Student Loan Blog : College Tuition

No More Fixed Tuition for Georgia Students

Student Loan Girl — Fri, 17 Apr 2009 23:43:00 GMT

In response to a $274 million loss in state funds, Georgia’s Board of Regents voted unanimously to suspend its “Fixed for Four” program, which guaranteed freshmen entering the University System of Georgia a set tuition rate for four years of school, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports (“Regents Suspend Fixed Tuition Program,” April 14, 2009).

The change will not affect the cost of tuition for freshmen beginning this fall; all freshmen — except those attending Georgia Tech and the University of Georgia — will pay the same tuition cost as last year’s freshman class. This entering freshman class will, however, be the first since 2006 that will be subject to tuition increases throughout their subsequent academic years.

Freshmen at Georgia Tech and the University of Georgia will now pay tuition based on 15 credit hours instead of 12 — which amounts to a 25-percent increase in tuition costs — and any additional credit hours will be free of charge. Students attending the other state schools in the university system, on the other hand, will only pay increased tuition when they take more than 12 credit hours (“Georgia Suspends its Fixed-Tuition Program,” The Chronicle of Higher Education, April 14, 2009).

For students already enrolled in the “Fixed for Four” program, the public school system will continue to honor the guaranteed tuition rates. “Efforts to lessen the impact on students and their families while implementing changes that reflect today’s economic realities are the focus of the new strategy,” University System of Georgia Chancellor Erroll B. Davis Jr. wrote in a letter to parents and students (“An Open Letter to Parents and University System of Georgia Students from Chancellor Erroll B. Davis Jr.”). “The Board has worked to find the appropriate balance between controlling costs and providing requisite resources to colleges and universities.”

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College Unattainable for Undocumented Immigrants

Student Loan Girl — Thu, 12 Mar 2009 00:08:00 GMT

Judah Lakin, a Rhode Island high school teacher, spends much of his time trying to help his students prepare for college. But even if his students have what it takes to pursue a higher education, many of them are undocumented immigrants and will never step foot on a college campus because they don’t have access to federal financial aid or in-state tuition, The New York Times reports (“Longtime Residents Not Allowed In-State Tuition,” March 8, 2009).

Twenty-two percent of Rhode Island children live in immigrant families and, like immigrant students in 39 other states, they’re ineligible for in-state tuition. Because out-of-state tuition often costs three times as much as in-state tuition — a price difference of $16,000 at the University of Rhode Island for example — many undocumented students are priced out of a college education.

And since federal law prohibits undocumented students from qualifying for federal grants and student loans, these students have little to no means of finding college financial aid.

The lack of college prospects for undocumented students hurts the state, says Robert Carothers, president of the University of Rhode Island.

“It does no good to keep people who live here from an education by which they could make contributions back to the state. It perpetuates ignorance, which is not in our interest,” Carothers says.

Undocumented Students Naïve About the Effects of Their Non-Residency

Lakin’s immigrant students are often completely unaware of how easily their undocumented status can derail their college aspirations, he says.

One of his students is more than academically qualified to attend a Rhode Island college or university but can’t afford the out-of-state tuition fees she would be required to pay at a local college because of her undocumented status. Although the student has lived in the United States since she was a baby and her mother has a legal work permit and pays taxes, the student has not established U.S. residency.

“This student always assumed she’d go to a good college,” says Lakin, who has asked his school district to help educate students about all of their legal residency options. “She’s used to getting awards and internships, but nobody ever explained to her the gravity of what remaining undocumented would mean for her college prospects.”

To help undocumented students attain a college education, state legislator Grace Diaz has introduced legislation that would grant in-state tuition rights to undocumented students who’ve lived in the state for more than three years.

But even though the legislation has gained some support, it has received strong opposition from anti-immigration supporters, including Terry Gorman, executive director of Rhode Islanders for Immigration Law Enforcement, who feels it's “unfair to U.S. citizens to have to pay the tax burden for the college educations of illegals.”

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In a Recession, U.S. College Students Head to Canada

Student Loan Girl — Wed, 31 Dec 2008 20:15:00 GMT

College-age students who want a higher education without the hefty high price tag are heading to Canada, where a college education can cost nearly half of what it would cost in the United States, reports The Boston Globe (“Canada: Passport to Higher Ed, Lower Cost,” Dec. 25, 2008).

The number of Americans attending Canadian universities has grown to 9,000 students, double the amount of American students that crossed the Canadian border for college just seven years ago, according to the Canadian Embassy in Washington, D.C.

And this year alone — in which the U.S. economy continues to reach new lows — Canadian universities have seen a surge in U.S. interest: Dalhousie University in Halifax has received triple the amount of information requests from New England students than it normally receives, and McGill University in Montreal has already enrolled 100 Massachusetts students.

Affordable tuition rates at Canadian universities and a smaller gap between the U.S. and Canadian dollar allow Americans the opportunity to get a college education in Canada at a value. The average cost of tuition and fees for American undergraduate students attending Canadian colleges and universities is $14,487, far less than the cost of tuition and fees at four-year private institutions in the United States, which average $23,712.

“Students don’t usually come in and say ‘I want to go to Canada,’” said Joan Casey, an education consultant in Massachusetts. “But then they hear about the cost and think: ‘$18,000 for everything? That’s pretty amazing.’”

In addition to the cost differential, Canadian schools are appealing to American students because they may still be eligible for merit-based financial aid and can still use their U.S. federal student loans at Canadian colleges.

High school counselors also point out that American students are often enticed by the fact that Canada’s college admissions process, which often doesn’t include interviews and doesn’t require admissions essays, is far simpler and far less competitive than the U.S. admissions process. In fact, Americans may be able to get accepted to a better school in Canada than they would have in the United States.

“Students are willing to look more broadly geographically,” said Brad MacGowan, a college counselor at Newton North High School in Massachusetts, which has sent 10 students to McGill University over the past three years. “And Canadian colleges are looking for them.”

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College Tuition, Student Borrowing On the Rise In Down Economy

Student Loan Girl — Mon, 03 Nov 2008 08:50:00 GMT

A new report has found that last year’s increases in college tuition were more on pace with rises in the Consumer Price Index — the measure of the average price of consumer goods and services. But despite the relative steadiness of college affordability, students still received record amounts of financial aid and borrowed more in student loans, according to findings of the College Board’s 2008 Trends in Higher Education Series.

The 2008 Trends in College Pricing report, which covers this academic year’s college costs, found that while the CPI rose nearly 5.6 percent this year, the average in-state tuition and fees at public four-year institutions increased by 6.4 percent to $6,585. Average tuition and fees at two-year public colleges jumped 4.7 percent to $2,402, and increased 5.9 percent at private four-year colleges and universities to $25,143.

“College prices are doing what other prices are doing. They’re not going up more rapidly; they’re just keeping pace,” said Sandy Baum, a senior policy analyst for the College Board and a Skidmore College economics professor (“Downturn Expected to Drive Tuition Up,” The New York Times, Oct. 30, 2008).

Lagging Economy Could Spark Increased Demand for Financial Aid

The concern among education experts is that while tuition increases were milder and closer inline with the CPI this year, these numbers may already be out of date. Since the data was gathered before the economy began its downward spiral, students at both public and private institutions may be in for even larger tuition hikes and even more borrowing next year.

The current economic crunch has led many states to slash their higher education budgets. In order to compensate for the loss of state funds, public colleges and universities in more than 12 states have been forced to raise their tuition costs.

But the flagging economy hasn’t just affected state schools; private colleges and universities have had difficulties raising funds from private donors — their largest source of financing — and have had to push any increased costs onto students.

“Private colleges face a real quandary,” Baum said. “Everybody’s going to have more people applying for financial aid, and it could really be that they’re going to lose enrollment if they can’t meet the need.”

According to the 2008 Trends in Student Aid report, part of the College Board’s Trends in Higher Education Series, graduate and undergraduate students received more than $143 billion in federal financial aid last year, and borrowed $19 billion from state and private lending sources — figures that are expected to rise as the cost of college increases.

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Government Warns: Pell Grant Program in Trouble

Student Loan Girl — Mon, 22 Sep 2008 21:47:00 GMT

Without additional taxpayer funds next year, the government’s “most important” federal financial aid program may be unable to provide Pell Grants to millions of eligible low-income students, likely pricing these students out of a higher education, according to an article in The New York Times (“Pell Grants Said to Face a Shortfall,” Sept. 17, 2008).

In a memorandum issued last week, the Department of Education warned that it predicts a $6 billion shortage for the federal Pell Grant program next year, stemming from continuous budget shortfalls and compounded by the record-high number of students qualifying for the federal Pell Grant program.

Rising tuition costs, shrinking state aid to colleges and universities, and a growing number of adults who are reenrolling in college are all putting a strain on federal financial aid resources, particularly on Pell Grants, which don’t have to be repaid. This school year alone, six million students out of the nine million who applied for federal financial aid received Pell Grants, some of the highest numbers the program has seen since its inception in 1972.

“It’s the mother of all shortfalls,” said Barmak Nassirian, associate executive director of the American Association of Collegiate Registrars and Admissions Officers. “There’s more unmet need than anyone predicted.”

Last year Congress appropriated nearly $14 billion for the Pell Grant program, but as the troubled economy continues to force adults out of the workforce and back into the classroom, the Department of Education said it will either need to allocate more taxpayer money to the Pell Grant program or decrease the grant award amounts students can receive next year.

Should the Education Department decide to reduce Pell Grant awards, it would make an announcement detailing its decision sometime in February 2009, according to the memorandum.

“If [the Pell Grant program] is threatened, you’ll hear about it,” said Edward M. Elmendorf, senior vice president of the American Association of State Colleges and Universities. “The decibel level will be deafening.”

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MBA Cheating Scandal Ends With Almost 100 GMAT Scores Cancelled

Student Loan Girl — Fri, 12 Sep 2008 20:46:00 GMT

In June, 6,000 MBA hopefuls saw their aspirations come crashing down when it came to light that their GMAT scores could be cancelled due to a cheating scandal that involved the illegal posting of live GMAT test questions on Scoretop.com. Most of those students named in the controversy can now breathe a sigh of relief.

The Graduate Management Admission Council, the company that administers the GMAT test, announced that only 84 test takers, not the several hundred or thousand students as many originally feared, would have their test scores voided, according to a Business Week article (“Nearly 100 Would-Be MBAs Nailed in GMAT Scandal,” Sept. 9, 2008).

Of the 84 students whose scores were cancelled, 72 posted messages on Scoretop.com saying that they recognized test-prep questions from the site on their GMAT exam. These individuals will not be allowed to retest and, as a result, may not be able to qualify for a MBA program that requires the GMAT as an admissions prerequisite.

The remaining 12 individuals who had their scores cancelled, but who didn’t post test question information on the Scoretop site, will be eligible to retest after three years. Some 500 score reports sent to colleges and universities by the 84 test takers were also cancelled by GMAC, which notified all affected schools of the cancelled scores.

GMAC President David Wilson said that the decision to cancel scores was based on extensive analysis of data from the Scoretop Web site as well as GMAT registration and examination information.

“We take the action of canceling scores very seriously, with a full understanding of our ethical responsibility to both students and schools to protect the integrity of the test and the application process,” Wilson stated in a recent press release (“Graduate Management Admission Council Completes Investigation of GMAT Test Takers Who Used Scoretop.com; Scores Canceled,” Sept. 9, 2008).

Colleges to Handle Students With Cancelled Scores Differently

At the number-one ranked University of Chicago business school, two students enrolled this fall had their scores cancelled, leaving administrators only two weeks after GMAC’s score-cancellation announcement to figure out what to do prior to the start of the new semester.

Derrick Bolton, MBA admissions director at Stanford University, was notified of 20 cancelled scores, including one from a student who already graduated and 10 from applicants who were denied admission. If any of these 10 applicants re-apply in the future, Bolton said, they will be required to provide detailed explanations of their involvement with Scoretop before their application is considered. The fate of the student who already graduated has yet to be determined.

University of Michigan’s dean of the Ross School of Business, Robert Dolan, said the school will strictly enforce its honor code, which prohibits cheating, for any Ross students identified by GMAC as part of the scandal on a case-by-case basis.

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Virginia Commonwealth University Improperly Awarded Degree to Police Chief

Student Loan Girl — Thu, 11 Sep 2008 20:02:00 GMT

In an incident that mirrors the recent scandal at West Virginia University where an executive M.B.A. was improperly awarded to the governor’s daughter, an investigation found that Virginia Commonwealth University awarded the state’s police chief a bachelor’s degree despite his failure to complete certain degree requirements, according to an article in The Chronicle of Higher Education (“Virginia Commonwealth U. Reports to Accreditor on Improper Degree Award,” Sept. 8, 2008).

A report issued to Virginia Commonwealth’s accrediting body, the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools’ Commission on Colleges, noted that Rodney Monroe, now the chief of police for the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department, did not meet the commission’s 25-percent rule where 30 credit hours — or 25 percent — of a student’s undergraduate coursework must be completed on the campus of the college granting the degree.

Instead, Monroe was allowed to transfer a full 118 credit hours from the University of Phoenix and the FBI Academy toward the 120-credit requirement for graduation.

The report also found that Monroe had only satisfied 15 of the 28 academic requirements needed to earn a degree in interdisciplinary studies, and that the degree could not have been properly awarded “unless this student had been afforded preferential treatment at the admissions, curriculum, and graduation stages of the student experience.”

After a thorough review of its degree-conferral practices, Virginia Commonwealth University concluded that only two of 15,000 undergraduate degrees were improperly awarded since 2003. Virginia Commonwealth maintains that its degree-conferral standards still meet accreditor requirements, but may still be subject to sanctions if the commission finds that the school has not taken enough steps to prevent a recurring incident.

University officials are allowing Monroe to keep his degree, since they didn’t find any evidence of academic misconduct on his part, however, the dean of Virginia Commonwealth’s University College and the dean of the College of Humanities and Sciences resigned during the course of the investigation.

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College Textbook Sales Drop, Online Piracy Possible Cause

Student Loan Girl — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 21:09:00 GMT

Sales of new textbooks at some of the nation’s college presses are declining, and though many press directors are unsure why sales are slipping, others think it may have to do with online piracy of the books, according to an article in The Chronicle of Higher Education (“Textbook Sales Drop, and University Presses Search for Reasons Why,” Jennifer Howard, Sept. 4, 2008).

Recently, a reader notified the University of Chicago Press of a scanned copy of its best-selling The Chicago Manual of Style that was made freely available on the Internet.

Online piracy, where websites illegally offer electronic versions of the textbooks without permission from the publisher, also became a big problem at Princeton University Press this summer. Daphne Ireland, the press’s intellectual property director, came back from vacation to find her in-box crammed full of pirated versions of Princeton books. After conducting extensive research, her office located over 100 copies of pirated textbooks on the Internet that anyone could download.

Alex Holzman, director of Temple University Press and president of the Association of American University Presses, suspects that piracy may be a factor contributing to the industry’s decline in sales. “My gut is telling me that electronic downloading is adding seriously to what would normally be just a straightforward economic downturn,” he said. “There's something more going on here than in the past.”

Oxford University Press and Cambridge University Press are seeing strong sales, while other university publishers are seeing significant drops. Since 2004, overall unit sales have declined 17 percent at the University of North Carolina Press. Unit sales have fallen off 12 percent since 2007 at the University of Illinois Press. And Temple University Press sales for July and August of this year are down 15 percent compared to this same time last year.

In addition to online piracy, University of Illinois press director Willis Regier points to the troubled economy, competition from sellers of used textbooks, and the difficulty of tracking online textbook sales for the decline in textbook sales at university presses.

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Colleges Teach Students How to Pay for School, Manage Money

Student Loan Girl — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 20:56:00 GMT

Several Texas colleges and universities are rolling out new classes and programs designed to help their students become more financially-savvy about everything from student loans to personal finances, reports Pamela Yip, business columnist for The Dallas Morning News (“Colleges Spending More Time Teaching Financial Literacy,” Sept. 1, 2008).

At the University of Texas in Arlington, students may take a course that covers such topics as life and casualty insurance, taxes, investments, and estate planning. Southern Methodist University near Dallas offers a personal finance class for students pursuing a business minor.

And the University of North Texas, in Denton, has a Student Money Management Center that provides free financial consultations to students. Students can talk to trained professionals about how to research housing options, how to establish and manage their credit, and how to graduate with a financial plan to repay their student loans.

North Texas University Unveils Comprehensive Program for All Students

The north Texas school also launched the Student-to-Student Financial Success Projects on Sept. 2 that uses a peer-to-peer model of teaching. Students can meet and discuss money matters with trained students, known as Money Management Mentors, or go online and take self-paced training models.

“We feel that some students may learn better from another student who is actually going through a similar situation, or who has recently gone through similar circumstances,” says Kimberly Goldsmith, a student coordinator for the project.

While the program is available to all students, it primarily targets first-generation college students, families with low to moderate incomes, and other traditionally under-represented students.

Unlike the University of Texas and Southern Methodist University which offer such classes only at the college level, the University of North Texas seeks to assist students with financial literacy before they enter college. The school’s Center for Economic Education helps elementary and high school teachers integrate personal finance concepts into their lesson plans.

“One of the things that we have found is that the population has very little background in basic economics and personal finance,” said Steven Cobb, director of the center and chairman of the economics department. “The earlier that we start teaching economics, the earlier students begin to understand these concepts and the better the chance that they will be good consumers.”

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Student Attempts to Get eBay Bidders to Pay for College Tuition

Student Loan Girl — Fri, 29 Aug 2008 20:29:00 GMT

Zack Ketz, a University of Virginia studio art major, is not the first to use an eBay auction as a ploy for free tuition. Oklahoma Wesleyan University found a bidder to pay $18,669.99 for one year of tuition and room, and board — valued at $23,000 — on the site last year.

However, Ketz’s effort was not as successful. His auction’s final bid only reached $152.50, not quite enough to cover his $22,000 tuition bill, according to an article on Newsadvance.com (“Ebay Auction to Pay UVA. Student’s Tuition Falls Short,” Aug. 15, 2008).

And unlike the Wesleyan auction where the winning bidder received something of value, namely a discount on college tuition, the take- home for Ketz’s bidder, a friend of his dad, was less clear. Ketz’s idea was to have eBay customers fight over the privilege to pay off his tuition bill in exchange for his commitment to advocate for the winner’s philanthropy.

Ketz, who lives paycheck to paycheck by repairing wheelchairs full- time, was desperate for money to pay for school, but says he neglected to apply for scholarships and grants to cover his tuition. He claims that he didn’t want to give in to the system, saying “Why don’t I at least make an effort to do something different?”

Not everyone thought his plan was such a great idea. One individual who wrote Ketz suggested that he get a “real job.” Then there was the Website “College on the Record” that listed Ketz’s auction number one on their list of “Top 5 College Scams.”

The winning bidder, Tom Beacham, however, thought that the eBay strategy was brilliant. “It was ingenious on his part,” he said. “I think it adds a little comical side to [paying for college].”

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Naval Academy Tries New Tactics to Appeal to Minority Students

Student Loan Girl — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 21:57:00 GMT

In an attempt to bring the demographic of the U.S. Naval Academy more in line with the Navy’s enlisted force, the academy has created an upbeat commercial and a graphic novel to attract more minorities to the school, according to an article in the Washington Times (“Naval Academy Wooing Minorities,” Aug. 23, 2008).

Vice Adm. Jeffrey Fowler, the academy’s superintendent, has made his top priority to increase the school’s diversity with the release of a TV commercial and graphic novel this fall, both of which target minorities. The U.S. Naval Academy prepares its students to fill Navy leadership positions with a four-year military education. Candidates graduate from the academy with an officer’s commission.

While specific details of the novel have yet to be released, Adm. Fowler is positioning it to reach incoming college students who will be vying for about 1,200 open spots. The academy received 11,000 applications last year and has about 4,400 students total.

Women and other minorities will play a large role in the commercial, which will air during televised Navy sporting events. It will feature a female midshipman smiling into the camera from a Blue Angel’s cockpit giving a thumbs up and the women’s soccer team, along with upbeat music from the academy’s choir.

Women were first admitted to the school in 1976 and now represent more than 20 percent of the academy’s graduating class.

The Navy’s entire enlisted force is about 47 percent minorities, while the Naval Academy’s 2012 class has 28 percent minority students, the highest percentage yet of minorities at the school.

It took only a single generation for the U.S. enlisted force to mirror the country’s diversity as a whole, Fowler said, and he believes that it will take about the same amount of time to get the makeup of the officer corps to reflect the same percentage of minorities in America’s general public.

Fowler said, “I don't need more applications, just to get more applications. I need more applications from underrepresented geography of America ... and I need more from what I consider underrepresented ethnic and racial minorities.”

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Detroit Program Aims to Provide Full College Scholarships to Public High School Graduates

Student Loan Girl — Fri, 22 Aug 2008 20:16:00 GMT

Graduates of public high schools in Detroit, Mich., may receive full college scholarships in the near future, if the new Detroit College Promise scholarship program can raise the funds it needs, according to an article in The Detroit News (“Group Plans DPS College Aid,” Aug.19, 2008)

Modeled after the Kalamazoo Promise scholarship program, the Detroit College Promise scholarship will be awarded to high school graduates who have attended a Detroit public high school for four consecutive years and have completed a one-page application.

Detroit Public Schools spokesman Steve Wasko said, “This has the potential to be great news for our students, and we look forward to learning more about it from the organizers.”

To date, Detroit College Promise has received $40,000 of the $500,000 that the non-profit organization needs to fund a pilot program this fall that would provide scholarships to the class of 2009 at one Detroit high school.

Executive Director Nat Pernick estimates that the program will need to raise $40 million in order to provide college scholarships to every high school class in the Detroit Public Schools system, which means the program will need an endowment of $1 billion to make scholarships available to all future graduates of Detroit public high schools.

Supporters hope that their efforts will help restore the Detroit school system by bolstering attendance and drawing people back to the city to take advantage of free college tuition.

“We want to improve Detroit Public Schools, and we think motivating parents and students is a good way to do that,” said Nat Pernick, executive director of Detroit College Promise. “That’s been the experience in Kalamazoo.”

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Number of Students Applying for Federal Financial Aid Goes Up Almost 20%

Student Loan Girl — Tue, 12 Aug 2008 23:21:00 GMT

While college enrollment is only expected to grow by 300,000 students this year, some 1.3 million additional college students have already applied for federal financial aid — an increase of 17 percent, according to an article in U.S. News World Report (“Financial Aid Applications Jump 17 Percent,” Aug. 11, 2008).

The U.S. Department of Education accepts the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) between January 1 and June 30 of every year. (Submitting the FAFSA is the only way undergraduates can apply for federal grants and student loans.) In the first six months of 2008, the Education Department received more than 9 million FAFSAs, up from 7.7 million in 2007.

Some financial aid experts are postulating that this increase is a sign that more students are unable to afford their school costs this year, as college tuition continues to rise, outpacing cost of living, and as high gas and food prices, along with the current credit crunch, leave families with tighter budgets and fewer financing options.

“What we are seeing is more people filling out requests for financial aid, and for those who do, more people are qualifying and the aggregate need is increasing,” says Richard Toomey, associate vice provost at Santa Clara University (“Student Aid Requests Soar as Economy Plummets,” San Francisco Chronicle, Aug. 11, 2008). “Students who haven’t needed assistance before are coming in. You had to expect that this was going to happen with all the news of companies laying off thousands of people.”

Donald Heller, director of the Center for the Study of Higher Education at Pennsylvania State University, has a different theory: He believes the surge in FAFSA submissions could simply mean that more eligible students are becoming aware of their federal financial aid options and are trying to take advantage of them.

Extensive press coverage of a potential student loan availability crisis and the news of elite institutions expanding their financial aid offerings to accommodate more low- and middle-income families may have helped encourage more students to apply this year, Heller says.

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New Law May Simplify College Financial Aid Form

Student Loan Girl — Wed, 06 Aug 2008 00:55:00 GMT

Students and parents could spend less time filling out the Free Application for Federal Student Aid under a new provision of The Higher Education Opportunity Act of 2008, according to an article in The Austin American-Statesman, (“New Law to Trim College Financial Aid Form,” August 2, 2008). The legislation was approved by Congress last week but has yet to be signed into law by the president.

Currently, in order to qualify for federal financial aid, families are required to complete the lengthy 11-page FAFSA separately from their yearly tax forms even though the 100-question federal financial aid form is based on tax information families are required to report to the Internal Revenue Service each year. The proposed legislation would allow the IRS to share these figures with the Department of Education, eliminating the need for families to report the information twice.

Requiring the agencies to share data could eliminate the need for as many as 31 questions from the FAFSA, according to a 2007 study by the Institute for College Access and Success.

The current FAFSA, which is used by federal and state governments and most colleges to determine eligibility for financial aid, is so cumbersome to fill out that it represents a roadblock for many students who otherwise might be college bound, the Chronicle of Higher Education reported last year, (“Congress and the Education Department Move to Simplify the Student-Aid Process,” March 30, 2007).

At that time, Rep. George Miller, who is the chief sponsor of the U.S House of Representative’s version of the bill to simplify the FAFSA, told the Chronicle the FAFSA needed to be changed because “It’s long and complicated. It’s over 100 questions. We now see the situation that the form itself can impact the decision about whether students go to college.”

Legislators have not laid out a specific time frame for when the shortened FAFSA would be introduced, leaving the agencies involved to decide when to implement the new FAFSA and the other proposed revisions to the financial aid process:

A simplified process for re-applying for financial aid
Clearer explanations regarding student borrowing options
Requirements that schools and lenders adopt new codes of conduct
Increased transparency and disclosures regarding federal student loan programs

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Study Abroad Reform Bill Stalls in Senate

Student Loan Girl — Fri, 01 Aug 2008 21:54:00 GMT

The Simon Study Abroad Foundation Act, a bill that supports study abroad reforms, and is one of 35 bills that compose Sen. Harry Reid’s Advancing America’s Priorities Act, has stalled in the Senate, according to an article in Inside Higher Education (“Senate Strands Study Abroad Bill,” July 29, 2008).

Supporters of the study abroad bill, which include more than 35 higher education and student support groups, had hoped the Simon Act would pass before legislators broke for summer recess. But legislators are still debating the study abroad bill, and the 35 other related bills tied to Reid’s proposed legislation because of its estimated $10 million price tag.

The study abroad act aims to expand study abroad — which is dominated largely by white, upper-middle income students — to include low-income students who are minorities or are studying math or science. According to a 2007 report on international educational exchange, 83 percent of Caucasians in the United States study abroad, compared to 17 percent of minorities.

“These are the types of students [for whom] it’s difficult to take a semester away,” said Jennifer Poulakidas, vice president for congressional and governmental affairs at the National Association of State Universities and Land-Grant Colleges.

The Simon Act would also promote less-popular study abroad locations, such as those outside of Western Europe.

The act was inspired by a 2005 report conducted by the Commission on the Abraham Lincoln Study Abroad Fellowship Program that suggested that American colleges and universities should increase the number of undergraduates who study abroad from about 250,000 to 1 million individuals.

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