FAP766: Admissions Wait Lists and Using LinkedIn

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Student Financial Aid News
+ Got some awesome mail to start my day from Nolan in Oregon: Thank you very much for publishing your Ebook on scholarships and making it free for students like me to access. Although I am a senior this year, I have enjoyed the fruits of my labor thus far with over $5,000 (and counting) of scholarship money. I definitely plan to keep using your guide on throughout college and I plan to pass it on to other students also.
+ NASFAA: “Zions Bank is joining other big banks in getting out of the federal program to make government-guaranteed student loans, the consequence of subsidy cuts that have made lending to students unprofitable,” The Salt Lake Tribune reports. “The largest Utah-based bank will stop accepting new federal student loan applications through the Federal Family Education Loans program on Monday and, instead, will substitute new programs Zions is developing that will be in place later this spring. ‘Given the changes in legislation that have taken place, it really has made it not viable from a financial standpoint to continue accepting applications for government-guaranteed student loans,’ said Zions’ Rob Brough.”
+ Inside Higher Ed: Colleges are upping the number of applicants they place on waiting lists this year, given that major changes in the economy and institutional aid policies have more admissions officials feeling uncertain about what their yields — the percentage of accepted applicants who enroll — will be, The Boston Globe ported. Waiting list totals are up 50 percent at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 22 percent at the University of Vermont, 17 percent at Northeastern University, and 15 percent at Dartmouth College, the Globe reported.
+ Graduate admissions consultant Anna Ivey has a GREAT post on her blog about what being on a wait list means

Scholarship Update
+ Sum Up Sports Scholarship
+ Put on your thinking helmet! We want you to create a mathematical equation using people, places or things that can be summed up to create a radically new sport. For example: chess + pro wrestling + a steel cage = Ultimate Checkmate! Or how about baseball + keeping your bat + ninjas - umpires = BaseBrawl. See, it’s fun! Here’s one more example: bowling + leotards x glitter = Figure Frames! Now it’s your turn to “figure” it out. Do the math, find your pics and get your game on! Make sure you include a description too. No purchase necessary. Open to anyone who is a resident of the 50 United States, the District of Columbia or Canada (excluding Quebec), has access to the Internet, and is 13 or older at the time of entry.
+ $500 award
+ Deadline May 26
+ Details at our free college scholarship search site

Jobcast
+ How to use LinkedIn properly
+ LinkedIn offers two things that make it stand out - public resumes and recommendations
+ Mitch Joel has a great quote: it’s not about who you know. it’s about who knows you.
+ Start by building your database
+ Set up a special LinkedIn only email address
+ Build the heck out of your profile - jobs, activities, clubs, etc. - and be sure to treat them all as jobs so that you can gather recommendations
+ Get recommendations from everyone
+ Join LIONs clubs (and expect a lot of spam)
+ Attend conferences
+ Create your own custom invitation request
+ “I’d like to add you to my professional network” is synonymous with “I have no creative abilities whatsoever and I’m bloody lazy, too”
+ Extract email addresses from commenters on your blog - you do have a blog, right? - and import them into LinkedIn to see who’s on there that you know
+ Add in schoolmates, professors, anyone who has a verifiable connection to you, because that’s both the power and mystery of professional networking - not only is it about who knows you, but who knows them
+ Stay in touch - export your connections frequently and send them an email newsletter once a month or so with what’s going on in your professional life

Promo
+ Financial Aid Podcast Live: Surviving the Credit Crunch

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Reminders
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+ Financial Aid Podcast Show Notes at FinancialAidPodcast.com.
+ Free scholarship search secrets eBook at StudentScholarshipSearch.com/ebook
+ Open an FDIC-insured savings account today!
+ Private student loans available at any time - visit AlternativeStudentLoan.com
+ Student credit card information at StudentPlatinum.com
+ FAFSA form tutorials and free help at FAFSAonline.com
+ Grad student? Get graduate financial aid information at the GradLoans.com blog!
+ Stafford federal student loans at StaffordLoan.com
+ The Financial Aid Podcast is a publication of the Student Loan Network.

I want to hear from you! Email me at financialaidpodcast {at} gmail {dot} com, visit http://www.FinancialAidPodcast.com, or call 206-350-1208.

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