FAP872: Hurricanes, Education Finance Partners, Free Stuff
Click here to download the MP3 file
Student Financial Aid News
+ NASFAA/SF Chronicle: “Education Finance Partners, one of the companies at the center of New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo’s investigation into student-lending practices last year, has abruptly ceased making student loans and is clearing out of its San Francisco headquarters,” The San Francisco Chronicle reports. “The timing was especially bad in this case. ‘It’s right when students are paying bills and all the money they were counting on evaporated. I’ve been getting calls from …

This month, we have an amazing gas-saving student credit card opportunity, we’ll tell you how to get approved for student loans, and teach you how to find cheap textbooks and save money at retail stores, plus scholarship opportunities everywhere.
Amazing Back To School Credit Card Offers
We live in a credit based society so it’s important that students gain experience with credit and learn to responsibly manage credit cards. Citibank has approved two exclusive offers for our readers which include an unbelievable 10% cash back on gasoline purchases.
Citi(R) mtvU Student Credit Card
Citi(R) …

FAP871: State FAFSA deadlines, broadband scholarship, job references
Click here to download the MP3 file
Student Financial Aid News
+ Forbes: “Corinthian Colleges is boosting its profits by increasing student enrollment, but the downside for the for-profit operator of North American colleges and trade schools is that it now expects an increased number of defaults,” Forbes reports. “‘During the fourth quarter, we implemented several changes to offset the loss of Sallie Mae privates tudent loans for students with subprime credit profiles. We established a new company-sponsored student lending program, ACCESS, and thus …

FAP870: The History of the Financial Aid Podcast
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Expert Interview
+ A brief history of the Financial Aid Podcast and why we started this grand adventure
+ April 2005 was the first show
+ Started with FAFSA training internally
+ Everything changed in June 2005 with iTunes
+ Since then… 751,229 downloads, 5 eBooks, and tons of folks helped
+ I love the stories of making a difference most – Nolan racking up thousands of dollars in scholarships, Scott and Jim as parents getting their kids into college and on partial …

FAP869: College costs, usury, Stafford loan caps
Click here to download the MP3 file
Student Financial Aid News
+ A number of articles from around the web including this one from the Baltimore Sun ask if college is being priced out of affordability, especially in an economic downturn
+ Yes, it is. Plain and simple, college is getting out of reach, especially with a lack of availability for some private student loans for students and parents with less than perfect credit
+ What should we do about this? Instead of making expensive colleges more affordable, …

Retail tricks to get you to spend more
One of the arcane sciences of marketing is point of sale, the science of getting someone to buy as much stuff as possible in a store visit. This really matters to you as a consumer because once you know how the tricks work, just like any magic trick, they don’t fool you, and you’ll save money. This is especially important during the first few weeks of college when you make decisions that are typically rushed and during the holidays when the pressure is …

FAP868: Ole Miss Student Loans, TED Spread, FAFSA
Click here to download the MP3 file
Student Financial Aid News
+ NASFAA/Clarion Ledger: “As thousands of college students in Mississippi return for the fall semester, hundreds may be without student loan funds,” The Clarion-Ledger reports. “In recent weeks, Edamerica has been notifying students and colleges of their intention to delay releasing college loan funds as it awaits money from the federal government. ‘We have about 200 students who have Edamerica listed as their lender,’ said David Williamson, assistant director of financial aid at the …

We’re looking to hire a web designer.
[youtube”>MP3 filehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3DrbyrbNSMs[/youtube”>MP3 file
Full details here.

FAP867: First Marblehead, Bloomberg, Free Stuff, Becca Loebe
Click here to download the MP3 file
Student Financial Aid News
+ Quick note that next Friday will be the last daily show, then we move to weekly
+ NASFAA: “First Marblehead Corp., (ticker: FMD) which packages student loans for sale to investors, said Thursday the volume of loans it had available for that activity dropped 66 percent in the fiscal fourth quarter,” the Associated Press reports. “The troubles have sent First Marblehead’s shares plunging from around $40 last fall. In April an organization called The …

So here’s the deal. I’m making a change in how I handle speaking engagements.
Beginning immediately, if you’d like me to speak at your conference on the topics of new media, Internet marketing, financial aid, etc., and you’re not a PodCamp, I’m happy to do so in exchange for you sponsoring at least one month of Scholarship Points.
What’s in it for you? In addition to my speaking at your event, you’ll get promotion with Scholarship Points members – over 70,000 strong and growing rapidly every day. You’ll get to work with …