FAP656: Did Craiglist get someone killed? PodCamp Boston, Matthew Ebel
Student Financial Aid News
+ Daniel Johnson Jr. submits this from College Recruiter: Front page news in the Minneapolis newspapers over the past couple of days has been the killing of Katherine Ann Olson. While any murder is tragic, this one is noteworthy to employers and job seekers alike because it appears to be related to the victim’s use of Craiglist to find a nanny position.
+ Candidates who apply for positions with Craigslist, CollegeRecruiter.com, or any other job board should never, ever agree to meet potential employers in isolated areas like a park. Instead, always meet strangers in high traffic, public places such as coffee shops or food courts in shopping malls. It is unclear at this point whether Ms. Olson’s murderer was the same person who posted the ad and therefore used the ad to lure an unsuspecting victim to an isolated area but the lesson here is clear: be cautious. Take a friend with you. Meet in a public place. Don’t trust those who have not yet earned your trust.
+ Banknet 360: The news in the mortgage sector just keeps getting worse – bigger writedowns, more layoffs, and worsening home sales. The latest forecast: Lenders and investors are in for $400 billion of losses, including two million foreclosures by yearend 2008, according to a report slated for release today by the Joint Economic Committee of Congress.
+ If that number bears out, it will propel the bloodbath from the fast-and-loose mortgage underwriting of the last few years to new heights. The loss in total real estate wealth is expected to range from $2 trillion to $4 trillion, depending on how far home prices fall.
+ Using home equity? Consider a Parent PLUS Loan to pay for college instead
+ Daily Free Press: Students may lose out on new opportunities for financial assistance if the colleges they attend do not make enough of an effort to stop illegal filesharing.
+ If the U.S. House of Representatives’ proposed College Access and Opportunity bill, released Oct. 4, passes, colleges and students will see increased financial aid and lower costs - but not if the schools do not comply with a stipulation in the bill that requires many to prove they are stepping up efforts to curb illegal downloading.
+ According to the bill, universities must provide students with information about the legal ramifications of distributing or downloading copyrighted material over the institutions’ information technology systems without permission.
+ If schools fail to adequately inform students, they will forfeit eligibility for benefits provided by the bill
+ Thanks to intense lobbying efforts by the Recording Industry Association of America
+ The answer is obvious: legally buy and support only independent, non-RIAA artists, and cut these buggers out of the profit loop.
Scholarship Update
+ Each year, the Ennes Educational Foundation Trust offers up to three scholarships to deserving candidates who aspire to a career in the technical aspects of broadcasting. Scholarship awards are used for tuition, room and board or textbook costs at post-secondary educational institutions, or for other technical training programs approved by the Scholarship Committee. Preference will be given to applicants who are members of SBE; however, any individual otherwise eligible is encouraged to apply.
+ $3,000 award
+ Deadline July 1 of each year
+ Details at our free college scholarship search site
Opinion
+ Thoughts from the weekend marathon that was PodCamp Boston
+ We need a conference like this for the financial aid world - students, parents, and professionals - that goes beyond College Goal Sunday
+ The ability to put lots of smart people in a room and let them jam could do great things for any industry
+ What forms could it take? How would it change people’s abilities to pay for college?
PodCamp Boston 2 is over, and I find myself more optimistic, more energized about the potential of new media than ever before, despite being physically exhausted. I’m proud of what our organizer team pulled together, and deeply grateful to all the volunteers who stepped up and helped out with registration, filled empty sessions, and made the experience a seamless one for the many new PodCampers.
I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention our sponsors, headlined by the exceptionally generous Jeff Pulver and pulvermedia teams whose efforts made PodCamp Boston 2 an amazing and well run experience.
New media really is at the beginning of the roller coaster, despite all the progress that has been made in the last couple of years. It’s like 1994 on the Web still, and that means great opportunities, as well as a few stumbles along the way.
Ironically, I was so busy running around doing stuff that for a new media conference, I have relatively little media I created. Like a wedding, I’ll have to relive this through other people’s media.
FAP654: Affirmative action, Free Stuff Thursday, Metrology, Danielle French
Student Financial Aid News
+ Inside Higher Ed: The U.S. Senate fell short Wednesday of the 60 votes needed to proceed to a vote on the Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors (DREAM) Act, which would offer a pathway to permanent residency for students in the country without documentation who complete two years of college or military service. In a statement on the floor following the 52-44 vote, the bill’s sponsor, Sen. Richard J. Durbin (D.-Ill.), pledged his commitment to continue pushing the bill — derided by many as an amnesty act — although he conceded, “I don’t know when the next chance will be.”
+ Inside HIgher Ed: Proposal 2, the Michigan Civil Rights Initiative, passed by voter referendum last November and prohibits “state and local government from discriminating against or granting preferential treatment to any individual or group based on race, sex, color, ethnicity or national origin in the areas of public employment, public contracting and public education.” In the views of administrators, who have fought the initiative at every turn, the law leaves the university’s hands tied both at the admissions stage and in the financial aid office, where scholarships can no longer be directed specifically to members of underrepresented groups.
+ But that doesn’t preclude outside, private organizations from stepping in. The Alumni Association of the University of Michigan — a private, nonprofit group that is legally separate from the university system — last week announced its plans to begin offering scholarships next fall that would consider race and gender in its selection process. The association sees the program as a way to bolster the campus’s minority recruitment efforts despite the legal restrictions imposed on the university itself.
+ NASFAA: “Sallie Mae and the investor group seeking to terminate its $25 billion buyout of the big student lender failed to reach agreement by a judge’s deadline Tuesday on dropping conditions of the deal that prevent the company from talking to other potential suitors,” reports the Associated Press. “The investor group, led by private-equity firm J.C. Flowers & Co., told a judge that it was conveying to Sallie Mae in writing the group’s waiver of ‘any and all of their rights under the merger agreement … that would in any way inhibit Sallie Mae from conducting its business or pursuing its strategic alternatives.’ It wasn’t clear what the stumbling blocks were to reaching an accord. Spokesmen for Sallie Mae didn’t immediately return a telephone call seeking comment.”
+ Concerned about your student loans? Consider student loan consolidation at StudentLoanConsolidator.com or 877-328-1565
Scholarship Update
+ Joe D. Simmons Scholarship
+ The Scholarship will be seeking candidates for an award of $3,000 to support the study of metrology and/or of measurements-based quality technology during the 2008-2009 school year. Application forms will be available November 1, 2007. The award - to be administered by the school of the recipient - can be used to cover tuition, fees, books, and incidental academic expenses for the winning scholar.
+ Application period opens on November 1
+ Details at our free college scholarship search site
FAP653: College tuition hikes again, conferences, Matthew Ebel
Student Financial Aid News
+ Chronicle: Financial aid to college students has increased by 82 percent over the past decade but still falls short of covering the average price of a college education, as the cost of attending the nation’s public universities has continued to outpace inflation, family income, and sources of grant aid, according to two new surveys from the College Board.
+ More than $130-billion in grants, federal loans, Work-Study funds, and education tax credits and deductions was distributed to undergraduate and graduate students in the 2006-7 academic year, one of the surveys found, while students borrowed an additional $18-billion from state and private lenders to pay for their education.
+ But aid from the federal government, though still a major source of financial assistance for many students, is not keeping pace with rising costs, according to a report on the survey, “Trends in Student Aid.”
+ Federally subsidized Stafford loans, in which the government pays the interest on a loan while the student is in school, accounted for less than a third of total student aid in 2006-7, down from 54 percent 10 years ago.
+ Pell Grants, which provide need-based assistance to low-income students, covered 32 percent of tuition, fees, and room and board costs at the average public four-year college, down from covering 54 percent of such costs 20 years ago.
+ And federal loans altogether made up less than half of all undergraduate aid in an increasingly complex web of financing options, the survey found.
+ Private student loans, by contrast, now represent nearly a quarter of all education loans, up from 6 percent a decade ago, the survey found.
+ While students at community colleges received 34 percent of all Pell Grant dollars in the 2005-6 academic year, they received 9 percent of all assistance from the federal campus-based aid programs, 7 percent of subsidized Stafford loans, 6 percent of unsubsidized Stafford loans, and 1 percent of all federal PLUS loans (for parents), the survey found.
+ The survey on college pricing, meanwhile, found that the average cost of a college education rose faster than the inflation rate this year, particularly at public four-year institutions. In-state tuition and fees at public four-year institutions during the 2007-8 academic year increased 6.6 percent from 2006-7, the survey found, while the price for out-of-state students rose 5.5 percent.
+ In dollar amounts, those increases meant that the average cost of tuition and fees for in-state students was $6,185, or $381 more than last year, the survey found. For out-of-state students, it was $16,640, or $862 more than the 2006-07 figure.
+ At private four-year institutions, tuition and fees increased 6.3 percent from last year, with the average cost of tuition and fees reaching $23,712, or $1,404 more than last year.
+ Public two-year institutions posted a 4.2-percent increase from last year’s amount, averaging $2,361, or $95 more than last year.
+ The increase in tuition and fees this year at the nation’s four-year public colleges was in keeping with a trend that has persisted for three decades, according to the survey. From 1977-78 to 2007-8, the rate of growth in the price at such institutions has been faster than at private institutions, and the dollar gap between the cost of tuition at the two types of institutions “widens every year even after adjusting for inflation,” the survey found.
Scholarship Update
+ The John F. And Anna Lee Stacey Scholarship Fund For Art Education
+ In accordance with the will of the late Anna Lee Stacey, a trust fund has been created for the education of young men and women who aim to make art their profession.
+ open to United States citizens only, both men and women, single or married, irrespective of race creed or color. The age limit is between 18 and 35 years. Appointments will normally be for one year and the amount available for distribution will approximate $5,000.00. At the discretion of the Committee, this may be awarded in quarterly installments to one or more applicants.
+ Application period opens November 1
+ Details at our free college scholarship search site
Jobcast
+ Reviewing how to make the most of conferences
+ Business cards are a must
+ Understand your personal brand
+ You know when, what I do
+ Watch Mitch Joel live at PodCamp Boston
+ Take a picture or make notes on cards you receive
+ Don’t categorize attendee lists in advance - okay to set goals, but also expect surprises
+ Define a goal for what you want to get out of the conference
+ Participate in online communities before the conference and create your own working group
Since the stores have no compunction about throwing up Christmas stuff even before Halloween, I figured I may as well jump in. Here are some holiday picks for gifts and things that may be interesting.
Why is this on my blog? Go listen to Friday’s episode on arbitrage - if you figure out what will be hot this holiday season and grab a couple, you may be able to make a small eBay fortune during the week of December 25.
Things that catch my eye
+ iPhone. Probably topping the gift charts of the 21-25 crowd.
+ Consoles, particularly the Wii. Still in short supply, still a hot item. Halo and XBox 360s a given as well.
+ Gift cards are supposed to be hot again this year, but faced with less disposable income, this will be interesting to see. Will consumers opt to buy gifts rather than give dollar amounts that might reveal economic distress on the home front?
+ iPod nano. Priced right, plus video.
+ Some of the more conscientious crowd will likely start sourcing toys from Europe as opposed to China, but expect Chinese-manufactured toys to remain popular with retailers due to low price points, even if toxic. Expect also at least one more major recall.
+ Unsure whether Hannah Montana will flame out or not. I’m guessing that it’ll continue to gain momentum throughout the season, so be on the lookout for toys and media around the popular Disney line.
+ Elmo and friends haven’t made much of a splash so far, but I would expect TMX Ernie and especially TMX Cookie Monster to do well. Given the two, expect Cookie Monster to do better than Ernie.
How did I pick things? I took a look at Amazon’s top sellers and hot new releases lists, then cross-referenced with Google Trends to see what search volume for any given product looked like.
What do you see as the chart toppers and dark horses for the 2007 holiday season? How do you research your bets?
FAP652: Fingerpointing, FAFSA mail bag, Cleveland, Girls Stuff
Student Financial Aid News
+ Chronicle: The board of the Pennsylvania Higher Education Assistance Agency, or Pheaa, voted on Friday to accept a list of recommendations to reduce its spending on financial-aid programs in the 2008-9 fiscal year by a projected 58 percent, to $44.4-million. Those cuts would mean a drop in the number of students receiving grants, and less money for nursing students and educators, as well as adults in job-training programs.
+ James Preston, Pheaa’s interim president, told The Patriot-News that the reductions were needed because of recently enacted cuts in federal subsidies on student loans and financial market conditions.
+ No surprises there - we’ve warned since before the College Cost Reduction Act that it would take a toll on more than just loans, and now you’re seeing the results? If you’re going to point fingers, point them squarely at a Congress that doesn’t read the legislation it passes and then acts surprised by unintended consequences
Scholarship Update
+ Cleveland Foundation Scholarships
+ Thanks to the vision and generosity of many donors, the Cleveland Foundation offers a variety of scholarships to eligible applicants. Multiple scholarships are available, with some awarding amounts up to $5,000. These scholarships have varied and diverse criteria. While most are for graduating seniors attending institutions of higher education, others enable individuals to pursue professional and personal development opportunities. Please note the following universal eligibility criteria:
+ Must be a U.S. citizen or legal resident with permanent resident card
+ Must be attending an accredited educational institution
+ Unless otherwise noted, scholarships are designated for persons residing in Cuyahoga, Lake, or Geauga counties.
+ Details at our free college scholarship search site
Mail Bag
+ Kathy writes in: My partner is in college and applying to transfer to another school to complete her BA we are trying to figure out the FAFSA system- have been looking at fafsaonline.com and of course your podcast. I am not sure this is QUITE in your domain of responsibility…but thought you might be able to help us out with your broad base of knowledge…. a question for the sfa guru that you are!
+ she needs to file her fafsa - but has not decided which college she is attending in january (we are waiting to hear how many credits the various schools would accept before deciding)— 1. can she apply for fafsa for multiple colleges? 2. does she just leave the college designation blank? OR 3. does she have to wait to apply until this decision is completed?
+ The FAFSA form allows you to start with 6 schools
+ Add additional schools after you file it
+ No need to wait - send results to as many schools as you want
+ Send in your FAFSA application as soon as possible after January 1 of each year
+ The FAFSA form drives things like the subsidized Stafford federal student loan
FAP651: A Quick Talk on the Road - Economics 101, Catriona
Economics 101
+ Understanding arbitrage
+ Unequal pricing for equal items
+ Most people do it every day - in regular parlance, it’s just called shopping around
+ Arbitrage extends to ways to make money
+ The difference in pricing is called the spread
+ If the spread is greater than the cost of reselling, then you will always make money
+ If the spread is less than the cost of reselling, then you will always lose money
+ When practicing arbitrage, the aim is for the greatest spread possible
+ Hidden things can eat into that - in investing, fees and other costs usually apply
+ If you’re saving money, you have to account for fees and other things that reduce the effective savings rate
+ Arbitrage is sometimes practiced in the form of day trading
+ Arbitrage is very often practiced in the form of currency trading
+ Arbitrage used to occur with federal student loans
+ Stafford federal student loans
+ Parent PLUS loans
+ Alternative student loans
Student Financial Aid News
+ Arizona Star: Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney said Wednesday that he would like to link college financial aid to the jobs students pursue after graduation.
+ He offered no specifics on what careers would warrant more money for a student during their undergraduate years, such as whether a future lawyer, doctor, teacher or social worker would receive more aid than a future economist or engineer.
+ “I like the idea of linking the level of support that we’re able to provide to young people going to college to the contributions they’re going to make to our society,” Romney told more than 200 people at an event at a Davenport hotel, one of three stops in the state Wednesday.
+ Louisiana Times Picayune: Financial data for hundreds of thousands of Louisiana college students and their parents, including Social Security numbers, were lost nearly a month ago, according to the state Office of Student Financial Assistance.
+ Anyone with a Louisiana College Savings Account.
+ Any Louisianian who has filled out a Free Application for Federal Student Aid, even if the information on it was go to an out-of-state school.
+ Anyone who completed such an application and asked for information from it to be sent to a Louisiana college or university.
+ Anyone who applied for or received a Tuition Opportunity Program for Students scholarship, more commonly known as TOPS, or financial aid.
+ Charlotte Observer: A UNC Charlotte student employee is accused of stealing the personal financial information of more than 140 people from the Office of Student Financial Aid, then obtaining credit cards using that information, according to the university.
+ The theft was uncovered after campus police investigated several reports of fraudulent credit-card activity, according to university officials.
+ The investigation led to the discovery that a student employee had stolen several files that contained the financial records. No electronically stored information was involved in the theft.
Scholarship Update
+ The National Housing Endowment administers scholarship programs for graduate and undergraduate students studying residential construction and related fields. The National Housing Endowment, together with individual and corporate support, is committed to improving the future of the building industry by creating educational opportunities for students across the country.
+ Deadline December 7
+ Approximate value: $55000
+ Details at our free college scholarship search site
