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FAP863: More options if you run into financial aid trouble

August 18th, 2008

FAP863: More options if you run into financial aid trouble

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Student Financial Aid News
+ Bloomberg: Just three days after the Fed approved a loan against Bear Stearns securities, Pennsylvania Democratic Representative Paul Kanjorski and 31 other lawmakers sent Bernanke a letter asking him to open the discount window to nonbank education-loan companies. Bernanke refused.
+ Scathing commentary in the Wall Street Journal: First, we will set up a single goal to represent educational success, which will take four years to achieve no matter what is being taught. We will attach an economic reward to it that seldom has anything to do with what has been learned. We will urge large numbers of people who do not possess adequate ability to try to achieve the goal, wait until they have spent a lot of time and money, and then deny it to them. We will stigmatize everyone who doesn’t meet the goal. We will call the goal a “BA.”
+ Outside a handful of majors — engineering and some of the sciences — a bachelor’s degree tells an employer nothing except that the applicant has a certain amount of intellectual ability and perseverance. Even a degree in a vocational major like business administration can mean anything from a solid base of knowledge to four years of barely remembered gut courses.
+ The solution is not better degrees, but no degrees. Young people entering the job market should have a known, trusted measure of their qualifications they can carry into job interviews. That measure should express what they know, not where they learned it or how long it took them. They need a certification, not a degree.
+ Here’s the reality: Everyone in every occupation starts as an apprentice. Those who are good enough become journeymen. The best become master craftsmen. This is as true of business executives and history professors as of chefs and welders. Getting rid of the BA and replacing it with evidence of competence — treating post-secondary education as apprenticeships for everyone — is one way to help us to recognize that common bond.

Scholarship Update
+ Blogging for Progress
+ Deadline October 15, 2008
+ Applicable Schools: Any regionally or nationally accredited college, university or vocational school in the United States or abroad
+ Winners are based on total accumulated points as of December 15, 2008 with points awarded for each blog entry and comment accepted for posting to the website and for each read of a participants blog entries by members and visitors. Participants also have opportunities to earn bonus points towards the scholarship throughout the semester. One first place winner will receive a 1500.00 scholarship towards higher education expenses and up to five runners up will receive gift certificates to help offset the cost of college textbooks. Additional Information: Contest begins September 15, 2008 and runs through December 15, 2008. Users must be registered by October 15, 2008 in order to be eligible for this semester’s contest
+ Details at our free college scholarship search site

Financial Aid 101
+ Taking a look at the conversation, there are indeed folks not being able to get loans or other financial aid
+ Here are your options if you face this situation
+ Ask for a payment plan if you know your aid payments are going to be late
+ Take out a PLUS loan if you’ve been turned down for a private student loan
+ Take a semester off or reduce your credit load
+ If your school’s financial aid office is swamped - as it may be - you may need to either go up the chain of command, or find an advocate elsewhere in the administration
+ Most financial aid administrators, such as the director of financial aid, have email addresses and phone numbers - be polite, but be persistent
+ Enroll at a local community college for a more affordable courseload and knock down some credit hours

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