Daily Aid 24: How Health Insurance May Affect Your Financial Aid
Daily Aid 24: How Health Insurance May Affect Your Financial Aid
Student Financial Aid News
From Inside Higher Ed:
Evidence from New York State suggests that students realize how tough a budget year public higher education faces. Leaders of the Student Assembly of the State University of New York have endorsed a proposal — now slated to go to the full Student Assembly — that would call for modest annual tuition increases, The Times-Union reported. SUNY student leaders have traditionally opposed tuition increases, and the new policy would represent the first time that the Student Assembly has endorsed the idea of paying more. Students did put an emphasis on modest increases, but also said that they realized that potentially significant drops in state support leave the university system in need of revenue.
Commentary
An interesting move by a student group, but realistic, and not a bad idea. Rather than staunchly oppose any tuition increase, they’re acknowledging the university’s needs but asking the school to be moderate.
From the Chronicle:
Two universities that are considered leaders in a trend within higher education to offer more work/life benefits for employees have gone in the opposite direction and cut out health insurance for the families of graduate students.
According to an article in the San Jose Mercury News, the University of California at Berkeley and Stanford University will still offer health insurance to graduate students but have cut coverage for their families. The universities said extending coverage to students’ families simply cost too much.
Commentary
Expect more benefits at more schools to be trimmed back, eliminated, or have the price tag for said benefits go up or be unbundled from tuition. If you rely on benefits like these, expect to budget additional money in your financial aid to cover the new or increased costs. You may even need to take out additional student loan funds to cover the increased cost of health insurance if your coverage is dropped or your family’s coverage is dropped.
Scholarship Update
Greenhouse Scholars. All Scholars must also meet the following requirements: be a U.S. citizen or permanent resident of the U.S., be a legal resident of Colorado, be a high school senior in Colorado, have an unweighted GPA of 3.5 or above, demonstrate a strong interest and commitment to the community, demonstrate an ability to persevere through difficult circumstances, possess excellent leadership skills, and demonstrate financial need [annual household income no greater than $70,000″>MP3 file. All selected Scholars will receive a four-year renewable financial grant, but awarding financial grants is only the beginning of what Greenhouse Scholars offers. Our program provides mentorship and scholarship support, addressing each Scholar with our Whole Person approach. Through our program, Scholars have access to as much intellectual, academic and professional support as they do financial subsidies. The program includes: program mentors, peer mentors, internship opportunities, access to a network of professional liaisons, and our summer symposiums. The amount of the financial grant will be based on unmet educational costs after other forms of financial aid have been assessed. The grant will range from $4,000 – $20,000 over four years. The financial grant and participation in our program is renewable based on Scholars meeting a variety of program requirements. All applications must be emailed or postmarked by Tuesday, January 20, 2009. Complete applications include: essay questions, three letters of recommendation, a signed contract, and up-to-date transcripts.
Details at our free college scholarship search site.
Mail Bag
Lyra writes:
If I have multiple checking accounts (three accounts in three different states) will this have a negative impact on my personal credit? If the answer is yes, then should I close them immediately or over a period or time? Thanks!
Checking accounts have absolutely no impact on credit at all, as they’re not credit instruments. If you’ve got overdraft protection on them and you’re overdrawn on all three, that will generate a credit event, because overdraft protection is essentially a short term loan, but if you’re just using plain checking, it has no impact at all whether you have 1 checking account or 100.
Jen writes:
Good afternoon,I am currently a full time student.My financial aid advisors has don’t know the answer to my question,I am prayin that do.I am unable to aply for the parent plus aid,my mother does not reside in the u.s.and i have not spoken with my father in years.I am also unable to get the full pell grant,even though I claimed my own taxes last year,the school refuses to see me as an independent they keep tellin me I am a dependent because I am not 24 or over.what can I do when I file my own taxes as a dependent?
You need to ask your financial aid officer for a professional judgement dependency override. Document your lack of contact with your parents and that will get you classified as an independent. You will NOT be able to get a PLUS loan regardless, as that’s a Parent Loan for Undergraduate Students (PLUS), but you will qualify for additional Stafford Loan amounts.
Zack writes:
So, I’ve decided I want to go to school, the problem is I don’t have any money. I’m from Ontario (Canada) and our program for student loans is called OSAP. I would be able to get about 9000 (a max. of 12,000 if you qualify) per year, and I can get about $45,000 from the Bank of Montreal. Both of the loans come with an interest rate of prime plus 1 percent, and the loan from BMO requires I pay interest during the period of study and also requires a co-signer. I want to do this as independantly as possible and I was wondering what advice you could give a poor potential student so that I can afford to go to school!
You’ll want to investigate these international student financial aid resources:
http://www.InternationalStudent.com
http://www.InternationalScholarships.com
http://www.IEFA.org
http://www.InternationalStudentLoan.com
Bear in mind for the last resource, you’ll need a cosigner who is a citizen of the country in which the loan company resides. If you’re studying in the UK, a UK subject; in the US, a US citizen or permanent resident.
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Evidence from New York State suggests that students realize how tough a budget year public higher education faces. Leaders of the Student Assembly of the State University of New York have endorsed a proposal — now slated to go to the full Student Assembly — that would call for modest annual tuition increases, The Times-Union reported. SUNY student leaders have traditionally opposed tuition increases, and the new policy would represent the first time that the Student Assembly has endorsed the idea of paying more.
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