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FAP879: The Economy and Your Financial Aid<

October 10th, 2008

FAP879: The Economy and Your Financial Aid

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Weekly Financial Aid News Roundup
+ Parents: please, please, please if you have 529 plans, check with your investments advisor about its status and whether you should be doing anything with it. My advice - and I’m not a financial planner - is that if you will need the money in the next year or two, ask your advisor if there’s a 100% conservative, no-growth but no-risk option.
+ Charles Schumer and protecting student loans
+ Tufts University notifying students

Special: How the financial crisis is affecting your financial aid
+ I have been getting alot of calls from clients who originally did not want to take advantage of the student & parent loan programs available to them. But since the equity markets have turned down and have lost on average 30% since last October, the assets set aside are worth significantly less and parents do no wish to sell at huge losses right now. In addition, due to the credit squeeze banks are less likely to lend unless you have a perfect credit score and I have heard banks freezing existing home equity lines of credit so parents are no longer able to borrow. Many parents/students are not aware of the Continued Access to Student Loans legislation passed mid May that went into effect July 1 2008. the schools did a terrible job of making this known. This increased the limits students can borrow and the terms which parents can repay loans. many more parents are looking to take student and parent loans under the federal programs to help manage the cashflow needed to pay tuition bills. - John Hough, CFP
+ I’m a graduate student, and I’d like to be a college professor someday. In order to do that, I have to pay for 3-5 years of graduate school after I finish my Master’s in History. With the current financial state, my wife and I don’t think we’ll be able to pay for this, so we’re not sure what we’re going to do, she also has to go back to school (as per New York State’s requirements for all teachers to get their Master’s), but we don’t know if we can pay for that. To complicate matters, there’s no guarantee my student loan will even be there next semester to pay for my current school, so I’d like to speak for other graduate students and say, don’t forget about us when it comes to how our college plans have changed because of the current situation. - Brandon M.
+ My financial aid was cut because of the scholarship, but not completely. I was able to still get $3000, but I don’t know when I will actually get it. What I’m hearing at my campus is that all of the financial aid has been delayed due to the banks failing, so all of the financial aid has to be repackaged and in the meantime, tuition is due and a lot of people are having to put it on their credit cards. - Naomi
+ My husband and I just last month closed our two VA 529 account to have the cash now. Our sons are 4 and 1 and we’re just hoping we have more money later to cover it. The money we collected (approximately $30,000) is going towards credit card expenditures that got out of hand while my husband’s business (construction/remodeling) slowed down recently. - Samantha

Scholarship Updates
+ $10,000 scholarship from the Student Loan Network
+ Art Institutes Passion for Fashion Full Tuition Scholarship
+ William Randolph Hearst Endowed Fellowship for Minority Students
+ Central Christian College of the Bible Full Tuition Scholarship
+ Symantec Research Labs Graduate Fellowship

News You Can Use
+ Tomatoes in your financial aid

Free Stuff Friday
+ Free Trojan - just one. (how weird)
+ Free antibiotics for 14 days with prescription at Publix pharmacies
+ Cappuccino lozenges for smokers trying to quit
+ Livestation has free live streaming TV. I’m addicted to Bloomberg.
+ Google Mail Goggles is the funniest thing I’ve seen in a while
+ A great speedy no-kneading bread recipe
+ Hulu has plenty of election coverage and live debate coverage

Free Song of the Week
+ Kill the Lights, David Usher

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