FAP761: Jobcast – How to find a job quickly
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Student Financial Aid News
+ The 91 day T-Bill last night closed at 0.59% – a record low
+ If you have variable rate federal student loans from before July 1, 2006, this is good news for you – if T-Bills stay this low, your interest rates on those loans when they reset in May will be the lowest student loan rates ever.
+ Chronicle: Several months into a credit crunch that has led at least 20 lenders to …

FAP760: 3 Things You Must Know From Your Financial Aid Award Letter
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Student Financial Aid News
+ Inside Higher Ed: It probably won’t surprise too many people that a new federal report shows sizable increases in borrowing of federal loans by undergraduate students. But the extent of the borrowing, and the changes in who is borrowing and the kinds of loans they are taking, may well open some eyes, at a time when policy makers are intensely focused on student debt and the availability of loans.
+ …

Yesterday we asked the question – what additional ways can the Student Loan Network serve you and help you make good financial choices? Today, I’m pleased to show off new affiliate sponsor ING Direct, and its FDIC insured savings accounts. As you’ve read and heard about on the podcast, saving money is one of the best ways to pay for college, along with scholarships and grants. That said, there can be some tough choices during rough economic times; one of the safest harbors for your money during uncertain times is …

FAP759: FAFSA, Returning Loan Money, Mail Bag
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Student Financial Aid News
+ Inside Higher Ed: Two more colleges have joined the growing number pledging to eliminate student loans for low-income students. Claremont McKenna College announced Monday that it would eliminate loans from the aid packages of all current and new students, effective this coming fall. Lafayette College on Monday announced that it would eliminate loans in the packages of students from families with incomes of up to $50,000 and limit to $2,500 a year the loans …

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FAP758: Bear Stearns, JP Morgan, Mail Bag
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Student Financial Aid News
+ Bear Stearns (ticker: BSC), the investment bank, disappeared over the weekend. After a major stock crash on Friday, the 85 year old bank was bought by JP Morgan Chase (ticker: JPM). People with investments with Bear Stearns will have those investments and accounts be managed by JP Morgan.
+ What does this mean for you?
+ First, whether you’re saving for retirement or in a 529 college savings plan, make sure your investments are diversified, even …

FAP757: Free coffee, free food, Free Stuff Friday
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Student Financial Aid News
+ Chronicle: Congress cut subsidies to private lenders while tightening rules on how they operate. More than a dozen lenders have already announced that they are leaving or scaling back their participation in the federally guaranteed loan program, and many more could follow.
+ Congress’s changes, though, may prove responsible for only a fraction of the turmoil facing private lenders. The tightening of credit has prevented many lenders from raising needed capital and, combined with …

FAP756: Perfect credit scoring storm approaching
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Student Financial Aid News
+ Inside Higher Ed: a day after a top aide to Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.) expressed skepticism about whether students were being hurt by the credit crunch, the senator set the stage during debate over the 2009 budget resolution on the Senate floor for a proposal that would increase the amount of federal loan funds that a student can borrow — one of several changes that the lenders, for-profit colleges and others most worried about …

FAP755: How to write effective scholarship essays
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Student Financial Aid News + Inside Higher Ed: Vassar College announced Tuesday that it is eliminating loans from the aid packages of students with family incomes of up to $60,000. While a number of prominent private colleges have been making such announcements, Vassar is one of relatively few to make the shift with an endowment of less than $1 billion.
+ Chronicle: Responding to concerns that the recent withdrawals of some lenders from the student-loan market could make it …

FAP754: 7 Ways To Leverage Your Social Media Resume
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Student Financial Aid News + Made it into the New York Times! More on that in the Jobcast
+ Inside Higher Ed: The Utah Tax Commission has ruled that textbooks sold in college bookstores are part of the educational mission of colleges and thus are tax exempt. The Salt Lake Tribune reported that the policy shift, effective April 1, will save about $60 per student a year, or $4.7 million for students statewide.
+ Other states could potentially …