FAP603: Preferred Lender Lists still in effect, Facebook parents, mail bag, Catie McKinney

Student Financial Aid News
+ New guide to our Stafford Loan e-Signature process
+ Working on a guide to our application itself
+ Kim Clark writes in: Anyway, if you’re looking for good stuff for your podcase, I thought you might be interested in the story we’ve just posted. I called around to see if the months of headlines about preferred lender list scandals had caused colleges to put lower-cost lenders on their lists. Unfortunately, many are still omitting the cheapest lenders.
+ US News report: As college students and parents scramble to line up educational loans in the last frantic weeks before classes start, many schools are still sending out lists of “preferred lenders” that steer borrowers to unnecessarily expensive loans.
+ Four months ago, most major lenders agreed to stop making payments to either schools or financial aid officers to win placement on the influential lists. In addition, many schools have agreed to codes of conduct that are supposed to open up the lists to lenders that offer the best deals.
+ U.S. News found, however, that the lowest-cost lenders are still omitted from many colleges’ lists. That means many borrowers don’t realize they could save hundreds and, in some cases, thousands of dollars by borrowing from a lender not recommended by the school.
+ Many of the low-cost lenders, for example, will waive the 2.5 percent upfront origination and default fees typically charged students who borrow through the federal Stafford program. That saves students up to $237.50.
+ And many low-cost lenders are also offering to knock as much as 2.25 percentage points off the federally mandated 6.8 percent ceiling on Stafford loans.
+ Stephen Clinton, president of the Indiana Secondary Market for Education Loans, said his nonprofit is still shut out of many lists even though it offers loans with total costs lower than many of those on college lists. ISM offers student Stafford loans in which the origination fee is waived upfront, and graduates who agree to automatic electronic payments pay only 5.8 percent in interest. “It makes me crazy,” Clinton says, because ISM doesn’t require borrowers to jump through many hoops to get its discounts. Many other lenders advertise attractive-sounding discounts but attach so many conditions that only a tiny percentage of borrowers actually get the promised goodies, he says.
+ In addition to omitting his lender from the list, some schools discourage the students who do manage to find ISM’s discounted loans, Clinton says. Federal law requires schools to accept loans from accredited lenders, but some schools “push [the ISM loan paperwork”>MP3 file to the back of the pile. And the student gets tired of waiting” for money needed to pay tuition bills.
+ Chronicle: At the start of the last academic year, housing and admissions officials found themselves wrestling with a new squadron of “helicopter parents” — people who use Facebook to check up on their sons’ or daughters’ future roommates, don’t like what they see, and call to complain.
+ Now that Facebook is open to everyone, those calls are coming all too frequently, USA Today reports. In many instances, parents want their children separated from roommates whose profiles show them drinking or partying. But sometimes the complaints are more troubling: According to one housing official, parents’ chief concerns are potential roommates’ race, religion, and sexual orientation.

Scholarship Update
+ The Alexander Graham Bell Association for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing (AG Bell) offers several scholarships for undergraduate and graduate study each academic year.
+ Applicants are eligible for one scholarship per school year.
+ Award amounts range from $500 to $5,000. Applications should not request a specific amount; that decision is made by a committee of volunteers and all decisions are final.
+ George H. Nofer Scholarship: One $5,000 scholarship for a graduate student who is accepted to an accredited law school or masters/doctoral program in public policy as a full-time student, but has not yet enrolled, and has a minimum undergraduate cumulative grade point average of 3.0. Recipients who have completed at least nine credit hours with a minimum grade point average of 3.0 may apply for a renewed scholarship in their second and third year of study.
+ March 1 deadline
+ Details at our free college scholarship search site

Mail Bag
+ Rob writes in: Yes, I’m wondering if there is any way that you can help me and my wife get a student loan for this coming up term.. We both have filled out the loan application on your website we have both have done our fafsa for 2007-2008 and still no one will help us and we are having problems getting money for school. Nashville State Techical Community College is holding our checks for 4-5 weeks after classes start and me and my wife has no money at all to buy our books and school stuff for our classes, so if there is anyway that you can help us get any kind of subsudized loan so me and my wife can get our books and school stuff before classes start on August 27th we would really appreciate it.
+ Check out the private student loans from ActEducationLoans.com
+ Raymont writes in: I am in my final year at Penn State Beaver and I definately want to graduate. However, I see that I may not be able to afford it this year. I completed my FAFSA and I know there are many loans however I do not have a co-signer. If so, is there anything that you know or could find that can help me?
+ The Stafford federal student loan from StaffordLoan.com should be your first stop

Podsafe Music
+ Catie McKinney, Endlessly

Reminders

+ Private student loans
+ Stafford loans | Other federal student loans
+ Student loan consolidation at StudentLoanConsolidator.com
+ FAFSA tutorials and free help
+ Financial Aid Podcast Show Notes at FinancialAidNews.com.
+ The Financial Aid Podcast is a publication of the Student Loan Network.

Direct MP3 file download: MP3 file