASFAA: In light of the recent attention that has been given to the relationship between postsecondary institutions and student loan providers, NASFAA’s Board of Directors spent considerable time at its April 21 - 23 meeting deliberating over the actions that it should take to address these matters. As an outcome, the Board approved a resolution announcing a plan of action to develop its own code of conduct within the next few weeks that will provide its members and their institutions explicit guidance in carrying out the expectations of the NASFAA Statement of Ethical Principles.
+ Comment from Inside Higher Ed: The aid community and students are not served by these half-measures. The ground is shifting beneath our feet, and NASFAA, like it or not, is our only real shot at explaining to the folks that control the pursestrings what the real story is in financial aid.
+ I seriously doubt that NASFAA will do anything except enter damage control mode to protect its own, after throwing a few bodies to the wolves. Unfortunately, this means we’ll have to live with the legislative consequences.
+ We should be explaining (now, while we have the public’s attention) how to make college more affordable to more students. Instead, we are distracted by the media themes of bad schools doing bad deals with bad lenders. (We better address this too, but’s it’s just a sideshow to the serious structural problems with the program.)
+ The INEVITABLE changes in the status quo will be informed by our contributions as aid professionals. Either we give an honest appraisal of the problems, so our lawmakers can address them more effectively, or we fume about no one understanding this complicated business, try to protect our own bits of turf, and let the lawmakers change the law without our input.
+ Also from NASFAA: Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-MA), Chairman of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee, sent a letter to higher education institution presidents across the country urging them to establish guidelines for their institution’s relationships with lenders.
+ The letter highlights some of the practices that concern Kennedy, including college officials serving on lender boards and advisory boards, lender stock ownership by college officials, gifts from lenders to college officials, lender staff assisting schools with loan application processing, and college names and emblems placed on lender loan products.
+ Kennedy encourages institutions to avoid conflicts of interest with student loan lenders and provides schools with guidance for avoiding conflicts of interest.

Scholarship Update
+ Heading back to Boston
+ AIGA Boston Tim Moore Scholarship
+ AIGA Boston is honored to offer a scholarship in memory of our colleague, Tim Moore.
+ Be a junior or senior in an accredited graphic arts program in New England, applying for a semester of study abroad.
+ An official scholarship application. (Downloadable from the Printing and Publishing Council website, http://www.ppcne.org/scholarships_Moore.html).
+ Willing to keep a sketchbook of your adventure abroad that will be submitted to the Board of Directors of AIGA Boston to be used at a future date as a possible fundraising tool.
+ Submit current transcripts, current registration forms from your school along with acceptance documents of your program abroad.
+ All applications must be submitted no later than April 30, 2007.
+ $2,500 individual awards
+ $100,000 total
+ Details at our free college scholarship search site

PESC Conference in Review
+ Lots of new potentially great technologies coming out
+ The METEOR system caught my eye as a way for students to be able to view all their loans, federal and private, in one place
+ The real danger with any of these legislative efforts is unintended consequences. Make federal student loan consolidation difficult and borrowers may turn to private student loan consolidation, which may not be as advantageous. Make marketing to financial aid professionals difficult, and lenders may pull out all the stops to market directly to borrowers, using tactics that make today’s aggressive marketing seem tame.

Podsafe Music
+ Sheila Swift, Something Borrowed
+ Music via the Podsafe Music Network

Reminders
+ Private student loans available at any time - visit AlternativeStudentLoan.com
+ Stafford federal student loans at StaffordLoan.com
+ Student loan consolidation at StudentLoanConsolidator.com
+ FAFSA form tutorials and free help at FAFSAonline.com
+ Financial Aid Podcast Show Notes at FinancialAidPodcast.com.
+ The Financial Aid Podcast is a publication of the Student Loan Network.

Questions? Comments? Suggestions? Email me at financialaidpodcast {at} gmail {dot} com, visit http://www.FinancialAidPodcast.com, or call 206-350-1208. AIM: FinAidPodcast Add me to your iTunes by visiting http://www.FinancialAidPodcast.com/itunes/

Direct MP3 file download: MP3 file

Technorati Tags: financial aid financialaidpodcast

FAP518: State attorneys general banding together, live report from PESC, DC scholarship, Matthew Ebel

Student Financial Aid News
+ From BankNet 360: Duquesne University will no longer accept commissions from private student lenders; the result of a probe conducted by New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo.
+ Duquesne got $16,000 from San Francisco-based Education Finance Partners, $10,000 from PNC Financial Group Inc. [ticker: PNC], and $2,500 from Citizens Bank, all of which, the school says went toward student aid.
+ From Inside Higher Ed: In recent days, the top legal officers in states like South Carolina, Mississippi and, to a lesser extent, Nebraska, have put themselves at odds with the New York attorney general’s aggressive and increasingly expansive campaign to “change the behavior of the industry” on behalf, he says, of student borrowers and their families.
+ On Monday, though, the attorneys general in Illinois and Missouri explicitly locked arms with Cuomo. They signed settlement agreements with colleges and universities in their states at which Cuomo had taken aim and vowed that they were just beginning their own efforts to help “the students and parents of our states” by reforming “an industry that as we have learned over recent months needs reforming,” as Lisa Madigan, the attorney general of Illinois, said during a telephone news conference with Cuomo and Jay Nixon, her counterpart in Missouri.
+ As the House of Representatives Committee on Education and Labor prepares for a hearing tomorrow on the student loan issues at which Cuomo will be (as of this writing) the only witness, the panel’s top Republican, Rep. Howard P. (Buck) McKeon (R-Calif.) released details about legislation he plans to introduce to confront perceived student loan abuses at the federal level.
+ McKeon’s “Financial Aid Accountability & Transparency Act” would put in place at the national level some of the changes that Cuomo’s code of conduct aims to institute state by state and institution by institution. It would, for example, bar colleges and lenders from striking agreements in which lenders give colleges a cut of their loan volume, and require institutions to adopt a code of conduct that bars financial aid officers from receiving “gifts, payments or other financial benefits” from lenders and from receiving “any fees, payments or financial benefits” as compensation for serving on lenders’ advisory councils.
+ The McKeon legislation would also require colleges to disclose how they have selected the student loan providers that appear on their lists of preferred lenders, and insist that all such lists contain “at least three non-affiliated lenders,” which is what the U.S. Education Department had recommended in proposed regulatory language that its officials offered as part of a negotiated rule making process that collapsed Friday, among other reasons, amid opposition from colleges to that provision.
+ From NASFAA: “Recent investigations have largely focused on incentives lenders give universities to get coveted placement on the preferred lending lists students use to take out loans when they enter college. But colleges also give lenders crucial access to students when they are graduating, using lenders to conduct exit counseling required under federal law for students who have taken out federally guaranteed student loans,” reports The New York Times. “In some cases, loan company representatives come on campus and run sessions for seniors on loan repayment. In others, colleges direct students to loan company Web sites, including Wells Fargo, Citibank and Sallie Mae. And in many cases, the loan companies are pushing a product: their consolidation loans.”
+ Check yesterday’s episode for how to compare student loan consolidation options

Scholarship Update
+ The U-M Alumni Club of Washington, DC offers a $25,000 ($6,250 per year) scholarship to promising High School Seniors from the greater Washington, D.C. metropolitan area who will be attending the University of Michigan.
+ The scholarship is renewable for four years.
+ Deadline in March of each year
+ Details at our free college scholarship search site

Focus on Financial Aid
+ Report from PESC
+ Met some very nice, very knowledgeable folks
+ Not sure if I should name names or not!
+ A lot of anxiety about politics
+ Zero tolerance on inducements and conflicts of interest - even down to the level of not showing up at a free reception
+ Again, as I’ve said for some time, the folks I’m meeting with are honest, ethical people - we’ve had a number of discussions about conflicts of interest
+ Attendance of the conference is down about 40% - again, avoiding conflict of interest since the conference has sponsorships by lenders
+ What will happen to future financial aid conferences? Maybe there’s a future for FinancialAidCamp after all, since unconferences are one of the lowest cost methods of having a conference
+ As federal student loan lending gets harder and more restrictive, the consensus is that private student loans and private student loan consolidation will become dominant, since they’re not subject to state or federal oversight
+ Has the potential to be a bad thing
+ The basic process for financial aid - scholarships and grants, federal student loans, private student loans, in that order

Podsafe Music
+ Matthew Ebel, Every Color
+ Music via the Podsafe Music Network

Reminders
+ Private student loans available at any time - visit AlternativeStudentLoan.com
+ Stafford federal student loans at StaffordLoan.com
+ Student loan consolidation at StudentLoanConsolidator.com
+ FAFSA form tutorials and free help at FAFSAonline.com
+ Financial Aid Podcast Show Notes at FinancialAidPodcast.com.
+ The Financial Aid Podcast is a publication of the Student Loan Network.

Questions? Comments? Suggestions? Email me at financialaidpodcast {at} gmail {dot} com, visit http://www.FinancialAidPodcast.com, or call 206-350-1208. AIM: FinAidPodcast Add me to your iTunes by visiting http://www.FinancialAidPodcast.com/itunes/

Direct MP3 file download: MP3 file

Technorati Tags: financial aid financialaidpodcast

FAP517: How to compare student loans, more loan scandal stuff, 11 user submitted scholarships, Rayko KRB

Student Financial Aid News
+ From Inside Higher Ed: On Friday, Nebraska’s attorney general, Jon Bruning, announced that he had reached an agreement in which a lender in his own backyard, the National Education Loan Network, “self-reported” that it had made what Bruning called “very minor” mistakes in its student loan practices — paying $4,800 to one university (identified elsewhere as Western Illinois University) in a revenue sharing agreement, and to giving a plane ticket for a financial aid officer to attend a conference in New York.
+ Do you have a good experience with your school’s financial aid office? Please call into the show and share it! 206-350-1208
+ Friday also marked the third and final day of the fourth and final session of a federal rule making process chartered by the Education Department and aimed at developing new rules to govern the federal loan programs. The department had proposed tougher rules to govern the relationships between colleges and lenders, and while those rules may have seemed tough several months ago — and are much tougher than current federal rules — they process appeared to have been overtaken to some extent by “events outside the room,” as one department official put it Friday.
+ So despite what several members of the negotiating panel (which included lenders, financial aid administrators, consumer advocates and federal officials) described as “good faith efforts” and a “cooperative spirit,” the Education Department shut down the process Friday after concluding that it would be impossible for the committee to reach consensus on the entire package of proposals.
+ Several members of the panel expressed disappointment, believing that they were close to agreement on a proposal that would have required colleges’ lists of preferred lenders to contain at least three lenders, among other possible recommendations. Some of them said they believed the negotiators had (and missed) an opportunity to show that they were willing to impose restrictions on themselves.
+ Said one: “I’m really disappointed that we couldn’t come to agreement, particularly on [preferred lender lists] and illegal inducements [for college officials and institutions from lenders]. I think it does not speak well of the [higher education] community’s ability to police itself.”
+ Under federal guidelines, because the negotiating panel failed to reach consensus on the proposals, the Education Department is free to propose whatever changes in rules it wishes in the coming weeks and months.
+ What does this mean for you? It means federal guidelines for student loan programs may change in the months to come, but largely on the side of the financial aid office
+ You as a student will not see much of an impact, though we may see the abolition of the preferred lender list, such as has been done at UT Austin.
+ Ultimately, elimination of the preferred lender list is good, but has potential drawbacks - you’ll need to learn how to compare loans

Scholarship Update
+ 11 awards submitted by Zinch.com
+ Sign up for their free admissions counseling service
+ Not sure what the revenue model is, but it’s personalize profiles for colleges
+ Top award $25,000
+ May 25 deadlines for all awards
+ Details at our free college scholarship search site

Focus on Financial Aid
+ How to compare student loans
+ A student loan is a lot like an apartment rental
+ Instead of renting space, you’re renting money
+ Is the lowest rent always the best? No. But lower rent is better than higher rent.
+ Does the loan come with amenities? Some apartments have fitness centers, concierges, etc. and if you need those things, then be prepared to pay for them
+ Specific popular benefits: cash back, interest rate reduction, fast loan processing
+ Private student loans fund faster than federal but have “higher rent”
+ Stafford federal student loans at StaffordLoan.com
+ Parent PLUS loans at ParentPLUSLoan.com
+ Be aware that the benefits you choose may not last all that long if you consolidate loans after graduation
+ Choose consolidation benefits carefully - make sure benefits travel with your loan
+ Generally speaking, cash back up front saves you LESS than interest rate reductions
+ Check what loan amounts are required for discounts to apply
+ As always, if you have questions about your specific situation, give us a call toll-free (877) 328-1565.

Podsafe Music
+ Rayko KRB, Charp
+ From Binary Star Music
+ Music via the Podsafe Music Network

Reminders
+ Private student loans available at any time - visit AlternativeStudentLoan.com
+ Stafford federal student loans at StaffordLoan.com
+ Student loan consolidation at StudentLoanConsolidator.com
+ FAFSA form tutorials and free help at FAFSAonline.com
+ Financial Aid Podcast Show Notes at FinancialAidPodcast.com.
+ The Financial Aid Podcast is a publication of the Student Loan Network.

Questions? Comments? Suggestions? Email me at financialaidpodcast {at} gmail {dot} com, visit http://www.FinancialAidPodcast.com, or call 206-350-1208. AIM: FinAidPodcast Add me to your iTunes by visiting http://www.FinancialAidPodcast.com/itunes/

Direct MP3 file download: MP3 file

Technorati Tags: financial aid financialaidpodcast

I’ve arrived safely in Washington, DC and am starting to venture out around the hotel. The PESC Conference will be held tomorrow through Wednesday - if you’re attending the conference (or even if you’re not) and you’d like to hang out or grab a cup of coffee, get in touch! FinancialAidPodcast at gmail dot com or 206-350-1208.

FAP516: Free stuff Friday, PESC conference, NSLDS, student loan consolidation, mail bag, Rayko KRB

Student Financial Aid News
+ Monday - Wednesday I’ll be in Washington, DC for the PESC 4th annual Technology and Standards Conference
+ We should have a PodCamp Nano or something while I’m there
+ Staying at the Wyndham Washington
+ Got questions for other financial aid pros? Send them in - check out my Twitter page, too
+ Virginia Tech on Thursday announced how it would respond to academic issues raised by Monday’s tragedy. The students who were killed will be posthumously awarded the degrees they were seeking.
+ Arizona Attorney General Terry Goddard is investigating two student lenders’ ties with local universities and community colleges, his office said Tuesday.
+ Goddard will investigate whether Arizona schools were offered or had accepted cash and other perks from the student lenders — whose names were not released — in exchange for business.
+ From Inside Higher Ed: It was only a matter of time: New York’s attorney general plans to sue a college for the first time in his expanding student loan investigation. And his target — Drexel University — accused the state official of unfair tactics and vowed to fight back.
+ Andrew M. Cuomo announced Thursday that his office would sue Drexel University over its revenue sharing agreement with Education Finance Partners, which has earned the university about $250,000 since 2005, according to the “notice of proposed litigation” that Cuomo released. Under the terms of Drexel’s agreements with the lender, Cuomo charges, Education Finance agreed to pay Drexel between 0.75 and 1 percent of the net value of private (non-federal) loans originated by the company, and the Philadelphia university agreed to promote Education Finance to its students as a preferred loan provider.
+ Late Thursday night, Drexel’s president, Constantine Papadakis, released a strongly worded statement that both defended the university’s practices and accused Cuomo of underhanded tactics. University officials, Papadakis said, have “carefully reviewed our practices” and satisfied themselves that “there is no conflict of interest or untoward behavior on the part of Drexel University,” adding: “Drexel will vigorously defend its position in this matter and will fully respond to any lawsuit in due course. We believe the allegations are without foundation in law or in fact.”
+ Day 3 of the NSLDS shutdown: many students reporting that they can’t get consolidation loans. You can get a student loan consolidation, at least from us. (877) 328-1565 or www.StudentLoanConsolidator.com
+ To fellow lenders - please tell students the truth - NSLDS is down because the government is investigating ALL lenders for misuse of the database
+ It takes a little more legwork to get a consolidation done, but it’s still very much available
+ Check out our free guide to getting your loan data - the student loan locator

Scholarship Update
+ 2 user submitted scholarships today
+ $10,000 College Toolkit Essay Contest
+ Apogee Search Scholarship Program Essay Contest
+ Details at our free college scholarship search site
+ Submit awards you’ve found too!

Free Stuff Friday
+ Bankrate FICO score estimator
+ Lifehacker Top 10 Computer Recovery Tools
+ Google free 411 voice search
+ For Macs: Cronnix
+ App Update
+ More Amazon dealfinders: EnjoyDeals.com
+ GMap pedometer

Mailbag
+ Alesia writes in: Yes i think that colleges them selfs are to blame for the mess that industry is in. Number one reason I think this is because i am an out of state student I go to colorado state university. CSU has just decided to raise out of state tution to 30 thousand a year. WHAT THIS IS CRAZY! Want to know why i think this is crazy? This last monday CSU put on a FREE concert from COMMON, who they spend 90 thousand dollars to get him to come to CSU for a FREE concert. So they are rasing out of state tutition to pay for junk like a rapper who thinks he is god. Free anything is always good but not when the equipment inside the classrooms are always broken. When you have college students using overheads because they are more reliable over powerpoint presentations because none of the projectors ever work. Thats a problem that out money should be going to. Not a $90,000 free concert.
+ Bryan Person from New Comm Road calls in about NSLDS
+ There are some unconfirmed reports of abuses on the school side - people selling/trading IDs
+ Also unconfirmed reports of fired employees at lender companies selling their IDs as well

Podsafe Music
+ Here’s a rapper who doesn’t think he’s god
+ Rayko KRB, Rockstar Poor
+ From Binary Star Music
+ Music via the Podsafe Music Network

Reminders
+ Private student loans available at any time - visit AlternativeStudentLoan.com
+ Stafford federal student loans at StaffordLoan.com
+ Student loan consolidation at StudentLoanConsolidator.com
+ FAFSA form tutorials and free help at FAFSAonline.com
+ Financial Aid Podcast Show Notes at FinancialAidPodcast.com.
+ The Financial Aid Podcast is a publication of the Student Loan Network.

Questions? Comments? Suggestions? Email me at financialaidpodcast {at} gmail {dot} com, visit http://www.FinancialAidPodcast.com, or call 206-350-1208. AIM: FinAidPodcast Add me to your iTunes by visiting http://www.FinancialAidPodcast.com/itunes/

Direct MP3 file download: MP3 file

Technorati Tags: financial aid financialaidpodcast

FAP515: Basic tips for saving money, student loan politics, full tuition scholarship at Wake Forest, Red Molly

Student Financial Aid News
+ From Reuters via CNN: The Democratic chairman of the U.S. House Education Committee Wednesday urged the Bush administration to quickly adopt emergency reforms to eliminate bribes and cronyism in the embattled student loan industry.
+ Amid a widening conflict-of-interest scandal in the $85-billion business, California Rep. George Miller told reporters that the U.S. Department of Education “has failed to conduct adequate oversight of the student loan industry.”
+ Miller called on Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings to “clearly define and end bribes paid by lenders” to colleges and universities and for a moratorium on “preferred lender lists,” which are at the heart of multiple investigations.
+ “The secretary must immediately require colleges and universities to end the practice of establishing special relationships with lenders — which they do by creating ‘preferred lender’ lists — until we can ensure that these lists no longer feed corruption and cronyism,” he said.
+ In a related story, the Education Department also is working to address the relationship between lenders and student aid offices. One idea could require schools to have at least three lenders on any preferred lender list.
+ Sallie Mae would opposes that step, company spokesman Tom Joyce said. “We think those decisions should be made at the school level, not by bureaucrats in Washington,” Joyce said. Lenders, he added, sometimes give students lower rates when loan volume is high at their schools.
+ A related report in the Northwestern about only one lender on UW’s preferred lender list - paid placement
+ Choice and transparency at issue
+ Stafford federal student loans at StaffordLoan.com
+ Parent loans at ParentPLUSLoan.com
+ An interesting comment on InsideHigherEd.com - lenders are only enabling the issue, which is the ever increasing cost of college. Colleges are creating the lucrative lending market.

Scholarship Update
+ Wake Forest University Nancy Susan Reynolds Scholars must be not only excellent students and promising scholars, but also creative leaders who are able to influence others in directions likely to benefit society. They will have achieved unusual distinction in the classroom and beyond. Successful applicants have pursued the most challenging curriculum available to them and have achieved grade point averages and SAT scores that place them in the top few percentage points in comparison to their peers (often in the top 1 percent of their class, with SAT-1 scores above 1500). Further, Reynolds Scholars have typically been leaders in a variety of extracurricular pursuits and won recognition for their interests at the regional, state, or national level.
+ Full tuition scholarship plus $3,000 expenses
+ $50,000 per award, approximately, 6 awards
+ Deadline Dec. 1 of each year
+ Details at our free college scholarship search site

Financial Hacks
+ Tips for saving money
+ Find a place to put it that’s accessible but not convenient
+ Accounts like ING Direct savings take a few days to transfer money
+ Decent interest rates, and no instant transfer
+ Pay physical cash, and store loose change
+ Avoid those bloody Coinstar machines - 9% fee
+ Sweep loose money into your savings
+ You can transfer pennies, literally - commit to sweeping digital loose change
+ Automate savings as much as possible
+ Stop buying things you don’t need
+ Learn how marketing, point of sale, and impulse buying tricks work

Podsafe Music
+ Red Molly, Ohio
+ Music via the Podsafe Music Network

Reminders
+ Private student loans available at any time - visit AlternativeStudentLoan.com
+ Stafford federal student loans at StaffordLoan.com
+ Student loan consolidation at StudentLoanConsolidator.com
+ FAFSA form tutorials and free help at FAFSAonline.com
+ Financial Aid Podcast Show Notes at FinancialAidPodcast.com.
+ The Financial Aid Podcast is a publication of the Student Loan Network.

Questions? Comments? Suggestions? Email me at financialaidpodcast {at} gmail {dot} com, visit http://www.FinancialAidPodcast.com, or call 206-350-1208. AIM: FinAidPodcast Add me to your iTunes by visiting http://www.FinancialAidPodcast.com/itunes/

Direct MP3 file download: MP3 file

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The Student Loan Network has published a very short 5-page guide for getting information about your federal student loans from the National Student Loan Data System, or NSLDS. This guide will help you when you’re trying to consolidate your student loans, or just to learn more about them for financial planning services.

• View the guide as a web page!
• Print out the guide from a PDF!