FAP820: Community College Financial Aid, Privacy, FERPA, FOIA
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Student Financial Aid News
+ Chronicle: Sen. Edward M. Kennedy on Monday gave new voice to the growing fear that low-income students, like those attending community colleges, will be among the hardest hit as worsening economic conditions prompt more private lenders to cut back their student-loan operations.
+ The colleges themselves, however, may not share that fear. They seem more concerned about a different prospect: that students already are borrowing too much when other sources of aid, such as …

FAP647: Sallie Mae blinks, Schwarzenegger vetoes, Shannon Hurley
Student Financial Aid News
+ Inside Higher Ed: Late Saturday, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger issued a series of vetoes on various bills — and in so doing dashed the hopes of student activists who have been pushing to make it easier for undocumented students to obtain financial aid and to pressure publishers and faculty members into changing practices that some believe contribute to the high price of textbooks. At the same time, Governor Schwarzenegger signed another bill on textbooks, favored by publishers and opposed by …

FAP644: The Sallie Mae Data Grab, NYS, Ag Scholarship, Matthew Ebel
Student Financial Aid News
+ Inside Higher Ed: New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo sent a new crop of subpoenas Wednesday to lenders that market loans directly to college students and families in ways that may mislead them, The New York Times reported. The attorney general’s office cited examples of marketing materials in which lenders sent prospective borrowers letters that look like checks and others that say “Federal Loan Division” on stationery with an eagle on it, implying that they are …

FAP641: How to detect identity theft, political dollars, Takis
Student Financial Aid News
+ Chronicle: College students looking for some extra spending money can earn a good chunk of change (plus “cool prizes”) if they raise more than $1,000 for Mitt Romney’s campaign.
+ Through the Republican candidate’s “Students for Mitt!” program, full-time students who are at least 18 will receive a 10-percent commission if they rake in more than $1,000.
+ And they will be eligible to receive items needed in the dorm rooms of all Romney fans: Mitt Romney bobblehead dolls and …

FAP636: Today is not my birthday, UBS, Grace Potter
Student Financial Aid News
+ NASFAA: “The $85-billion student loan industry is looking toward its next battle in the U.S. Congress – one that could be for its very survival – as President George W. Bush on Thursday signed legislation slashing federal subsidies to the troubled sector. As important as the bill-signing ceremony was to lenders and to their critics, what comes next could be even bigger,” according to Reuters. “Should Democrats make major gains at the polls next year, they are likely …

FAP628: Facebook owns your life, private student loans, Rebecca Loebe
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Student Financial Aid News
+ NASFAA: “Kimberly Cummings remembers last spring when a young women walked into her office at Montana State University, concerned about having $40,000 in private student loans and an interest rate of 19 percent,” reports the Bozeman Daily Chronicle. “‘What is going on?’ wondered Cummings, who works for the nonprofit Student Assistance Foundation, counseling students on college loans. What’s going on is an explosion in private student loans. And that has people …

Quickly as you can, spot what’s wrong with this MySpace profile:

Do you see it?
Even if meant in jest, why would an admissions officer put drug dealer as their tag line on their profile? You’re just asking for the express trip to the unemployment line, given the zero tolerance policies at most colleges and universities.
Please think before you MySpace.
Related article: Matrix 2.0 – What the Web Says About YOU
Personal information withheld to protect this user for all the good it will do.

“Unfortunately, no one can be told what The Matrix is. You have to see it for yourself.” – Morpheus
Web 2.0, RSS, and the technologies which form the buzz around the second Internet bubble are fantastic. They’re far-reaching, powerful, democratic, and liberating. They’re also incredibly dangerous if you aren’t aware of what you are doing. I want to say something up front that I will repeat at the end.
When you turn on an Internet-connected device, you are an actor approaching the stage that is the world, and everyone is watching. Treat …