Student Loan Blog : career

The Three-Year College Option

Student Loan Girl — Wed, 19 Aug 2009 20:17:00 GMT

For some students, four years of a college education is simply too much to afford. But by accelerating their college career to reduce the amount of time they spend in the classroom, these student are able to reduce their overall cost of college.

How do they do it?

For many students, the three-year college plan starts in high school. High school students can accumulate college credits by taking and scoring well on Advanced Placement examinations. Generally, the cost of an AP exam is much less than the cost of a college course, and for public school students whose high schools offer AP courses, the cost of instruction is generally free.

Both high school and college students may be able to accumulate college credits by taking classes online. Many colleges and universities are now offering online courses that may be used to fulfill both general education and college major requirements. The added advantage of online courses is that students can take the courses year-round, logging on at their convenience to complete their work or take exams, without having to be on campus.

Summer breaks present students an opportunity to grab a few extra classes at typically lower tuition rates. Summer classes usually take two to three months (half a semester) to complete and can offer the same number of credits toward graduation as a semester-long class.

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College Students May Be Sheltered From Down Economy, for Now

Student Loan Girl — Fri, 14 Nov 2008 22:01:00 GMT

Regardless of how long the economy remains in crisis or whether or not this crisis becomes a recession, the effect on students will likely be minimal, at least in the short-term, says Fred Ruppel, economics professor at Eastern Kentucky University (“Student Body May Be Safe From Economic Crunch for Now,” The Eastern ProgressOnline, Nov. 6, 2008).

“Students should be well insulated,” Ruppel told The Eastern ProgressOnline, especially financially independent students who tend to finance their college education with student loans or rely on financial aid to pay for school. “The best place to be during a recession is in school.”

Ruppel points out, however, that students who rely heavily on their parents for financial support could be adversely affected by the downturn in the stock market, now that families’ portfolios may have taken a hit.

Jay Adkins, a sophomore at Eastern, still fears that the $700 million government bailout may be a sign that financing for education is in trouble. “If Freddie Mac and everything else is falling apart in the market, who knows if my student loans are going to be secure?”

Ruppel refutes Adkins’ concerns that the credit crisis will significantly impact student loans any time soon, but he says it may make getting a car loan more difficult for first-time buyers, which could be particularly problematic for students who rely on automobile transportation to get to school. “There’s less money for loans, with a lot more qualifications,” he said.

However, Ruppel does caution that the longer the economy falters, the more it will impact students and graduates. Whitnee Centers, a junior at Eastern, says while gas prices have declined, making her commute cheaper, less people are eating out, and, as a server, her tips are currently down 20 percent.

The economic crisis may have the greatest long-term impact on college graduates, Ruppel says. If the economy fails to create jobs, graduates may begin their professional career with bleak job prospects.

Adkins says, “If my parents know people who are getting laid off and are losing their jobs, who knows what jobs there will be available when I graduate?”

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Trade Schools Are Better Than Community Colleges, Say Americans in Poll

Student Loan Girl — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 01:38:00 GMT

Results of a recent public opinion poll point to a strong belief among Americans that career and technical schools may be better than community colleges at preparing students for today’s competitive workforce, reports The Chronicle of Higher Education (“Americans Favor Career and Technical Colleges Over Community Colleges, Report Says,” June 4, 2008).

The poll results, released by the Career College Association, reveal 40 percent of the 830 respondents choosing career colleges as the best alternative to four-year institutions, versus the 17 percent who favored community colleges.

Community college officials have taken issue with the survey’s findings, pointing out that the growth in enrollment at community colleges has dwarfed increases in enrollment at career schools in the for-profit sector — a fact administrators consider to be a vote of confidence in the community college system.

“I don’t deny some [technical school] programs are good programs, but to draw a comparison like that and write a survey on it seems to me to be a curious way to use their resources,” said David Baime, vice president for government relations at the American Association of Community Colleges.

Survey Reveals Shift Away From ‘Education for Education’s Sake’

Instead of indicating the superiority of one type of institution over another, the survey results may indicate a subtle shift in education values, say CCA executives, with a greater number of students each year choosing the skills-based training at career or technical colleges over the traditional “book-learning” education found at other two- and four-year colleges.

“Spending four years cloistered on campus is growing increasingly unlikely for a growing number of Americans — Americans still in need of the skills and abilities delivered through higher education,” the report’s authors concluded.

The growing trend among college students has been toward viewing higher education as a pathway to a specific job or career, notes Harris Miller, CCA president. “Apparently, today they’re not convinced that traditional higher education, for all of its important strengths, really serves that purpose very well.”

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Bear Stearns Takeover Leaves Business-School Students Scrambling

Student Loan Girl — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 19:13:00 GMT

BearStearns CEO, Jimmy Cayne, seems to have been the only former Stearns employee to make it out of the JPMorgan Chase buyout relatively unscathed — at least in non-CEO terms — walking away with $61.3 million in sold shares. Even though, in his own high-priced executive world, Cayne took his buyout at a massive loss: Just a year ago, his entire Stearns portfolio was valued at almost $1 billion.

Former Bear Stearns employees, along with Cayne, saw the value of their shares plummet 85 percent in the buyout to a mere $10 a share. Bears Stearns shares were trading at about $67 two weeks before the buyout and as high as $170 a year ago.

Now add to the list of people adversely affected by the Stearns debacle, business-school students whose full-time job and summer internship offers from Bear Stearns have recently been rescinded, according to a BusinessWeek article by Alison Damast (“Bear Stearns Rescinds Job Offers,” April 3, 2008).

A spokesman from JPMorgan Chase won’t disclose how many job offers to soon-to-be college graduates and MBAs have been affected by the dissolution of the firm, at least 12 students at New York University’s Stern School of Business have already received their unhappy phone calls from the company.

According to The New York Times, the final count of rescinded job and internship offers will tally in the dozens (“J.P. Morgan Said to Withdraw Bear Job Offers,” April 3, 2008).

Students Left Out in the Cold

When JPMorgan announced its takeover of failing Bear Stearns on March 16, the status of the student jobs and internships was still uncertain. It wasn’t until April 2 that students who were offered positions in the investment banking, sales, and trading and research units of the former company were notified about the fate of their job and internship positions.

Over the next few weeks, as the school year draws to a close, these students will be frantically trying to nail down offers for replacement positions.

“I’m not sure what we are all supposed to be doing now with the few weeks before start-dates, but I would imagine that, like me, the other 25 or so students who were to start as associates are all in a mad scramble to figure out what the future holds,” one student told BusinessWeek.

In the meantime, students who had their full-time job offers rescinded will be allowed to keep their signing and relocation bonuses and will also be able to use JPMorgan’s career-service resources.

And for those students who will no longer be interning with the company this summer, JPMorgan has offered a full 10 weeks’ pay if they find a new summer position with a nonprofit organization instead.

To Fear or Not to Fear the Economy

Although Bear Stearns is the only investment firm so far this recruiting season to withdraw already-extended job offers, fears about the current state of the economy and its effect, in particular, on the financial-services sector have left business-school students and administrators wondering about the security of jobs and job offers with other firms.

To some, the rescinded Bear Stearns offers recall the results of a similar economic downturn in 2001, Damast writes, when several companies that had hired students were forced to scale back.

Tom Kozicki, board president of the MBA Career Services Council, says he believes the Bear Stearns situation doesn’t necessarily foreshadow what lies ahead for the financial industry, but is definitely something business students need to keep in the back of their mind as they prepare for this particularly shaky job market.

“It sounds like the shoe has dropped. I think it’s unfortunate, but I don’t think it comes as a surprise to most people,” Kozicki told BusinessWeek. “The economy is shaky, [Fed Chairman Ben] Bernanke has indicated that he thinks we are going into a recession and I think that students need to be prepared for some uncertainty in the market.”

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