FAP753: 6 ideas to pay for college

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FAP753: 6 ideas to pay for college

10 March 2008 1 views No Comment

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Student Financial Aid News
+ Boston Globe: Nearly 30 percent of undergraduates at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology will not pay tuition next academic year under a far-reaching financial aid initiative announced today, the latest in a host of expanded need-based programs at elite colleges and universities.
+ In addition, MIT will no longer consider home equity in asset calculations for families earning less than $100,000, which will reduce the average family payment by $1,600. MIT will provide a comparable deduction to parents who rent homes.
+ Inside Higher Ed: Another sign of loan industry woes: The Associated Press reported that Brazos Higher Education Service Corporation, the administrative arm of a Texas lender called the Brazos Group, announced plans Friday to eliminate the jobs of 163 employees, or 60 percent of its workforce.
+ The good news in all this is that if you’re in the top 1% of academically qualified students, college is cheaper than ever
+ The bad news in all this is that if you’re in the other 99%, it’s time to start getting creative in financing
+ As always, get student loans at StudentLoanNetwork.com

Scholarship Update
+ Student Loan Network 10K Part 2
+ Scholarship Points program changes

News You Can Use
+ How to get creative with college funding
+ Obvious paths – scholarships and grants
+ More often than not, it’s not that you don’t know how, it’s just that you don’t
+ David Maister calls this the paradox of the fat smoker – why we don’t do what we know to be the obvious choices
+ Time tested: the 2 – 4 shuffle. Know which college you want to graduate from, then find community colleges that allow full transfer of credit into that school.
+ Time tested: get into a free college – Harvard, MIT, Yale, Stanford, Berea
+ Get creative beyond that – there are tons of services out there that allow for collection of money
+ Idea: hold an end of semester party and sell tickets via Eventbrite and Google Checkout, then solicit donations – tickets are used to pay for that semester
+ Idea: solicit corporate sponsorships of your schooling, and put together a media package of what the company is getting for its sponsorship. If you have a blog, podcast, etc., or other outlets, leverage those
+ Grab a copy of a Business Journals list for the city either you live in or in the city
+ Idea: Host a benefit concert online – find an independent musician with a following and sell tickets, split the proceeds. Think it can’t happen? Take a second look at live music online via sites like UStream.tv and Second Life
+ Idea: If you and friends have talents in creating material goods – CDs, magazines, shirts, etc., create a video telethon on a popular site like UStream
+ The key is Purple Cow stuff – something unique, powerful, and different that has never been done before
+ Whatever your idea, publicize the heck out of it – send out press releases, hit up local reporters, etc.

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