6/2: Sallie Mae, UPromise, TGSLC, education stats, gay scholarship, mini-political rant, make your own scholarship update, Mario Ajero, #268

Student Financial Aid News
+ Sallie Mae buys UPromise
+ TGSLC loses 1.3 million customer records
+ The piece of equipment, which the company did not identify, was lost May 24. Officials said encrypted electronic files containing the data were sent to Hummingbird Ltd., which helps companies manage large amounts of information. A Hummingbird employee downloaded, decrypted and stored the files on a piece of equipment that was later lost.
+ Toronto-based Hummingbird is still searching for the missing equipment, company president and chief executive Barry Litwin said. He said it is ‘extremely unlikely’ that someone would use the information inappropriately because it is password-protected.
+ Indiana University overpays financial aid but students don’t have to repay excess
+ In some cases, IU did not consider scholarships and grants when determining a student’s financial need, resulting in overpayments, the audit said.
+ Mystery! Intrigue! Secret scholarships from the Jack Kent Cooke Foundation!
+ The Jack Kent Cooke Foundation has been supporting 35 students in its “Young Scholars” program for five years now, but only revealed the program on Thursday. The students, currently graduating from high school, were picked as among the brightest low-income eighth graders.
+ NCES has a new state of education report out
+ From 1992–93 to 2003–04, the annual amount of federal loans borrowed by both undergraduates and graduates grew from about $19 billion to $50 billion, while federal grants received by undergraduates grew from about $9 billion to $13 billion.
+ BarCamp Boston this weekend in Maynard – see you there!
+ In lighter news, the golden ratio, much talked about in the Vitruvian Man illustration by Da Vinci, is thought to be the most aesthetically pleasing ratio to the human eye. Is it coincidence that credit card dimensions are within 2% of the golden ratio?

Scholarship Update
+ Annoying news led to today’s scholarship
+ The Point Foundation Scholarship for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Students
+ $8,000 – $40,000 per year
+ Deadline of March 1 each calendar year
+ 20 applicants chosen out of a pool of over 600
+ Academic prowess, financial need, and leadership in the LGBT community
+ I bet a student with a QPodder show would stand a good chance of winning
+ Detailed information at our Student Scholarship Search web site

News You Can Use
+ How to set up a scholarships RSS feed
+ Vienna
+ Google Reader
+ Create the alert
+ Wait

Podsafe Music
+ In a very mellow, chilled out mood today
+ Mario Ajero, Pachebel’s Canon in D
+ Music via the Podsafe Music Network

Reminders
+ Consolidate your student loans at StudentLoanConsolidator.com
+ Student loans available at any time – visit privatestudentloans.com

+ Financial Aid Podcast Show Notes at FinancialAidNews.com.
+ Add us to your iTunes at www.FinancialAidPodcast.com/subscribe
+ The Financial Aid Podcast is a publication of the Student Loan Network.

Questions? Comments? Suggestions? Email me at financialaidpodcast {at} gmail {dot} com, visit http://www.FinancialAidPodcast.com. Add me to your iTunes by visiting http://www.FinancialAidPodcast.com/subscribe/

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