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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.”
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You are now at the stage when the important personal decision as to where and what course you study will influence the rest of your life. Friends, family and teachers can all offer advice but, ultimately, the choice is yours. This website outlines the broad range of Griffith College courses enjoying external recognition leading to many different careers. We offer both academic and professional courses, full-time and part-time, short-term and long-term and from classroom to distance based. If you would like additional information please contact us for a prospectus.
If you choose Griffith College our experienced and highly respected lecturers will focus your energies on academic development and all round personal growth. We will help you discover your full potential by exploring the wealth of knowledge at your disposal. When you leave us we want you to be fully prepared for a fruitful and enjoyable life.
Griffith College enjoys a strong national and international reputation built on over 30 years of experience. Courses are provided in Dublin, Cork, Waterford, Limerick and Ennis, and overseas in Pakistan, Russia and China. Our excellent student pass rates are reinforced by the many national prizes students have received.
Many former students have risen to senior positions in prestigious national and international companies. These chief executives, senior partners, senior bank executives and prominent media figures are the people who have helped to shape our world. Their success is a testament to the value of this college and its place in the wider community. We believe that we can help you achieve these same levels of success.
Phyllis Ferguson is on a mission to “Make Teaching and Learning a Joy!” by offering personalized teacher training to meet the needs and desires of your staff. Bring back the joy to your teachers and students with inspirational, research-based, hands-on staff development.
On April 1, I posted up a meditation session as the April Fool’s Joke, and I wanted to repost it as a serious show. Give it a try - and please let me know how it works for you.
Student Financial Aid News
+ Inside Higher Ed: Momentum has been building for the federal government to take increasingly aggressive steps to wade into the student loan markets, even amid continuing disagreement about whether and/or how serious a crisis there really is. At the urging of lenders, lawmakers have moved from merely seeking to ensure that there are alternative providers of student loans, so that students do not lose access to college, to calling for outright financial assistance for banks and other loan providers.
+ Under the proposal, which was described in an e-mail message sent by a Senate aide that was shared with Inside Higher Ed, the Education Department would commit to buying “from time to time any or all of such loans originated or purchased by” any lender that so desires, at the face value of the student loan. The plan would then allow the lender to repurchase “any of the loans sold to the Secretary” within a year “upon the same terms and conditions” under which the department bought the loans from the lender. The arrangements, known as “standby loan purchase agreements,” would be possible through July 2009.
+ The proposed arrangement could also enable lenders to pick and choose which loans they decide to sell and buy back, potentially resulting in a situation in which lenders hold on to their safest and most profitable loans (those they are likeliest to be able to sell to traditional investors in the credit markets) and to “dump” their riskiest loans, and those most likely to go into default, on the federal government.
Scholarship Search
+ Another site restrictor search
+ States have domains for their schools
+ Example: scholarship site:k12.ma.us
+ Example: scholarship site:boston.k12.ma.us
+ You will find a decent number of local scholarships and local information
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Online degrees are an exciting, affordable and increasingly popular option for graduates. Online degree programs are offered at many top institutions and the quality of education is every bit as good as a traditional on-campus degrees.
Many colleges are also setting up class groups locally for students studying for an online degree to foster the collaborative experience enjoyed by those studying on-campus.
We recommend graduates explore online Master and Doctoral degrees as a viable option to fulfill their desire for an advanced degree.
