Daily Aid 105: Yet another reason to oppose all-Direct Lending
Scholarship Update
Today is our drawing for a $10,000 scholarship. Even if you miss today’s, we’re doing another at the end of July. Apply now. It’s free.
Ranting and Raving
A little QQ, or complaining vocally, about a student loan servicing company, ACS, from me.
Dear ACS:
STOP LOSING MY PAYMENTS.
For the last 3 months, you’ve lost every payment I’ve sent to you, and what’s more, your customer service team’s ability to deal with it in a courteous, polite manner has been inexcusable. They’re not even …

FAP889: Free Christmas Gifts, Financial Aid Roundup
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Financial Aid Roundup
MASFAA conference roundup parts 1 and 2.
Did you get our new FAFSA eBook?
Philadelphia loses a major scholarship.
Sunday Evening Financial Aid!
Scholarship Update
City of Philadelphia scholarships directory.
Eye on the Economy
+ How to save more money with a savings challenge
Jobcast
Internships note
Rant
+ Saving vs. investing
Free Stuff Friday
+ Free reusable grocery bag
+ TiVo cookie cutter
+ Lipstock free lip cream conditioner, which consists of watermelon seed oil, organic avocado oil and organic shea butter
+ Free Dr. Dobbs magazine
+ Betty Crocker 2009 calendar
+ …

Just crossing my desk now from Twitter:

A bunch of payday loan sites are advertising their loans as alternatives for student loans.
Let’s be as clear as we can. Payday loans are NOT student loans, and shouldn’t be used as such.
Payday loans, if you’re unfamiliar with them, are small, short term loans that are borrowed against an upcoming paycheck. Typically, the fees for payday loans are on the order of $15 per $100 borrowed, and the loan is due usually within a few weeks of borrowing it.
Due to the extremely short-term nature …

FAP790: The Fed, TAF, APA, and College Costs
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Student Financial Aid News
+ Did the Financial Aid Podcast alter Fed policy?
+ The Higher Education Act expired on Friday. How does this affect you? It doesn’t, really. Everything is still working.
+ Stafford federal student loans at StaffordLoan.com
Scholarship Update
+ APA 20th Anniversary Psychology Scholarship
+ In celebration of APAGS’s 20th anniversary in 2008, APAGS will acknowledge four outstanding graduate psychology students who have demonstrated exceptional leadership in psychology and are on track to becoming future pioneers in the field. …

FAP784: Local Scholarships, PLUS Loan Borrower Protection Act
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Student Financial Aid News
+ Inside Higher Ed: Momentum has been building for the federal government to take increasingly aggressive steps to wade into the student loan markets, even amid continuing disagreement about whether and/or how serious a crisis there really is. At the urging of lenders, lawmakers have moved from merely seeking to ensure that there are alternative providers of student loans, so that students do not lose access to college, to calling for outright financial assistance …

NCHELP just published this gem:
Yesterday, Senator Chris Dodd (D-CT), senior member of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee, along with a group of Senators introduced S. 2985, the “PLUS Loan Borrower Protection Act,” to ensure that parents can still qualify for federal PLUS loans in the event that they have had trouble making mortgage payments. When applying for a PLUS loan, borrowers must submit financial information required for a credit check. Under current law, a borrower can be deemed ineligible for a PLUS loan if they have …

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Direct MP3 file download: Click here to download the MP3
The recent announcements by some major lenders that companies are withdrawing student loans from colleges based on low graduation rates is likely to impact community colleges the most. Community colleges tend to have lower graduation rates than 4 year institutions. This is an incredibly dangerous and harmful long term precedent.
A personal story about this that may be worth considering, especially for admissions counselors. I’ve been practicing the martial arts for 18 years now, and as …

FAP748: Why student loan companies matter
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Student Financial Aid News
+ AP – Pennsylvania’s student-loan agency will temporarily stop making new loans through a federal program in response to a credit crunch that has created turmoil in the bond markets, the agency’s acting chief executive said Tuesday.
+ The Pennsylvania Higher Education Assistance Agency decided two weeks ago to suspend loans made outside the state through the Federal Family Education Loan Program. The agency will soon send out notices to colleges and universities that it will suspend …

Why Student Loan Companies Are Essential
I had a very enlightening experience today at the US Department of Education that reaffirmed my faith and belief that FFEL student loan providers will remain absolutely essential to the financial aid process, despite what some presidential candidates might be saying on the campaign trail.
After passing through security and waiting, I struck up conversation with one of the guards, who I’ll call Sam. (Sam is not his real name, of course) Sam and I got to talking about what I do, and he remarked, “Well, …

Debt Is Not Wealth
If there is one concept that needs to be made crystal clear to every American of every age group, socioeconomic class, race, religion, and background, it is this: debt is not wealth.
Once, I overheard my wife’s co-worker complain that her credit card was shut down because she had failed to pay any of the bills. When she found out about this, she shouted, “They can’t take away my money!”
It was never her money.
The ability to borrow is not wealth. The availability of credit is not wealth. If …