Daily Aid 41: MASFAA Financial Aid Conference Day 2

Home » Conferences, Eye on the Economy, Scholarship Search, Student Loans

Daily Aid 41: MASFAA Financial Aid Conference Day 2

21 November 2008 1 views No Comment

Still on the road today, attending the last day of the MASFAA financial aid conference. Some insights from yesterday…

The state of Massachusetts so far has not cut budgets for financial aid for FY09, which is good news for Massachusetts students. That said, with the current economic pressures, that status is not guaranteed in the coming year. At the same time, Massachusetts colleges, especially public and community colleges, are reporting record enrollments. One community college leader reported that they were bursting at the seams, saying that enrollments were challenging their resources.

At a regional update, many financial aid administrators reported they are starting to receive more appeals for financial aid than normal in the last two weeks. Students are asking for more aid because of economic pressures on their families.

There were a ton of debt numbers with regard to college students in the financial literacy session. A few select ones:

- Over 60% of first year college students max out their first credit card within a year.
- Indebted adults between 18-24 pay on average 30 cents of every dollar earned on debt.
- Over 1/3 of college students graduate with $10K or more in credit card debt. Not student loans – credit card debt.
- Over 25% of college students regularly pay late fees on credit cards.

During a conversation about scholarships, one of my colleagues pointed out that 2008 scholarships and endowments were already funded at the end of 2007, which means that 2008 scholarships are largely unaffected by the economy. Not so for 2009 – so expect scholarship hunting to be a lot more competitive, with many more students chasing potentially fewer dollars. Be prepared for this by hunting now – add December 31 to your scholarship search queries to see if you can round up some last end-of-year scholarships now.

Finally, this coming year is going to be one in which you’ll need a good relationship with your financial aid officer. Between new latitude for professional judgements and new economic pressures, that relationship could mean quite a bit.

Did you enjoy this? If so, please consider subscribing for free to get it delivered to you. Subscribing for free means you don’t have to remember to download it every day.
+