Student Loan Blog : Beckie Supiano

Attention Freshmen and Transfer Students: Colleges Still Have Openings

Student Loan Girl — Thu, 07 May 2009 22:25:00 GMT

Almost 260 colleges and universities around the country still have openings for students, and most of these schools still have ample financial aid available, according to survey results from the National Association for College Admission Counseling (“NACAC Survey: Space and Financial Aid Still Available for Students On College Campuses,” May 2009).

Results from this year’s NACAC annual survey, Space Availability Survey: Openings for Qualified Students, indicated that schools still have spaces available for both freshmen and transfer students who may have not been accepted to their first choice schools or who have yet to apply to college. And, 97 percent of the institutions said they had housing space remaining.

The survey, conducted shortly after the May 1 “decision date” deadline, by which many schools require students to confirm their attendance and submit deposits, is designed as a tool for families, counselors, and teachers to help students who have not yet completed the college admissions process.

More than 70 percent of the 258 NACAC member schools that, in the survey, said they still had spaces available were private institutions. Many of these schools had anticipated lower enrollment numbers this fall after a separate survey found that the recession was forcing one out of six students to change their college plans (“Will the Economy Really Change Students’ College Plans? Signs Say Yes,” The Chronicle of Higher Education, April 24, 2009).

That survey, conducted by the College Board and the higher-education consulting firm the Art & Science Group, indicated that 41 percent of students were seriously considering a public college closer to home over a private institution.

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Tens of Thousands of College Work-Study Students to Benefit From Stimulus

Student Loan Girl — Tue, 24 Feb 2009 22:08:00 GMT

An additional 130,000 college work-study students may have jobs next year thanks to the economic-stimulus bill that President Obama just signed into law which allocates approximately $200 million in new funding for Federal Work-Study Programs, reports The Chronicle of Higher Education (“Economic-Stimulus Law Creates Jobs for Students, Too,” Feb. 19, 2009).

The money, which colleges should receive by April 1 of this year, will not be tied to a new community service requirement as some higher education officials had expected. Work-study funds will be distributed to undergraduate and graduate students next year based upon “existing formulas and information that colleges have already submitted.”

With the additional $200 billion in stimulus money, Federal Work- Study Programs could receive $1 billion in total funding this fiscal year — a level not seen since 2001, The Chronicle reports.

College work-study programs have widespread support in Congress, unlike Pell Grants and tax credits, notes Cynthia Littlefield, director of federal relations for the Association of Jesuit Colleges and Universities.

“Federal Work-Study continues to be highly regarded in a very bipartisan manner on Capitol Hill because everybody realizes the importance and purpose of it,” said Littlefield. “Everyone understands the concept of working your way through school.”

Although the $200 million in stimulus funding for colleges is targeted at providing more work-study jobs, it may not be so easy for schools to get the money that will create the new jobs for their students, The Chronicle suggests.

Since colleges match the Federal Work-Study money on a 25-percent to 75-percent basis, schools can only qualify for the additional funds if they have the extra institutional funds on hand to match the federal money.

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Financial Aid Experts Brainstorm Ways to Help Students Survive Recession

Student Loan Girl — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 00:48:00 GMT

At a recent financial aid conference, aid professionals discussed what colleges and universities can do to help struggling families pay for college amid a weakening economy, reports The Chronicle of Higher Education (“Student-Aid Experts Offer Advice to Colleagues on Weather the Recession,” Jan. 26, 2009).

Josph Russo, a speaker at the “Aid in an Age of Uncertainty” conference and the director of student financial strategies at the University of Notre Dame, said that “time and compassion” are two key things a financial-aid office can extend to students, at a time where high unemployment and tight credit make it difficult for students to cover college costs.

One of the most practical ways that offices can help students, he said, is by extending deadlines for tuition payments. Colleges could allow students more flexibility when it comes to paying their tuition in full instead of sticking to a firm deadline where students are automatically kicked out of school if they can’t immediately pay.

Schools could also offer students no-interest or low-interest institutional loans, Russo said, which many schools are, in essence, already doing when they extend deadlines for tuition payments.

Natala Hart, former financial-aid director at Ohio State University, suggests colleges could also leverage underused funds including any scholarship money that remains after awards have been distributed. She says schools may be able to borrow against these unused funds in order to subsidize institutional loans to students.

Hart urged financial-aid offices to distribute Fall award letters to returning students prior to summer and to call both new and returning students during the summer to address any financial concerns families may have.

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Colleges Step Up, Help Students With Extra Financial Aid

Student Loan Girl — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 23:13:00 GMT

If recent data is any indication, families are struggling to come up with the cash they need to send their children to college, and schools across the country are doing something to help those who’ve come up short, reports The Chronicle of Higher Education (“Colleges Offer Extra Aid to Strapped Students,” Jan. 9, 2009).

During the first few days of the new financial aid season that began Jan. 1 — the first day college students could submit their FAFSA (Free Application for Federal Student Aid), the application required for students seeking federal aid — 40 percent more families over the previous year had already sought out financial assistance (“Families Face Fierce Competition for Student Aid: Season Starts With Sharp Increase in Demand,” Business Wire, Jan. 6, 2009).

“The demand for student aid has been climbing as the recession batters family budgets, parents’ jobs are eliminated, and self- employed parents experience business downturns,” said Craig Carroll, CEO of Student Financial Aid Services, a financial aid advisory company.

Schools Create New Aid Programs or Beef Up Existing Ones

In response to the growing number of families facing limited options to pay for college, some schools are offering families an extended grace period to pay tuition bills, and other schools are meeting the growing demand for aid by expanding existing financial aid programs or creating new ones.

At Northern Illinois University, for instance, school administrators recently introduced the Huskie Advantage, a new aid program that meets tuition costs not covered by state and federal aid. The program, which the school will subsidize by shifting financial funds away from upperclassmen to underclassmen, who usually don’t qualify for as much federal aid, is only available to freshmen who qualify for Pell Grants and need-based state grants, according to Brent Gage, the school’s assistant vice provost for enrollment services.

Agnes Scott College in Georgia also recently announced a new program, the Agnes Solution, targeted at students who are eligible for the state’s Hope Scholarship. The school hopes that by providing qualified students with a $13,500 Agnes Solution scholarship and a $3,000 grant each year, combined with the $3,000 Hope Scholarship, the program will be able to cut the cost of attendance almost in half.

As part of a Saint Mary’s University of Minnesota plan to lower the cost of attendance for low- and middle-income students to match the average cost of the nation’s Big Ten universities, the school is expanding its Brother James Miller Program for Access. The program originally only covered students who met certain academic qualifications and whose families made less than $75,000, but due to the economic downturn, the institution has raised the income qualification to $100,000, and is currently collecting private funds so that it may provide aid for the school’s most financially needy students.

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Nearly Half of All Community College Students Skip FAFSA, Lose Out on Financial Aid

Student Loan Girl — Wed, 22 Oct 2008 00:16:00 GMT

Nearly 40 percent of full-time community college students don’t receive federal financial aid because they don’t bother to fill out the FAFSA (Free Application for Federal Student Aid), according to a new report released by the federal Advisory Committee on Student Financial Assistance.

The September 2008 report, "Apply to Succeed: Ensuring Community College Students Benefit From Need-Based Financial Aid," revealed that among both two-year and four-year dependent students, a full 29 percent of those from the lowest- income families —whose annual earnings are less than $9,999 and who would likely qualify for significant amounts of federal aid — don’t fill out the FAFSA form.

Students don’t apply for financial aid because they think they’re ineligible or that they can cover the cost of college on their own, according to the ACSFA report. Some students even said that the FAFSA is simply too complicated to fill out.

Other students may not apply for aid because they see themselves as workers first, and students second, says Alicia Dowd, who studies community college students and is co-director of the Center for Urban Education at the University of Southern California (“2-Year- College Students Miss Out on Aid — Because Many Don’t Apply,” The Chronicle of Higher Education, October 17, 2008).

The report reveals that about 33 percent of the lowest income community college students who attend school full-time work 30-plus hours a week — despite the fact that most of these students would qualify for federal Pell Grants.

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College CFO’s Say ‘Keeping up With the Joneses Mentality Contributes to Higher Tuition Costs

Student Loan Girl — Tue, 06 May 2008 22:52:00 GMT

According to a new report, 78 percent of college finance officers expect that tuition costs will continue to outpace inflation, largely because colleges, faced with stiff competition, must bolster their amenities to better attract students.

Most respondents from the report placed the blame for tuition increases on rising healthcare costs and efforts to keep up with competing colleges’ facility improvements, according to an article in The Chronicle of Higher Education (“College Finance Chiefs Say Tuition Increases Will Keep Rising Faster Than Inflation,” April 30, 2008). Faculty salaries were also mentioned as a cause.

The report, “Finance Officers on Tuition, Student Debt, and Cost Cutting” — based on a survey of senior financial officers at 100 private colleges — illustrated that U.S. colleges are increasingly focused on facilities and infrastructure, planning and forecasting, investments and endowments, and sustainability.

Nancy Farmer, president and CEO of Independent 529 Plan, the prepay tuition program that sponsored the survey, said she was not surprised that so many respondents pointed to competition as the biggest contributing factor to increases in tuition.

However, she was surprised by something else. “What I found interesting and exciting is CFO’s are really looking at this sustainability issue,” Farmer said, referring to the 65 percent of respondents who said they think about sustainability now more than they did a year ago.

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