Expert Interview
+ Jason Alba, CEO of JibberJobber talks job hunting tactics for new college graduates
+ Alba on resumes, blogs, and how to find work even in a downturn
FAP724: Massachusetts College Goal Sunday 2008 In Review
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Massachusetts College Goal Sunday, the day when students, parents, and families can gather to receive help completing the FAFSA, has come and gone. I was proud to again be part of the Framingham site under team leaders Beth Feinberg and Iris Godes. This year, much to our surprise, we more than doubled attendance from last year to the site to 165 families, which is a tribute to the marketing that the Massachusetts College Goal Sunday committee has done throughout the state.
As I did last year, I’ve put together some reflections and thoughts about the event.
Having that many people show up for FAFSA help was fantastic. I know I was certainly busy, answering questions ranging from “How do I report my parents on the FAFSA if they’re both dead?” to “How does an early 401(k) withdrawal impact financial aid eligibility?”. The day literally flew by with questions and answers. I didn’t even get one of the free cookies.
I’d suggest for other College Goal Sunday sites, and this was confirmed by others on the team, that some way should be made to distinguish between FAFSA experts and support volunteers. At MCGS, we all wore the same color shirt, so it was assumed by many that we all had equal levels of expertise. Out of 26 volunteers at our site, 5 of us were self-designated FAFSA experts ready to answer questions in detail about complex financial situations. Perhaps for other states and for Massachusetts next year, FAFSA experts can wear armbands or something to alleviate any frustration on the part of attendees.
Second, to the folks at the Department of Education, if you read or hear this - one of the main issues with the FAFSA on the Web application is inconsistency in its user interface. At the bottom of a lot of the tables as you go through the FAFSA there are buttons. Typically, the button just below a table, centered, fulfills the role of a submit button elsewhere on the Web, but on the FAFSA, it usually does something else. The previous and next buttons aren’t big, huge, or easily noticed, and you should put up a warning sign right on the front page of the FAFSA on the Web application to NOT use the Back button at any point or your application will blow up and start spitting out errors.
At the end of the process, all the actions are crammed into one small toolbar. Instead of doing that, I think it might be worthwhile to move the “Submit your FAFSA for processing” to a completely different line, and maybe make it glowing red or something so it’s obvious to the user what the next step is.
Speaking of unclear, there were several families looking for the 2008-2009 renewal FAFSA. There isn’t one anywhere on the FAFSA site or in the initial application. Thankfully, Carla Berg of Bentley College mentioned that the FAFSA renewal option was gone. Apparently, when you go to file a FAFSA as a returning student, the application pre-populates with last year’s data, but that’s not obvious anywhere on the site. Even if it did the same thing as the new application option, putting the Renewal option in the drop down box would solve a LOT of confusion.
The school code finder in the FAFSA web site is still less than ideal, especially if a school is generally known as one thing, but the Department of Education has a different canonical name. For example, three students said they couldn’t find their school in the school code finder, Mass Bay Community College. When I pulled up the list from FAFSAonline.com, we were able to find it easily - the FAFSA application didn’t understand that the canonical name, Massachusetts Bay Community College, is not how the school is generally known, even by the school itself (their web site is MassBay.edu). It might be helpful to have a browseable list of FAFSA school codes by state as a supplement to the search tool.
(Disclosure: the Student Loan Network operates FAFSAonline.com as an educational resource site. When you click the File a FAFSA Now button, you are taken to the Department of Education’s official FAFSA site, FAFSA.ed.gov)
I was alarmed by some of the comments by attendees. On a macroeconomic scale, it’s clear the economy is in a lot of trouble. Last year, questions from middle and upper middle class attendees tended towards questions about how to report various types of assets on the FAFSA. I heard a good number of times today from parents who were upside down on their mortgages that their mortgage debt was choking their finances, so much so that they showed up for the FAFSA for the first time because they weren’t sure their kids could go to school any more. One gentleman reported having had to cash out over $60,000 from his 401(k) to make ends meet. Times are not good, and despite what the politicians say, there’s definitely hurting on Main Street.
Another gentleman commented that he stopped by the get a second opinion about the FAFSA for his child before paying $100. When he said that, I asked him what he was talking about - he’d been on a paid FAFSA filing service that was going to charge him $100 to file his FAFSA. When we sat down to go through his FAFSA, there was absolutely nothing in his finances that warranted any kind of fee. Beware - except for a rare few individuals who have extremely complicated finances, there is no reason to pay to have your FAFSA filed; those rare few individuals likely already have a CPA and CFA on retainer.
Finally, a few thoughts on the event as a whole and its meaning. College Goal Sunday is more than just an afternoon of volunteer service. For employees of lenders like the Student Loan Network, it’s a great way to interact with your core audience in a non-transactional environment, to get a feel for the real concerns and issues that are on the minds of the people we aim to serve, as opposed to sitting in meetings trying to guess what students and families are thinking. For financial aid administrators, it’s an opportunity to work with students and populations outside that which your institution serves, and make a hard-hitting, nearly instant impact on many lives in one day above and beyond the service you already provide to your own students every day.
As much as I may have been able to help others, College Goal Sunday is a way for me to put myself to the ultimate test, working face to face with families, knowing that one mistake could keep someone from attending college, but one FAFSA filed that might not have been could open the doors to a brighter future for a student that might have remained closed forever. That’s an opportunity that doesn’t come along very often, the chance to make a direct, concrete, positive difference in many lives in just a few hours, so when it comes around, I’m happy to step up and see just what I can do.
I always leave College Goal Sunday with a renewed sense of optimism and energy about being in the financial aid world. The past year wasn’t necessarily a great one for financial aid professionals in the media, but just one afternoon can brush all of that away and remind you that our profession is a worthy one, and the work that we do can immediately change lives for the better.
Student Financial Aid News
+ Chronicle: United in their common frustration with Congress, representatives of American colleges and universities and the U.S. Department of Education moved toward agreement on Thursday on several key points of a new grant program for aspiring teachers.
+ The two sides are discussing how to put the “Teach Grant” concept into effect and haven’t reached a final consensus on proposed regulations. But participants in the drafting process, which is being led by the department, made enough progress during three days of talks this week that a resolution appears likely when they gather on February 6 for a concluding round.
Scholarship Update
+ The Pilot International Foundation Scholarship Program was established in 1988 to provide financial assistance to undergraduate students preparing for careers working directly with people with brain-related disorders/disabilities or training those who will. Scholarships are based on financial need, academic success, and application content, and are awarded for one academic year.
+ More than a few awards in their application directory
+ Details at our free college scholarship search site
+ Student Loan Network $10,000 scholarships
FAP722: Sallie Mae, Nelnet in trouble, graduate financial aid mailbag
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Student Financial Aid News
+ This Sunday is College Goal Sunday in Massachusetts. Other states will vary. I’ll be at Framingham High School, and I’ll be bringing my video rig as well.
+ Chronicle: Sallie Mae, (ticker: SLM) the nation’s largest student-loan company, said it will stop offering loans to students at colleges with poor graduation rates.
+ The lender, which is struggling with financial difficulties including a falling stock price, announced the change on Wednesday, one day after it was revealed that Sallie Mae would also stop making private loans—those given by banks without any federal subsidy—to students whose credit ratings are below prime.
+ “This is a classic Sallie Mae move—always trying to cream the good paper,” said Sarah A. Flanagan, vice president for government relations at the National Association of Independent Colleges and Universities.
+ In other student loan industry news, Nelnet (ticker: NNI) is exiting the student loan consolidation business in a press release yesterday and is also cutting 300 jobs
+ If you’re a Nelnet customer interested in student loan consolidation, come on over to StudentLoanConsolidator.com or call 877-328-1565
+ Tomorrow, another episode of Financial Aid Podcast Live!
Scholarship Update
+ The Alice L. Haltom Educational Fund exists for the purpose of furthering education in the field of information and records management. It is supported by contributions from various chapters of the Association of Records Managers and Administrators International (ARMA), companies, individuals, and other organizations.
+ Deadline May 1 each year
+ $2,000
+ Details at our free college scholarship search site
Mail Bag
+ Lorri writes in: My sister in law is trying to acquire enough money to go to Berkley or some major school like that for her Masters. Are there any scholarship/loan/grant websites or businesses she should look in too. I used the FASFA grant to get through college, but I don’t think that applies to a masters degree. Congrats on the $10,000 scholarship campaign, you do awesome work for others!
+ The FAFSA is a must for graduate students, too!
+ There are lots of scholarships and grants for graduate students - typically, scholarships and grants for graduate students focus more on the field of study than on financial need, in contrast to undergraduate scholarships
+ Graduate Stafford loans have higher limits than undergraduate ones
+ Graduate PLUS loans are just for graduate students
+ Make sure your sister in law has a copy of our free eBook, Scholarship Search Secrets
FAP721: Expert interview with tax author Barbara Weltman
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Expert Interview
+ Barbara Weltman of the JK Lasser Institute
+ Barbara Weltman is an attorney, a nationally recognized expert on tax and small business, and a member of the J.K. Lasser Institute Team of Editors & Writers. Barbara has written dozens of top-selling business books, including J.K. Lasser’s Small Business Taxes 2008: Your Complete Guide to a Better Bottom Line, J.K. Lasser’s 1001 Deductions and Tax Breaks 2008: Your Complete Guide to Everything Deductible, The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Starting a Home-Based Business, 3rd Edition, The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Starting an eBay Business, and The Rational Guide to Building Small Business Credit.
+ Barbara is the publisher of Big Ideas for Small Business®, a free monthly online newsletter providing entrepreneurs with the information on issues and concerns that matter most to the small-business community, and Idea of the Day. She is also the tax and law expert for Inc.com and a contributing editor of New York Enterprise Report and PINK magazine.
+ Barbara serves as Staples.com’s Small Business Tax Expert. She is a member of the Small Business Advocate Brain Trust and serves on the advisory boards for Small Business & Entrepreneurship (SBE) Council, WE-Inc., Boardroom’s Bottom Line/Personal, Tax Hotline, and Bottom Line Retirement. She is an adjunct professor at Manhattanville College, where she teaches Principles of Entrepreneurship, and is a frequent lecturer at the Learning Annex.
+ We discuss tax tips for students and parents, which tax deductions and credits to take, which ones save you the most money, and whether you should use a preparation service like H&R Block or a CPA.
Student Financial Aid News
+ Quiet newsday today because of the holiday yesterday
+ Chronicle: Two books published in France last week have focused attention on the phenomenon of young women moonlighting as sex workers to finance their university education, The Guardian, a British newspaper, reported today.
+ One book is a memoir of a 19-year-old modern-languages major named Laura who writes that, in her first year at an unnamed university, she was obliged to resort to prostitution in order to support herself. The other book is a study by Eva Clouet, a 23-year-old master’s student in sociology at the University of Toulouse. The book focuses on how the advent of the Internet has facilitated certain kinds of prostitution, such as escort work, that students find more palatable than “traditional” streetwalking.
+ A 2006 survey by Kingston University, an institution southwest of London, suggested that the number of British students resorting to sex-industry work to finance their studies had risen sharply in recent years, spurred by recent increases in university tuition.
+ Obviously, the Student Loan Network does not endorse this particular method of paying for college
+ Make sure you qualify for as much federal financial aid as possible
+ Make sure you apply for the Student Loan Network 10K
Scholarship Update
+ UNCF for yesterday - oops
+ Fill out a profile on the UNCF web site and they automatically submit your profile for any awards you’re eligible for
+ 1. Students must have a minimum grade point average of 2.5 on a 4.0 scale
+ 2. Students must have unmet need as verified by the university financial aid office
+ 3. Students must complete the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA)
+ 4. Students must request that the Student Analysis Report (SAR) be sent to the financial aid office at their college or university
+ Details at our free college scholarship search site
Economics 101
+ How to prosper an economic downturn
+ Get your budget in shape - make sure you’ve trimmed down discretionary expenses and boosted savings
+ Make sure your savings are insured
+ Polish up your resume, even if you’re 100% confident in your job - it’s always a good thing to do at the beginning of each calendar year
+ Diversify your investments
+ Build an incredibly strong personal network - that’s where opportunities will come from
+ Remember that downturns are crowd thinners
+ Keith Ferrazzi’s Never Eat Alone - highly recommended book
Student Financial Aid News
+ Happy Martin Luther King Jr. Day!
+ Listen to the complete speech and read the text
+ Inside Higher Ed: Bowdoin College announced Friday that it would replace student loans with grants for all students receiving aid to attend. Bowdoin currently provides need-based financial aid to about 40 percent of students, and the loan packages of first-year students this year had been expected to total $21,000 by graduation. While a number of colleges have moved away from loans in the wake of Harvard University’s decision to do so, Bowdoin is among a small group doing so despite having a relatively small endowment (less than $1 billion).
+ Chronicle: After weeks of bad financial news, the pink slips are being handed out at the nation’s largest student-loan company.
+ Sallie Mae, (ticker: SLM) the government-founded lender, has announced plans to lay off about 350 workers, or about 3 percent of its work force.
+ Most of the job cuts are at Sallie Mae customer-call centers in Fishers, Ind.; Wilkes-Barre, Pa.; and Killeen, Tex. Still, Sallie Mae won’t let that affect its customer service, a company spokesman, Tom Joyce, said.
+ And it’s not just the phone operators losing their jobs. The company has also shed two executive vice presidents and two senior vice presidents. One of the executive vice presidents is receiving a $3.3-million severance, and the other is collecting nearly $1.8-million. The former executive vice presidents will be paid nearly $200,000 apiece in consulting contracts.
+ Sallie Mae’s recent financial troubles include problems covering its debts during the nationwide credit crisis brought on by subprime mortgages, and a gamble that led the company into a commitment to spend nearly $2-billion buying up stock worth less than $1-billion.
+ The company is able, however, to pay its new chief financial officer $1-million a year, with another $100,000 in personal flights on corporate jets, while its new chairman will get $600,000 in salary and $3.6-million in stock.
Scholarship Update
+ Marine-related scholarships are being offered by Seaspace, Inc., an annual underwater film festival, symposium, and exposition. SEASPACE is a 501(3)(c) organization. The SEASPACE Permanent Education Fund earnings and private donations endow scholarships specifically in support of marine-related courses of study. Financial assistance has been provided to more than 304 students enrolled in accredited colleges and universities throughout the United States. Approximately 75% of past awards have been to graduate students, with the rest going to undergraduates. Majors have included marine sciences, marine biology, wildlife and fisheries, environmental toxicology, biological oceanography, genetics, ocean engineering, aquaculture and zoology with marine mammal applications.
+ $15,000
+ February 1 deadline
+ Details at our free college scholarship search site
Mail Bag
+ Kent writes in: I have a question which might give you some fodder for a future pod-cast if you haven’t covered it already. With twin toddlers, my wife and I have already started discussing options for college. My wife is pretty sold on the idea of saving as much as humanly possible for the boys college fund, whereas as I’m worried that doing so will divert much needed funds that could go to shorter term needs such as a better house, primary school (or home-schooling as the case may be) and so on. I’m worried that if we ’save too much’ we’ll disqualify ourselves and our children from benefiting from any sort of financial aid in the future.
+ Examine all the savings vehicles out there
+ 529 plans are lauded by some and criticized by others
+ Whatever investments you choose, be aware of things like fees and charges
+ Really needs a financial planner to examine the whole financial picture
