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At Shenandoah University, there have been a few senior-level administrators who have decided to forgo their raises altogether, placing the money in an emergency fund that is being used to help existing students who are struggling to afford to stay enrolled.
Commentary
I applaud anyone who is willing to take a pay cut - and forgoing a raise when inflation is eating away at the bottom line is effectively a pay cut - to help students stay enrolled. That said, it might be more cost effective for Shenandoah and other colleges to reduce the overall cost of education at the top line.
One of the things I think you’ll see become very prominent in the next year is a trend towards finding the most affordable solutions to pay for college possible. Everything from testing out of classes to early graduation to distance learning and online degrees is on the table as students, parents, and families try to figure out how to make college more affordable.
Looking at the many options before us, I’d suggest this strategy for right now.
2. Start saving as early as possible. Save money like crazy. Cut back on discretionary expenses. Put money away. Use as many money saving strategies as possible.
3. File your FAFSA as early as possible. I’m almost done with the 2009-2010 FAFSA guide based on the draft FAFSA, and this year’s guide is going to be more detailed than ever, line by line.
4. Talk to your college about which courses you can test out of using CLEP exams or your school’s own credit-based exams. Prep, then test out of them to reduce cost per credit hour and get basic courses out of the way.
5. If you can manage the workload, work during the summer AND take either an online degrees/distance learning course or two, to earn some credits. If you’re not set up for an online education experience, check in at your local community college about credit transfer and take a class at night.
6. Only after you’ve been able to reduce the overall cost of your education should you look at borrowing money and taking out student loans.
One final piece of opinion: if you think that a community college offers a lower quality education than a traditional school, you’re almost certainly wrong. When I was working at AT&T back in 1998, I took a C++ course at Raritan Valley Community College, not too far from where I was living back then. The instructor for the course wasn’t some hack who couldn’t cut it in a traditional school - the instructor was a senior programmer at AT&T who moonlighted as a college professor. She was one of the best professors in computer science I ever had, because in addition to being able to teach, she was also able to explain the material in very concrete, practical terms. Her day job required her to make practical use of her knowledge on a daily basis, and for me, being able to ask very specific, task-related questions and get experience-based answers was invaluable.
Don’t overlook your local community college. You’d be surprised what you’ll find there.
In the past few days, I’ve suddenly been swamped with calls and emails about a question on the CSS Profile, a fee-based financial aid form similar to the FAFSA used by some colleges. The specific question is how much are you willing to contribute towards the cost of education?
The answer I’ve been giving people is that this is a number the FAFSA already comes up with, called the Expected Family Contribution, or EFC. The EFC is based on a whole slew of questions about your family’s finances and represents the government’s guess about how much you can afford to pay for your education.
For some families, this is zero. If you receive a zero expected family contribution result from your FAFSA filing, put the same down on the CSS Profile. For some families, this is thousands of dollars. Chances are, your college will compare what you put in that line with your FAFSA results, so if you put down anything besides the EFC, you might be asked to justify it. In some cases, this will be easy to do - for example, the FAFSA does not take into account debt you currently carry, including mortgage and other debts. Thus, an EFC in the thousands might translate into more money per month than you can possibly afford.
Here’s how I’d suggest you tackle this. First, take your EFC, whatever it is, and break it into a monthly cost. If your FAFSA EFC is $24,000, then you have an effective monthly EFC of $2,000. Put together your personal budget and determine what the mandatory expenses are - rent/mortgage, utilities, etc.
Subtract only the mandatory expenses from your monthly EFC - thus, if you pay $900/month in rent, $100/month in utilities, $200/food (NOT dining out, just groceries), you have a mandatory expenses sum of $1,200. You need a place to live, food to eat, and heat so you don’t freeze to death in the winter.
Take your EFC minus your mandatory expenses, multiply by 12, and that’s what you should be able to contribute towards paying for college. In this example, that’s $2,000 - $1,200 ($800/month) * 12 = $9,600.
When you go before your college’s financial aid office, because mandatory expenses can be easily documented, you can show a simple budget worksheet to your financial aid officer to show why the EFC is wrong for you.
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Daily Aid 31: How to cut your cost of college education in half
Student Financial Aid News
From all over the place - lenders are curtailing credit cards by increasing credit requirements and reducing available credit, including student credit cards. Defaults have been rising across the board on all forms of lending, but credit cards have been hit especially hard since the housing bubble burst. If you’re thinking about getting a credit card, you’ll want to do that sooner rather than later.
“For months, the Wall Street credit crisis has made many families nervous that the widespread availability of student loans will dry up,” writes Michael Dannenberg in USA Today. “But no matter how many banks fail, there is no danger that families will be deprived access to federal student loans. None. The real danger during bad economic times is that tuition often skyrockets. Here’s why: A bad economy depresses state tax revenue. To meet state balanced-budget requirements, states cut funding for higher education. To make up those cuts, public colleges hike tuition. Competing private colleges see the increases and feel empowered to increase their tuitions markedly as well.”
Commentary
Expect tuition to rise across the board, at both public and private universities. Public schools will indeed take a bigger hit from declining state budgets, but private universities are certainly not immune. Plan on significant tuition increases - around 10% per year - over the next 3 years, and budget your financial aid plans accordingly.
As part of my research into online degrees, I’ve stumbled across the CLEP, or College Level Examination Program, a program administered by the College Board that lets you test out of undergraduate coursework and receive credits for your exam results. About 2,900, or more than half, of the colleges in America will grant course credit for sufficiently high CLEP scores.
CLEP exams are $70 each whether you pass or fail. When you compare the cost of a CLEP exam to its equivalent credit hour cost at even a public university, a CLEP exam is a bargain as long as you pass, ideally on the first shot. Take a look at the list below; each of the subjects is between 3-12 credits, assuming a one semester course is 3 credits.
Now take the rough cost per credit hour - from $75 at community colleges to $600 for top schools - and you begin to see the massive cost savings that testing out of courses can yield. If you’re a very talented, smart student, you can rack up significant savings by testing out of as many courses (especially generic course requirements at liberal arts colleges) as your school will allow. Could you finish a 4 year degree in 3 years? Absolutely. Could you pay 25% - 50% less for a college education? Absolutely.
The catch, of course, is that you have to be able to pass the CLEP exams for each of the subject areas, and your school has to honor CLEP exam results with course credits. If you can do that and your school is willing to grant credits for CLEP results, then an incredibly affordable college education is easily within your reach. Consider using free services like iTunesU to supplement your reading and work towards CLEP exams.
Ask around at your college’s administration for how your school deals with CLEP credit. If you’re not in college yet, make that one of your admissions requirements - acceptance of CLEP results as course credit for as much course credit as you can rack up.
Composition and Literature
+ American Literature
+ Analyzing and Interpreting Literature
+ English Composition
+ English Literature
+ Freshman College Composition
+ Humanities
Foreign Languages
+ French Language (Levels 1 and 2)
+ German Language (Levels 1 and 2)
+ Spanish Language (Levels 1 and 2)
History and Social Sciences
+ American Government
+ Human Growth and Development
+ Introduction to Educational Psychology
+ Introductory Psychology
+ Introductory Sociology
+ Principles of Macroeconomics
+ Principles of Microeconomics
+ Social Sciences and History
+ U.S. History I: Early Colonizations to 1877
+ U.S. History II: 1865 to the Present
+ Western Civilization I: Ancient Near East to 1648
+ Western Civilization II: 1648 to the Present
Science and Mathematics
+ Biology
+ Calculus
+ Chemistry
+ College Algebra
+ College Mathematics
+ Natural Sciences
+ Precalculus
Business
+ Financial Accounting (New in 2007)
+ Introductory Business Law
+ Information Systems and Computer Applications
+ Principles of Management
+ Principles of Marketing
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“This year’s growth in the Education Department’s direct-lending system could be replicated in 2009, possibly leaving the now-dominant bank-based system as the minority supplier of federal student-loan money by next fall, according to findings from a new survey of colleges,” The Chronicle of Higher Education reports. “The Web-based poll of 416 college financial-aid directors last week by Student Lending Analytics found that 6 percent of those currently using the bank-based system plan to switch to direct lending next academic year, and 29 percent are considering making that change. At the same time, the Education Department on Monday issued new statistical data detailing an increase in direct lending this year. Larry Zaglaniczny, vice president for governmental affairs at the National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators, agreed that colleges will continue to flock to the direct-lending system if the Bush administration doesn’t quickly come through with additional aid for private student lenders.”
Commentary
The lending system is still not functioning anywhere close to optimal - a quick check of several major popular stocks in the student loan industry indicates that investors don’t believe the student loan industry has freed itself from the broader market dynamics. Here’s a chart of Sallie Mae (SLM), MRU Holdings (MRU), Nelnet (NNI), Student Loan Corp (STU), and First Marblehead (FMD):
The declines range from 81% for bellwether SLM to 96% for FMD. This is obviously not the picture of health for any industry, but especially financial services.
What does this mean for you? Come this December or January, when you’re applying for spring semester funding, federal student loans at your school such as the Stafford Loan may be through the Department of Education directly if your school changes over. This means that when you graduate, you’ll need to consider student loan consolidation to bring together multiple lenders into one payment later. The above stock chart also indicates that private student loans may still be difficult to obtain as well. Here at the Student Loan Network, we’ll do our best to help you, but be prepared for a general lack of availability of private student loans.
Be hunting for scholarships all the time, without exception. There are still plenty of scholarships out there and more opening up every day, like today’s featured scholarship. Be aggressive, be persistent, and be willing to work hard, and you’ll find the money you need for your education.
Scholarship Update
The MEFA 5th Annual Art Competition. Over $20,000 will be awarded via MEFA U.Fund College Investing Plans for winning students’ entries that best depict what they want to be when they graduate college.
In addition to the student contest winners, private, public and charter schools in Massachusetts will have an opportunity to win $500, $300 and $100 gift cards for school supplies. The winning schools will be selected based upon the highest percentage of eligible students who enter from each grade level.
Massachusetts students in grades 3, 4 and 5 have until 5:00 p.m. on November 21, 2008 to submit their artwork. First, second and third place prizes will be awarded in each grade level and winners will receive $5,000, $2,000 and $1,000 respectively.
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This holiday season, you may be tempted to use gift cards as a convenient way to buy a present for someone who’s notoriously tough to buy for.
Don’t do it. Give cash instead.
Here’s why - it has nothing to do with etiquette or propriety and everything to do with the mechanism of gift cards.
Gift cards feel like cash to consumers. They have a preset dollar amount and you use them to buy things.
The catch is this - gift cards are not cash. Gift cards are actually a form of debt issued by the company, just like a corporate bond. This means that if a company goes bankrupt and is able to release itself from obligations including debt and bond holders, the gift card is immediately null and void.
If you have a gift card from any company still laying around, use it and quickly. If you receive one as a gift, use it quickly. Shoppers last year who had Sharper Image gift cards realized too late that the company’s bankruptcy meant it did not need to honor any gift card. This also applies to any contract as well - if you buy an extended warranty on any product, the moment a company declares bankruptcy, that contract can be broken.
If you can’t decide what to buy someone and you want something like a gift card, consider giving cash instead.
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Moody’s Investors Service has placed two colleges that invested in Commonfund’s short-term fund on a watch list for credit-rating downgrades and has issued a negative ratings outlook for a third. The colleges — Franklin Pierce University, Simmons College, and Suffolk University — are among 1,000 institutions that had their short-term accounts frozen by Wachovia Bank, the account manager, in late September. As of October 21, such colleges were able to get access to 48 percent of their original balances.
Moody’s, which is analyzing the effect of the freeze on colleges’ ability to operate and make debt payments, stressed in a report issued today that the ratings revisions were not based solely on the colleges’ exposure to Commonfund. Other factors taken into account were an inability or unwillingness to secure capital elsewhere, a history of weak operating performance, and high levels of variable-rate debt.
Commentary
Unsurprising. Colleges, like individuals, need to readjust to the mindset that cash is king in the current economy, and that any kind of investment that ties up your money is going to hurt.
Cash is king for you, too. If you have money in the markets (529 plan, 401K, etc.) that you will need in the next year or two, consult your financial advisor about getting it out of the market or moving it to something that carries insurance of some kind.
A former Sallie Mae employee, in a False Claims Act lawsuit against the loan company that was recently unsealed in federal court in Indiana, alleges that Sallie Mae had been using the practice of granting forbearances to systematically balloon student-loan debts. In the system of government-guaranteed student loans, the tactic was part of a strategy to grow student debts as large as possible, increasing Sallie Mae’s profits, before taxpayers and debtors were stuck with the final bill, said the former Sallie Mae employee, Michael Zahara.
Commentary
I applaud Michael Zahara’s bravery for coming forward and bringing to light this tactic. This practice may be illegal and is also just reprehensible. Just to be clear, the Student Loan Network does not and has never engaged in any kind of practice like this.
If you’ve been a victim of this kind of practice, you’ll want to consult a lawyer. Any debt that you’ve incurred that is the result of fraudulent or illegal practices is invalid and a court can order the debt dismissed, so if you’ve been a victim of this, call a lawyer to see if the practice is illegal. Depending on how strong your case is, they’ll probably do it on a percentage basis of money won in a lawsuit, rather than have you pay legal fees out of pocket.
“The credit crunch has officially arrived on campus,” the Associated Press reports. “In a new survey, private colleges report their students are finding it significantly harder to secure the private loans they need to pay tuition bills. More alarmingly, nearly half of colleges say some students have been forced to take time off or go part-time as a result. The survey, released Tuesday by the National Association of Independent Colleges and Universities, confirms anecdotal evidence that the federal financial aid system has held up reasonably well during the financial meltdown. But it paints a more troubling picture for students who need private loans to supplement their federal ones.”
Commentary
This is no surprise to anyone who has been a longtime listener and reader. We’ve talked about this day coming, and the bad news is that it’s only going to intensify as we enter 2009. Private student loans have already become harder to get, and as we enter 2009, more students than ever will be applying for college, more students than ever will be entering college, and more students than ever will be applying for financial aid from the same pool of dollars.
As pointed out in this BusinessWeek article, hedge funds may face a record redemption call on November 30 as investors are given a final chance in 2008 to redeem their holdings. What does that mean for you? If investors remain uncomfortable or shaky, they may pull a lot of money out of the market, further tightening credit and reducing the value of things like 401k and 529 plans.
Jim Cramer of CNBC made a good call - if you have money in a 529 plan and you need it in the next year or so, talk to your investment advisor about getting the money out of the market or at least shifting it to wherever your advisor thinks is the safest. Markets in the short term aren’t getting better and probably won’t for some time.
If you’re concerned about paying for college, make sure you complete your FAFSA after January 1, 2009 for the 2009-2010 school year. Make sure you’ve done your taxes. Make sure you’re applying for as many scholarships as you can. If you’re currently attending school and having a hard time making ends meet, consider taking a semester or two at a less expensive school or taking some online classes if they’re cheaper per credit hour. If you aren’t already on friendly terms with your college’s financial aid office, now is a great time to make friends with them. Do something nice for them, even if it’s just an email to say thanks for the thankless work. Make sure you’re on their radar so that down the road, if you need help, they will pick up the phone for you.
The message is this: right now, the markets and government are so tied up in the broad financial crisis that you as a student or parent are pretty much on your own. You are responsible for your financial aid, and you will ultimately be the deciding factor about how affordable college is. As much as we can here at the Student Loan Network, we’ll help you with as much information and services as we can, but ultimately, the final outcome is up to you.
That said, if you’re reading this blog post, I have full faith and confidence in you, because you already care enough about financial aid to want to do something about it, to want to read about it more than once a year, to want to tune into the Financial Aid Podcast. As you work through the financial aid maze and the financial crisis, please stay in touch and let me know how it’s going for you.
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A special blog post while I’m on the road to Arizona for a couple of days off - and yes, vacation for me is doing public speaking! I’ve been working on the 2009-2010 FAFSA guide for the coming year over the past week or so, learning the ins and outs of IRS tax code, the new draft FAFSA (which won’t be finalized until November), and a bunch of stuff that goes with it all. Some interesting lessons I’ve picked up so far:
The FAFSA has a LOT of undocumented gotchas, far more than the average student is probably prepared to deal with. For example, Question 23 on the 2009 FAFSA asks if you’ve ever received a conviction for illegal drug use while receiving federal financial aid. What the question doesn’t elaborate on anywhere is that the conviction has to be a federal or state conviction to disqualify you from financial aid. A local/municipal court conviction has no impact on your financial aid, but the question isn’t worded that way. The question doesn’t elaborate anywhere that if you’ve successfully completed an accredited rehab program, the conviction will be disregarded for the purposes of financial aid. The question also doesn’t make clear enough that you have to have received it WHILE receiving federal financial aid, so if you messed up in high school and have since cleaned up your act, that prior conviction is meaningless from the perspective of financial aid.
Why is this important, particularly when the form goes on to say you’ll get an additional worksheet in the mail to determine your eligibility? That kind of question is a showstopper. That kind of question is likely to cause someone to self-select out of the financial aid process, and in doing so, alter their future.
A lot of students fill out the IRS 1040EZ form, for those who file taxes. This may turn out to be a huge mistake, since the full 1040 contains three provisions that are important for college students. First, the full 1040 allows you two offsets to adjusted gross income, one for student loan interest paid and one for tuition and fees, that will reduce your AGI. Reducing your AGI has a direct impact on your financial aid - the lower your AGI, the more eligible you are. The full 1040 also has an AGI offset for moving expenses, which might impact you. If you’re an independent student, filing a full 1040 rather than a 1040EZ is absolutely essential, since your finances alone will impact the FAFSA and not your parents’ finances.
Here’s why this is a gotcha - nowhere on the FAFSA does it recommend you do a full 1040 rather than the 1040EZ. Yes, the EZ is “easier” from a paperwork perspective, but it may be costing you some serious money.
There are also new provisions for homeless students, unaccompanied homeless students, and students in danger of homelessness that will simultaneously open up opportunities for more students while also proportionally adding complexity to the financial aid office, so be aware that lines this coming year might be a little longer.
Overall, the FAFSA has changed quite a lot from previous years, and knowing some of the tricks to maximize your aid is what we’re all about in the new guide. I expect to have a beta available to you, my dedicated listeners and readers, by mid-November, with the full version going out with all the bells and whistles in January. As always, to thank you for reading and listening, you’ll get first crack at whatever I find, whatever inside secrets I can share with you to make the financial aid process easier.
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It’s prime college-visiting season for the high school class of 2009, which next fall will send the greatest number of graduates on to college in American history. But the souring economy and crisis on Wall Street are shrinking families’ college savings, and some parents wonder whether they will be able to afford tuition at the schools their youngsters are looking at. Around the country, students deciding where to apply may have to scale back their dreams. Some private schools worry they could lose business to public universities. Already, federal loan applications are up, and some schools are seeing more aid inquiries.
Commentary
It would not surprise me in the least to find out that state schools and other lower cost institutions are going to face record applications and competition for a relatively few coveted slots. As competition increases, those schools who guarantee enrollment to all qualified applicants may need to change policy or radically increase the number of seats available.
As for scaling back dreams, I continue to advocate for the idea that the bachelor’s degree is largely “brandless” in that its value is a commodity now, with so many students earning degrees. Whereas a bachelor’s degree from a name brand school 10 years ago might have gotten you in certain doors, today those doors are only open for students who bring something more besides just a degree.
As such, paying extra for a commodity makes no sense. If you can buy an iPod for $99 at Walmart or the same iPod for $199 at a top name brand department store, why would you pay more for the same thing? A college degree isn’t an iPod, true, but there are plenty of outstanding schools and experiences waiting for those who are willing and able to look beyond brand.
State budget deficits are forcing already cash-strapped public universities to increase tuition, lay off employees and, in some states, cut enrollment.
The crisis couldn’t come at a worse time. More families are opting for state institutions as college tuition has soared, and the credit crisis has made it harder to get student loans. At the same time, college enrollment is expected to swell as laid-off workers retool and a record number of students graduate from high school.
Commentary
Expect state budgets to take a hammering in 2009. State budgets always lag the general economy because things like tax receipts are delayed by quarters or even years. 2009 will not be a pretty year for state budgets or state higher education. Expect tuition to increase, in some cases dramatically, as state schools need to fill gaps left by budgets.
If you want to reduce the impact, you need to band together with as many fellow students as possible and advocate heavily for your school by petitioning your state elected representatives repeatedly. Legislators prioritize to some degree on input by constituents, but enough noise can make them move at least a little. It’s unrealistic to think that higher education budgets will escape unscathed, but with a strong enough campaign, at least the damage can be mitigated. Set up a Facebook group to coordinate your efforts!
Rates of stress, depression, and suicide invariably climb in times of economic turmoil. As Kathleen Hall, founder and CEO of the Stress Institute in Atlanta, told USA Today’s Stephanie Armour earlier this year, “Suicides are very much tied to the economy.”
Commentary
There is a real, human cost to economic turmoil. As the economic crisis continues, please be on the lookout for fellow students, coworkers, family members, and colleagues. Simple things like a pot luck dinner one night at someone’s apartment can make a world of difference and be the deciding factor between whether someone chooses to continue or gives up everything. As much as you can, reinforce your local community and social circle by letting people know you’re willing to lend a shoulder to lean on and an ear to listen. If you’re in a bad situation yourself, please go talk to someone. There are plenty of open options like the Samaritans who are willing to lend an ear, and even more in your many social networks.
Micron Science and Technology Scholars Program. The Micron Science and Technology Scholars Program is a merit-based scholarship competition recognizing excellence in academics and leadership. Each year, the program awards a $25,000 college scholarship to six high school seniors for a total of up to $150,000. One male and one female student is selected from each of the following states: Idaho, Utah and Virginia.
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“It’s ‘the mother of all shortfalls,’ according to one Washington insider. Others worry that it may get lost amid the nation’s larger financial crises involving banks and mortgage lenders,” Diverse: Issues In Higher Education reports. “But one thing is increasingly clear: Fueled by a declining economy that has many low-income Americans returning to school, the Pell Grant program is facing a growing shortfall that soon may reach $6 billion. ‘It’s such a large figure that Congress and the administration cannot ignore it,’ says Barmak Nassirian, associate executive director of the American Association of Collegiate Registrars and Admissions Officers.”
Commentary
As we’ve been talking about in The Coming Financial Aid Crisis, $6 billion is too conservative a number. Much, much more will be required, because you’re only now seeing the financial markets losses bleed into the real economy, into Main Street. Jobs are being lost, hours cut, raises forfeited, for the average American family. This in turn will sharply increase demand for financial aid and federal dollars will be hard pressed to keep up.
Be ready. Get your paperwork in order. Hunt scholarships year-round. File your FAFSA as early as you can.
National Association of Hispanic Journalists Scholarship. Students interested in journalism as a career can apply. Current high school seniors, college undergraduates and first-year graduate students who are pursuing careers as print, photo, broadcast or online journalists. Each scholarship has different requirements for eligibility. Please carefully review each to determine which ones you qualify for. Students must plan to attend a community college or university that is within the United States or Puerto Rico full-time for the entire academic year in order to be awarded an NAHJ scholarship. Students who attend or plan to attend colleges or universities outside of the United States or Puerto Rico are not eligible for NAHJ scholarships.
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