FAP794: Massive free stuff Friday, scholarship secret

Listen now:

Student Financial Aid News
+ NASFAA: “‘Financial aid’ most commonly refers to scholarships: direct grants that students need not pay back… policymakers are starting to admit that the system designed to make college more affordable is making it less so,” according to The Indianapolis Star. “Here’s why. ‘When someone else is paying the bills, people want to buy more of the good or service in question at prevailing prices than when the customer pays the bills,’ Vedder explains. ‘This means a higher demand for higher education, and other things being equal, higher tuition costs.’ The problem isn’t just that financial aid distorts the market; it doesn’t work as intended. Financial aid is probably here to stay. The challenge is to eliminate the inflationary effects caused by the third-party payer system.”
+ Lots of commentary about how the private student loan market, which comprises about 20% of lending, is still broken
+ It will for some time - credit markets are still a mess
+ Our private student loans are still open for business
+ Call for stories about paying for school via non-traditional means

Scholarship Search Secret
+ Tips on using Google Reader plus news and blog searches combined to be a massive, real-time monitor of scholarships
+ Here’s how: do searches for individual scholarship terms, then find the RSS link on the left hand side of the page. Copy and paste that link into Google Reader, organize it as a folder, and from then on, you won’t have to keep re-searching for those terms
+ Be sure to pick up our free college scholarship search secrets eBook today!
+ Also make sure you’re registered for our $10,000 scholarship

Free Stuff Friday
+ This week is college graduation at a lot of schools
+ You know what that means - be hitting up Craigslist in your city NOW for steals on stuff that fellow students simply don’t want to take home
+ If you live near a music school, video school, or any college that has programs which involve large, heavy equipment, there are some SERIOUS bargains to be had
+ Baskin Robbins Bump Day - May 21 - free dish or cone
+ Organic free yogurt sample for moms
+ Seattle’s Best Coffee sample
+ Free energy drink sample
+ Quaker Oats
+ Start Sampling - interesting!
+ Successful living magazine
+ Pile of cleaning supplies
+ Klok time tracker
+ AP newswire for iPhone
+ Mozy online backup - 2 GB for free, $5/month for unlimited
+ Collaborative mind maps with MindMeister
+ Nine Inch Nails releases its entire new album free under Creative Commons

Free Song of the Week
+ Not from NIN
+ Black Lab, Ghost In Your Mind

PSA
+ Myanmar and UNICEF - 1800-4-UNICEF

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!
+ Online education directory at Edvisors.com
+ 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

FAP789: PLUS Loan Moral Hazards, Free Stuff Friday

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Student Financial Aid News
+ NASFAA: HR 5715 approved - going through final phases now
+ Increase Annual and Aggregate Stafford Loan Limits
+ The bill would increase the following loan amounts for loans first disbursed on or after July 1, 2008:
+ Increases the additional unsubsidized Stafford annual limits by $2,000 for independent undergraduate students, and for dependent undergraduate students whose parents cannot borrow PLUS, but appears to reduce the additional unsubsidized limit for teacher certification to $6,000 for “undergraduate” students
+ Increases unsubsidized Stafford limits for dependent students by introducing additional unsubsidized amounts of $2,000
+ Increases aggregate unsubsidized loan amounts for undergraduate dependent students from $23,000 to $31,000 (minus subsidized borrowing) but does not appear to extend additional unsubsidized funds for preparatory coursework or teacher certification for these students.
+ Increases aggregate unsubsidized loan amounts for undergraduate independent students from $46,000 to $57,500 (minus subsidized borrowing)
+ Beginning July 1, 2008, the bill would allow parents to choose to defer payments on a PLUS loan until six months after the date the student ceases to be enrolled at least half time. Accruing interest could either be paid by the parent borrower monthly or quarterly, or be capitalized quarterly.
+ Special Provision for Parents Delinquent on Mortgage Payments
+ The bill would allow lenders to consider parents eligible for PLUS loans even if, during the period January 1, 2007, through December 31, 2009, the parents are or were:
+ No more than 180 days delinquent on a mortgage payment on their primary residence
+ No more than 180 days delinquent on any medical bill payments
+ No more than 89 days delinquency on the repayment of “any other debt”
+ The bill temporarily authorizes the Department to purchase FFEL loans originated on or after October 1, 2003, provided those purchases do not result in any cost to the federal government. The Department’s authority to purchase loans under this provision expires on July 1, 2009.
+ The bill would stipulate that if the Department acts as a secondary market lender, it must ensure that any proceeds paid to a lender are used in a “manner consistent with ensuring continued participation of such lender in the Federal student loan programs.” In other words, it would prohibit lenders from using those proceeds in any other way than ensuring they continue participating in FFELP.
+ Some massive changes, and I guarantee, some massive opportunities for loopholes as well, as these provisions contain opportunities for less than ethical behavior, like dumping delinquent borrowers on the Department and leaving them there
+ I still take issue with the whole rewarding bad behavior by allowing delinquent borrowers of mortgages to take out more debt in the form of PLUS loans - this is moral hazard, or encouraging people to behave irresponsibly
+ Here’s an abuse scenario just waiting to happen: Parents whose credit would otherwise deny them a PLUS loan take one out under the expanded, more lax lending standards
+ As part of due diligence, they fail the standard PLUS loan credit test
+ A lender marks them essentially as a high risk borrower
+ The lender holds the loan until the last quarter before the Department’s authority to purchase loans at present value ends - Spring of 2009 - then sells off the loans to the Department at present value, which is the loan plus accrued interest for those nine months
+ If you use a standard amortization table at 8.5%, 9 months of interest accrued on $30,000 is $1,890. If a lender can afford to hold onto high risk borrowers for 9 months, they can earn nearly $2K per high risk borrower at absolutely no risk because the loan will be flipped to the Department before the clock runs out
+ Does anyone besides me think this could be a problem for the taxpayer down the road?
+ I suppose www.ParentPLUSLoan.com is about to become one of our most popular web sites…

Scholarship Update
+ The Collegiate Inventors Competition is a national competition that recognizes and rewards innovations, discoveries, and research by college and university students and their faculty advisors. The Competition encourages students who actively pursue invention. Students frequently come from science, engineering, mathematics, and technology studies but creative invention can emerge from any course of study. The Competition also recognizes the working relationship between a student and his or her advisor. The program was introduced in May, 1990 and is operated by the National Inventors Hall of Fame Foundation.
+ Up to 15 finalists will win an all-expenses paid trip in Fall 2008 to present their work to a panel of expert judges. Each finalist or finalist team will also receive $2000. One Undergraduate and one Graduate winner or team will each receive $15,000. One Grand Prize winner or team will receive $25,000. Academic advisors of each winning team also receive a cash award.
+ Deadline May 16, 2008
+ Details at our free college scholarship search site

Free Stuff Friday
+ Realtime traffic data in Google Earth for major roads
+ Insanely cool! Google Maps has street view turns!
+ Juicy Juice sippee cups for parents of young children
+ Your local Starbucks has free music cards
+ If you’re a fellow podcaster, IODA Promonet is a great source of music for your show
+ Lifehacker has a hack for free Wi-Fi - warning, there might be consequences
+ Men’s Health has four free video workouts for your iPod or computer
+ Great presentation by Clay Shirky at Web 2.0
+ If you ever find yourself making presentations for school or work, watch this video by Garr Reynolds

Free Song of the Week
+ Ronn McFarlane
“Indigo Road” (mp3)
from “Indigo Road - Original Lute Music”
(Dorian Recordings)

Buy at iTunes Music Store
Buy at Amazon
More On This Album

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

FAP785: The Missing Free Stuff, Student loan troubles

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Student Financial Aid News
+ Back from PodCamp NYC
+ Chronicle: Rarely does a president devote a national address to a higher-education issue; several experts could not remember one since a televised speech on student aid by President Nixon. But on Saturday, Mr. Bush reaffirmed recent comments by other administration officials on the need to protect student loans from the national credit crunch. And the president even more strongly supported a bill the House of Representatives passed this month.
+ That bill (HR 5715) seeks to stem the withdrawal of lenders from the government’s guaranteed-student-loan program, which dozens of them have left in recent weeks. It would allow the secretary of education to buy packages of student loans that companies have struggled to sell to investors, thereby giving those companies money for new loans to students.
+ NASFAA: “More than $9 billion of auction- rate bonds sold by student-loan agencies in states from Pennsylvania to Utah have trapped investors in debt that’s not paying interest,” Bloomberg reports. “The collapse of the auction-rate market drove interest costs paid by states, hospitals and student-lending agencies as high as 20 percent, and froze investors in securities they couldn’t sell. Now, holders of student-loan debt are stuck with bonds paying less than the 0.76 percent rate on the one-month Treasury bill. The bonds pay nothing because of a formula designed to ensure that borrowers don’t pay more interest on their debt than they receive from their student-loan clients.”
+ NASFAA: “Two months ago, as a sense of crisis descended upon the student-loan industry, JP Morgan Chase & Company stood up and said that it not only would continue to supply government-backed loans, but would do so at a discount,” The Chronicle of Higher Education reports. “‘It sounds so self-serving,’ a company spokesman, Thomas A. Kelly, said at the time, ‘but if you are doing business with a major bank doing student lending, they’re going to be there tomorrow.’ That was two months ago. Last week the bank’s student-loan division, Chase Education Finance, announced that because of higher financing costs and lower federal subsidy rates, it would no longer offer government-backed loans at colleges with high-risk borrowers. And today officials at Chase are telephoning the colleges that the bank is still willing to serve to tell them that the discounts it promised in February to maintain - reimbursing students for both the borrower origination fee and the default fee that are required under the federal program - will no longer be paid by Chase on the borrower’s behalf.”

Scholarship Update
+ $958,510 in music scholarships from the New England Conservatory of Music
+ Details at our free college scholarship search site

Free Stuff - Bonus Segment
+ 32 things to save the earth and money
+ Places that have free shipping
+ How did no one tell me about the Bargainist?
+ BitRipper DVD converter
+ Beer Menus

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
+ 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

FAP776: US News and World Report, Free Stuff Friday

Listen now:

Student Financial Aid News
+ Hey, we’re in US News and World Report!
+ An article by Kim Palmer and a followup blog post by Richard Mondello
+ I thought it was a good piece, informative, except for this paragraph:
+ “But consumer advocates are concerned that students may not realize or consider that these educational messages are coming from people who want their business, not unbiased sources. “It looks a little bit too much like disinterested information when in fact it is a student loan company…. There’s a conflict there,” says Robert Shireman, executive director of the Project on Student Debt, of the Student Loan Network’s website and podcast. (Penn says the company affiliation is always clearly displayed.)”
+ I just want to check with y’all - is anyone not clear that this podcast is published by the Student Loan Network, that the Student Loan Network is a student loan company, and that when I plug student loan services, they’re services of the Student Loan Network?
+ Do I need pimp music? Yes I do! (some tongue in cheek humor)
+ Stafford federal student loans at StaffordLoan.com
+ Parent PLUS loans at ParentPLUSLoan.com
+ Graduate student loans at GradLoans.com
+ Private student loans at AlternativeStudentLoan.com
+ Of course not. Only smart, highly motivated people listen to the Financial Aid Podcast
+ In all seriousness, there have been in the past some marketing practices that were deceptive by other student loan companies - at the height of student loan consolidation craziness, I got mailings that looked almost like Department of Education notices, bills, credit cards, offers for iPods, phones, free iTunes, you name it.
+ If you want to see a few samples, here’s a link to our Wall of Competition.

Scholarship Update
+ ScholarshipExperts.com is now accepting online applications for the ScholarshipExperts.com Do-Over Scholarship. Five scholarship recipients will be chosen to receive a $1,000 scholarship. Winners will be notified via email and/or postal mail on or around August 30, 2008.
+ Applicants must: Be thirteen (13) years of age or older at the time of application Be legal residents of the fifty (50) United States or the District of Columbia Be currently enrolled (or enroll no later than the fall of 2013) in an accredited post-secondary institution of higher education Submit an online short written response (250 words or less) for the question: “If you were given one ‘do-over,’ would you: (a) use it for yourself; (b) give it to another person; or (c) choose not to use it?” Please explain your choice.
+ Application Deadline: June 30, 2008 at 11:59 pm Eastern Daylight Saving Time
+ Details at our free college scholarship search site

Free Stuff Friday
+ Free reusable tote bag - hat tip to Freebie Fridays
+ Free survey software - inside Google Docs, of all places
+ 9 free digital organizers
+ I’ve been using Things for the Mac lately - it will not be free once it comes out of beta, but boy is it useful
+ DelayCast - timely!
+ Free WiFi Finder
+ I’ve covered it before but it’s worth re-emphasizing - TED Talks is one of the best video podcasts ever. If you’re just tuning in, check out Al Gore’s newest talk, plus Dr. Jill Taylor
+ Timely: Free IRS tax filing online for AGI < $54K
+ Timely: Free IRS filing solely if you want to claim your economic stimulus
+ Please consider doing something useful with your stimulus check
+ Open a savings account and sit on it
+ Donate it to a charity
+ Invest it for the long term in an environmental company like wind or solar

Free Song of the Week
+ Natives of the New Dawn, Good Day

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
+ 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

FAP772: Free stuff Friday, Lender of Last Resort, SREB

Listen now:

Student Financial Aid News
+ At the SREB GoAlliance conference yesterday
+ Some revelatory facts - every 26 seconds, a kid drops out of high school
+ In some southern states, kids drop out as early as 4th grade
+ The causes are many - family influence, money, time, culture
+ Addressing the issue requires a multitude of approaches
+ My role was to help train GoAlliance members in direct to consumer marketing
+ Consequences are grave - statistically a college graduate makes more than $1.2M over a lifetime in earnings more than a high school graduate, $1.6M over someone with no diploma
+ That’s 3,323 kids a DAY - and that means $3.9 BILLION a day lost
+ NorthStar and Student Loan Xpress exit the student loan market
+ Chronicle: Responding to growing concern that student loans may be less available this fall, Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, the Massachusetts Democrat who is chairman of the Senate education committee, introduced legislation on Thursday aimed at reducing borrowers’ dependence on private student loans and making it easier for colleges to find lenders for their students.
+ Mr. Kennedy’s bill, which comes amid a credit crunch that has caused a number of lenders to leave the federally guaranteed student loan programs and private-loan programs, would increase the maximum Pell Grant for the lowest-income students by up to $750. It would also increase federal loan limits by $1,000 a year for undergraduates who are dependents of their parents, and $2,000 a year for independent undergraduates and students whose parents cannot obtain PLUS loans because of their poor credit. The bill also aims to ease the process of applying for a loan under the federal government’s “lender of last resort” program, which would use guarantee agencies to provide loans if they become widely unavailable. Under current law, students seeking a loan would have to petition the Education Department directly and prove that they had been denied a loan by at least two lenders. Under Mr. Kennedy’s bill, the department could designate lenders of last resort on a collegewide, not a student-by-student, basis.
+ Stafford federal student loans at StaffordLoan.com
+ Parent PLUS loans at ParentPLUSLoan.com
+ Private student loans at AlternativeStudentLoan.com

Scholarship Update
+ Songs from the Heart
+ Rock, rap or riff an original song expressing your support for a cause or candidate you care about! Express yourself with an original song backing an issue close to your heart. The style of music is up to you! Create your original song, let your voice be heard and you could win $500! No purchase necessary. Open to anyone who is a resident of the 50 United States or the District of Columbia, has access to the Internet, and is 13 or older at the time of entry.
+ $500
+ June 11 deadline
+ Details at our free college scholarship search site

Free Stuff Friday
+ How to Find Lost Objects eBook
+ Sync up all your calendars with FuseCal
+ Chel Pixie warns to read the TOS on Photoshop Express
+ David Allen’s GTD email eBook
+ TONS of stuff today via BalanceInDiet.com
+ The Backyardigans printable coloring book
+ Sample of Maybelline Mineral Powder
+ Sample of Ultra Xcid Antacid by Zicam
+ Sample of Vaseline Intensive Rescue
+ Sample of Dove Go Fresh deodorant
+ Sample of Post-It flags
+ Seattle’s Best Coffee Sample
+ Curel Life Stages Sample
+ Always Samples
+ Fiber One Cereal Sample
+ Jergens Natural Glow Moisturizer Sample
+ Vaseline Intensive Rescue Sample
+ FlexForce Trash Bag Sample
+ Gold Bond Lotion Sample
+ Purina One Healthful Life Cat Food Sample
+ Check out list #1
+ And List #2

Free Song of the Week
+ Adrina Thorpe, Midnight

Promo
+ Financial Aid Podcast Live: Surviving the Credit Crunch

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
+ 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

FAP767: Going green on Free Stuff Friday, Earth Day 2008

Listen now:

Student Financial Aid News
+ Inside Higher Ed: “Banks are marketing aggressively through a variety of channels. They’re calling students on the phone, they’re mailing to students, and they’re using a combination of on-campus and off-campus tables where they give away products, ranging from offers for sandwiches, offers of food and pizza, all the way up to iPod shuffles,” said Edmund Mierzwinski, consumer program director for U.S. PIRG. The organization manages the “Truth About Credit” campaign.
+ The survey, of more than 1,500 students at 40 campuses in 14 states, found broad support among students for limiting credit card marketing on campuses. Eighty percent said they supported at least some limits. There was strong support for restricting access only to promotions for cards with fair terms and conditions, and opposition to colleges’ sharing or selling lists containing student contact information. “Many credit card companies encounter no difficulty in securing information of current students at colleges for marketing purposes,” the report notes. “It is also true that some state public records laws compel public universities and colleges to sell their lists of student information as public records, to anyone.”
+ I’d have to say that paying tuition with a credit card is a terrible idea, far worse than private student loans
+ Our student credit card education site
+ Chronicle: Guarantee agencies such as USA Funds, despite their concerns, are cooperating with the department to prepare for a possible emergency, James Manning said. Only three weeks after department officials said they were troubled by the state of preparations for a lender-of-last-resort declaration, “we’re much more comfortable with where we are now,” he said.
+ Mr. Manning also made it clear that the administration is not ready to be offering assistance directly to lenders. Even if large numbers of lenders withdraw from the bank-based system, the 20 largest lenders handle 85 percent of student loans, he said. The size of the lenders, along with the continued migration of some colleges to the direct-lending program, should prevent any large-scale disruptions, he said.
+ Stafford federal student loans at StaffordLoan.com
+ Parent PLUS loans at ParentPLUSLoan.com

Scholarship Update
+ The Woodlands High School GREEN Scholarship
+ $1,000 scholarships - 3 of them
+ For students at Woodlands High School in Texas
+ Be sure to Google for your city, town, county, and state with the words Earth Day scholarship to see what local environmental scholarships are available
+ Details at our free college scholarship search site

Free Stuff Friday
+ Let’s see what we can come up with for green and free
+ Last week we mentioned PhoneRaiser to recycle phones and earn cash
+ FreeCycle.org is a site for trading stuff
+ Check out your local Craigslist free stuff column
+ Also check out the barter/trade column as well
+ Free Photoshop Express
+ When buying software, opt for digital download, and delivery is usually free
+ Mint has 30 free eBooks on personal finance
+ If you like horror, Scott Sigler’s eBook Infected is free until March 31
+ Scholarship Search Secrets is free and paperless, too
+ Money savers - compact fluorescent lightbulbs - I’ve just started having to change bulbs I put in my house in 2001 - rechargeable batteries with a 1 hour charger
+ A really important point: green living can be money saving, too - sometimes.
+ Earth Day is April 22 - be on the lookout for free giveaways - last year, Lowes, Ikea, and Home Depot all had free CFL lightbulbs

Free Song of the Week
+ Dirty Work, by Munk

Promo
+ Financial Aid Podcast Live: Surviving the Credit Crunch

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
+ 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

FAP762: Free iced coffee at Dunkin Donuts, federal student loans

Listen now:

Student Financial Aid News
+ Chronicle: Several financial companies that have formed partnerships with colleges in the “school as lender” program are cutting or terminating the scholarship payments they make to colleges, dealing another severe blow to a program already facing the possibility of elimination by Congress.
+ A number of lenders, including Sallie Mae, Nelnet, Citibank, and Student Loan Xpress, have notified their partner colleges in recent weeks about the reductions or terminations. Others, such as Edsouth, are considering similar moves, according to college and banking officials.
+ Inside Higher Ed: The new head of the National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators urged Education Secretary Margaret Spellings in a letter Wednesday to consider using federal funds to ensure that lenders continue to have enough money to make student loans and provide benefits to borrowers this fall. In the letter, Philip R. Day Jr., who became NASFAA’s president and CEO this winter, endorses calls by lawmakers and others for the department to push to ensure the viability of alternatives to the guaranteed loan program, including expanding access to the competing direct loan program and the government’s “lender of last resort” initiative involving guarantee agencies. But because “these options are largely untested,” Day also asked Spellings to consider bolstering the lender-based guaranteed loan program by “allowing non-bank student loan providers to use the loans that they have been unable to sell as collateral to borrow funds from the federal government so they can make loans this fall and to pursue other financial strategies in order to provide a backstop for this element of the marketplace.” Some lenders and federal lawmakers have urged such actions as well, as a growing number of loan providers announce plans to stop originating student loans.
+ We petitioned on March 9 for this exact thing
+ Chronicle/WSJ: The Wall Street Journal is reporting that HSBC Bank USA, the M&T Bank Corporation, and the TCF Financial Corporation have all decided to stop offering federally guaranteed student loans following last year’s decision by Congress to cut lender subsidies by more than $20-billion over five years.
+ All three are among the program’s 50 largest lenders, together providing more than $560-million of the $119-billion in federally backed loans issued in the 2006 federal fiscal year, the Journal reported.
+ Stafford federal student loans at StaffordLoan.com
+ Parent PLUS loans at ParentPLUSLoan.com
+ Private student loans at AlternativeStudentLoan.com

Scholarship Update
+ The UVM/GIV Engineering Institute offers you the adventure of a lifetime! Discover cool careers in engineering and learn how technology will impact the future of our planet. The University of Vermont College of Engineering and Mathematical Sciences and The Governor’s Institutes of Vermont announce their 2008 UVM/GIV Engineering Institute June 28 - July 5, 2008. Challenge yourself to think outside the box with a hands-on project, laboratory experiences, faculty presentations and enlightening tours. You’ll learn how technology impacts the human experience. Experience the thrill of creating sand arches at the beach and become part of an innovative team to work on one of the following diversified projects that will stretch your brain! * Renewable Energy Systems * Robotics Technology * Aeronautical Engineering * Engineering Sustainability
+ The cost to participate in GC is nothing. Students who are interested in science, math or engineering should check out the camp and the program (www.globalchallengeaward.org). Students who have not started this year’s competition are still eligible for the summer program scholarship if they express and interest and commitment to trying the program next year. For those who incur travel costs and those costs would be prohibitive we do have some travel funds available to students with demonstrated need. Our goal is to encourage any student to explore STEM topics in a global, collaborative online curriculum. These scholarships are open to anyone regardless of sex, race, financial status, etc. The nomination criteria is an interest in the subject. Please feel free to nominate students or pass this information directly to them.
+ Open to high school students ages 14- 17
+ 40 full tuition scholarships
+ $60,000
+ Details at our free college scholarship search site

Free Stuff Friday
+ Update: Dunkin Donuts PR emailed me to let me know that actually, no, there isn’t a 3/21 giveaway. That was apparently last year, and they’re not doing a re-run. However, you can get free Dunkin coffee instead here: Dunkin At Home
+ PocketMod minibooks of your stuff
+ Google Gadgets for Spreadsheets
+ Free recycling of old gadgets at the Post Office
+ Similar to PhoneRaiser - except they get the money instead of you. Use PhoneRaiser if you have gadgety friends at your school to raise some tuition funds
+ Google Grants for Non-Profits
+ SmartSleep for the Mac laptop
+ Your legal rights as a photographer
+ Two free music albums
+ It’s About Time from Kevin Reeves
+ Collective by Duwende
+ Breakaway for Mac iTunes

Free Song of the Week
+ From Duwende’s Collective, here’s Come Back

Promo
+ NCAA 2008 Men’s Basketball March Madness Charity Pool

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.
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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
+ 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

FAP757: Free coffee, free food, Free Stuff Friday

Listen now:

Student Financial Aid News
+ Chronicle: Congress cut subsidies to private lenders while tightening rules on how they operate. More than a dozen lenders have already announced that they are leaving or scaling back their participation in the federally guaranteed loan program, and many more could follow.
+ Congress’s changes, though, may prove responsible for only a fraction of the turmoil facing private lenders. The tightening of credit has prevented many lenders from raising needed capital and, combined with subsidy cuts, has led some lenders to conclude that the federally guaranteed program is no longer a worthwhile enterprise.
+ Most interesting tidbit from the article was a comment that the Department of Education Direct Loan program will have newer, easier to use systems that will allow colleges to offer both FFEL and Direct lending programs together
+ Believe it or not, that’s a good thing - it puts Direct Lending on an equal footing as any other federal student loan program and opens up the remaining 19% of colleges that are Direct-only to FFEL lenders
+ Inside Higher Ed also reports that the vast majority of students don’t go hog wild on Spring Break, instead opting for school sponsored trips or just going home.

Scholarship Update
+ Detroit Queen of the Highlands scholarship
+ Perfect example of a small local scholarship
+ $1,000 award
+ June 2 deadline
+ Must be of Scottish descent
+ Details at our free college scholarship search site

Free Stuff Friday
+ BlueLock for Windows
+ Hulu is now open
+ Mark march 21st on your calendar - Dunkin’ Donuts is giving away a free iced coffee.
+ Dunkin’ Donuts free ground coffee sample
+ Limited Too has buy one get one free Webkinz.
+ Free Hamburger Helper samples
+ Hat tip to Connie Bensen - Cool Text has 1,200 free fonts
+ Hat tip to Chris Johnston - 8 page ebook on how to get good recommendations for college admissions
+ Environmental tip: get a clothes drying rack and/or clothesline. You will save money on quarters, energy, and extend the life of your clothing, not to mention reduce your environmental footprint
+ Financial tip: if a company goes into bankruptcy and you have a gift card for it, it’s now worthless - sorry. Chapter 11 treats gift cards as debts, not as cash.

Free Song of the Week
+ Adrina Thorpe, Midnight

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
+ 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
+ Student loan consolidation at StudentLoanConsolidator.com
+ Private student loans available at any time - visit AlternativeStudentLoan.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

FAP752: Free stuff Friday, New England student loan troubles

Listen now:

Student Financial Aid News
+ Boston Globe: Amid a deepening credit squeeze and cutbacks in federal loan subsidies, New Hampshire’s nonprofit student-loan agency said this week that it will no longer offer private loans. The Massachusetts Educational Financing Authority, which lent money to 42,000 college students last year, has so far failed to secure any financing for its loans, as skittish investors shy away from taking on debt.
+ NASFAA and Minnesota Public Radio: “A report released by the National Consumer Law Center highlights the problem faced by students and recent graduates: steep tuition increases force students to take on more and more debt from private lenders. Then, a tight job market makes it hard for them to pay the loans back,” Minnesota Public Radio reports. “The private student loan market has exploded in the past five years and students are just now waking up to the long-term consequences, according to the center’s staff attorney, Deanne Loonin. ‘They’re just not in the economic shape they hoped they would in. They’re just not able to pay their loans. They have huge amounts of debt. It affects their credit. It affects their ability to build assets for the future,’ she says. Private lenders are not required to release information about default rates. But student surveys indicate a growing negative trend, Loonin says. In addition to higher tuition and persistently low federal loan limits, sophisticated marketing has greatly increased private lenders’ share of the market, she says.”

Scholarship Update
+ FLO TV is looking for the ultimate Super Fan. Submit an original photograph or video showing why you’re a team’s Super Fan and you could win a 52″ HD LCD Toshiba Regza plus $1,000 in cash. Or, if you’re a spectator who can spot a Super Fan from a mile away, vote or review on a photo or video entry and you can win a $100 scholarship or cash. No purchase necessary. Open to anyone who is a resident of the 50 United States or the District of Columbia, has access to the Internet, and is 18 or older at the time of entry.
+ Details at our free college scholarship search site

Free Stuff Friday
+ Get high quality video out of YouTube
+ Get flight data via text message from Google
+ Other things you can text Google about: Local, Weather, Glossary, Sports, Movies, Stocks, Zip Codes, Directions, Maps, Flights, Area Codes, Products, Q&A, Airlines, Translation, Web Snippets, Calculator, Currency Conversion, Airports, METAR, Help
+ Score free travel by intentionally booking your flight on overbooked flights
+ Ze Frank video on how to study
+ Learn how to garden simple herbs. No, not THAT kind of herb, I mean the culinary kind. A simple window box of a few basic plants - chives, basil, dill, oregano, and mint can give you tons of flavor even to college cafeteria food (try sprinkling fresh chopped dill on a salad with italian dressing) and once you get it started, as long as you maintain it, it’s more or less free

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
+ 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
+ Student loan consolidation at StudentLoanConsolidator.com
+ Private student loans available at any time - visit AlternativeStudentLoan.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: finan