The Commonwealth of Massachusetts’ public, state-run student loan agency, the Massachusetts Educational Financing Authority, or MEFA, announced yesterday that they’re withdrawing from the federal student loan program as of July 1, 2008. Here’s their press release in its entirety.
Effective July 1, 2008, MEFA is suspending all Federal education loans, including the Stafford Loan for undergraduate and graduate students, PLUS, and Graduate PLUS. Additionally, effective immediately, MEFA will not accept any new Federal Consolidation applications. The unprecedented disruption in the capital markets coupled with federal changes has prevented MEFA from securing …

For Immediate Release: Financial Aid Podcast Puts Paying for College In Your Ears 600 Times
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Financial Aid Podcast Puts Paying for College In Your Ears 600 Times
Quincy, MA August 10, 2007 –
Paying for college has never been easy. Too many students and families say they can’t understand the financial aid maze at all, fear making costly mistakes, and end up paying thousands more for college than necessary. The Financial Aid Podcast, an internet radio show, has been broadcasting a helping hand to families for over two years and is celebrating its …

Breaking News From the AFJ Newswires:
The Student Loan Network announced on Sunday, April 1, 2007 that effective immediately, all student loan interest rates would be re-indexed based on the new MEEI commodities index instead of the traditional 91-day Treasury Bill Rate.
CEO and President Joe Cronin commented, “The 91 day T-Bill is an incredibly inflexible way to set student loan rates, and does not take into account or reflect the market realities of the student loan industry or the higher education world. College students, parents, and families should have their student …

FAP492: Audio Press Release
QUINCY, MA — (MARKET WIRE) — March 19, 2007 — An online social media movement to drive an independent musician to the top of the iTunes Music Store charts for a day also holds the promise to raise thousands of dollars for college scholarships.
Bloggers, podcasters, and new media professionals are asking Internet-savvy audiences to participate in a campaign called Bum Rush The Charts. The campaign asks audiences to purchase a song in the iTunes Music Store, “Mine Again” by independent band Black Lab on March 22, 2007, …

Todd Defren over at PR Squared published a great guide to the social media news release idea, complete with a template showing how to create a possible social media newsroom. In it, he creates what is more or less a new media portal for a company.
Derivative thinker that I am, I thought, “This would be great for people, too!” just as I do for anything corporate that works. So in the spirit of Todd’s work, I’ve posted a sample Social Media Resume using Google Pages. I specifically chose Google Pages …

Hey, we do them too.

FAP324: Financial Hack du jour, PRWeb everywhere, scholarship tidbits, Kevin Reeves
Student Financial Aid News
+ The Financial Aid Podcast on CollegeRecruiter.com
+ And on PRWeb
+ For more information about graduate PLUS loans, visit GradLoans.com
+ For more information about alternative student loans, visit privatestudentloans.com
+ Nelnet switches to electronic transfer after data losses. The move follows an incident in mid-July when Nelnet announced it lost tapes containing data for 188,000 college students. The company says there is still no evidence the information has been misused.
+ The Secretary of Education’s Commission on the Future of …

As you have doubtlessly heard in many media outlets, the interest rates for federal student loans go up on Saturday, July 1, 2006. If you have existing federal student loans, this is your last chance to consolidate them and lock in this year’s rates before they change. It’s incredibly important to file an application request now (even if you change your mind later) so that you have the opportunity to lock in today’s rates.
Consolidate your federal student loans now and lock in your rates before the change, save more money …