FAP799: Perkins Loan problems, free stuff Friday

Listen now:

Student Financial Aid News
+ Inside Higher Ed: The House of Representatives voted 256-166 Thursday to support a major expansion of education benefits provided to veterans who have served since 9/11. The measure now moves to the Senate. While support is strong in both houses — and includes some Republicans — the Bush administration has backed more modest changes, and the House measure does not have a veto-proof majority.
+ Chronicle: Dozens of institutions will be forced to pay money into their depleted federal Perkins Loan funds because they expect a shortfall in award money this year, according to a national survey of 273 colleges. The findings, to be released this morning, also depict a bleak picture for the amount of money institutions will have available to lend through Perkins Loans, as 80 percent of respondents said they expected to have about one-third less money for loans.
+ A downturn in the federal government’s contributions has helped create the shortfalls institutions are seeing, the report says. That means fewer students at some institutions will be awarded Perkins Loans, and institutions may have to turn more to institutional loans.
+ Chronicle: With only about two weeks until the start of the student-lending season, the long-awaited easing of the credit crunch may finally be arriving. Nelnet (ticker: NNI), one of the nation’s largest student-loan companies, completed on Thursday a sale of more than $1.3-billion in bonds backed by student loans.
+ The sale came one week after JPMorgan Chase & Company (ticker: JPM) reported an improvement in market pricing of student-loan debt and two weeks after the Rhode Island Student Loan Authority became the first student-loan agency since September to sell its bonds.

Scholarship Update
+ College Toolkit “What I like about my college?” Scholarship
+ College Toolkit is giving away a $1,000 scholarship to a college student. We want you to hear your thoughts about the college you attend To enter, all you need to do is select the school you are attending and provide a short review of your college or university. The award is open to anyone who will be an undergraduate college student this upcoming fall. You must be attending an accredited 2-year or 4-year college and a U.S. resident to enter. The deadline to enter is August 31, 2008
+ Details at our free college scholarship search site

Free Stuff Friday
+ Feed Demon for Windows
+ NetNewsWire
+ List of free games on Wikipedia
+ Nifty One Bag packing method
+ ReadAir Adobe Air app
+ FreshAir Apps
+ DailyLit bite sized books by email
+ Dove Green Tea deodorant?
+ Free Nike MaxSight contact lenses
+ Got a Mac? 99 cent movies on iTunes

Free Song of the Week
+ Michelle Hotaling, Porcelain Doll

Did you enjoy today’s show? If so, please consider subscribing for free to get it delivered to you. Subscribing for free means you don’t have to remember to download it every day.
+
+
+

Direct MP3 file download: Click here to download the MP3

Reminders
+
+ 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
+ Edvisors Jobs
+ 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.

Technorati Tags: financial aid financialaidpodcast