In this issue:
- Introduction
- Featured Article: Scholarship Search Secrets, Part 3 of 4
- Featured Article: Washington Update
- Scholarship Updates
- A Word from our Sponsors
- Privacy and Subscription Information
- Back Issues
- Sponsor this newsletter!
Happy New Year 2006, everyone! We have a ton of news this issue - updates about legislation in Washington and how it will affect your student loans in 2006 and the continuation of our scholarship search secrets guide. A quick reminder - FAFSA season officially opens on January 1, 2006, so if you aren't ready to file your FAFSA, get ready quickly with FAFSAonline.com, our free FAFSA resource site. Visit:
As always, please share The Student Financial Aid News with your friends, family, and colleagues, by simply forwarding this message, or letting them know to subscribe by visiting:
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Enjoy this month's newsletter and please send feedback to financialaidpodcast at gmail.com with any comments, suggestions, etc., and don't forget to listen to our daily podcast (internet radio show) at:
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Christopher S. Penn
Publisher, The Student Financial Aid News
Producer/Director, The Financial Aid Podcast
A Publication of the Student Loan Network
1250 Hancock Street, Suite 703N
Quincy, MA 02169
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Feature Article: Scholarship Search Secrets, Part 3
Over the next couple of months, we're going to publish the contents of the Scholarship Search Secrets Guide, first made available in August 2005. However, if you don't want to wait for the serialized editions, you can get the whole entire thing in one 10 page guide. Download it by subscribing for free to the Financial Aid Podcast - instructions for doing so are at www.FinancialAidPodcast.com - and as a bonus, you'll get regular updates to the guide.
Scholarship Search Secret #2: Meet Your New Best Friend
Yes, Google is your friend. Obviously, you can use other search engines for scholarship search, and you should, but for the purposes of this guide, we're going Google all the way. Start at... well, where else but www.Google.com.
Now, as a lesson, let's just type in scholarships, click Search, and see what we get.
That's somewhat less than helpful. What's wrong here is the inverse pyramid approach, which is not the right kind of search we want to be doing. Inverse pyramid is simply this: starting broad and narrowing down. The problem is that the number of results from a super broad search make it nearly useless, plus it's "contaminated" with a bunch of commercial services that obscure what you're after - actual scholarships.
So, let's try something to at least filter out the commercial searches for now. Type scholarships foundation and click search.
Somewhat better, but that's still a lot of results to sift through.
So, what's next? Simple. Get out your lists of things about you. Let's say, for sake of example, that you're a prospective student at Boston University, you've been involved with Shotokan karate since you were 8 years old, and you want to look into a career in criminal justice. Let's take one of these terms and plug it in, like Boston University scholarships.
Get out another sheet of paper or start another document on your computer. We're now going to construct a list of questions (queries) to try in Google. What's going to be important here is to start searching for scholarships based on relevance to you. For example, based on the information we provided above, a reasonable search is (as shown) Boston University scholarships. We could also use shotokan karate scholarships and criminal justice scholarships.
In the words of a famous TV chef, now we're cooking. You can see that just by starting a little more specifically, we already get better results.
Next month we'll continue with the Scholarship Search Secret Guide, Part 4: Magic Words! If you don't want to wait for the serialized editions, you can get the whole entire thing in one 10 page guide. Download it by subscribing for free to the Financial Aid Podcast - instructions for doing so are at:
http://www.FinancialAidPodcast.com
...and as a bonus, you'll get regular updates to the guide.
Featured Article: Washington Update
Yes, two featured articles in one issue - we couldn't resist, given what's been going in on Washington. If you don't follow politics in Washington, DC, higher education financial aid took a major hit in Congress this past month with the passage of the Budget Reconciliation Act of 2005. Senate Bill 1932 has passed the Senate by a 51-50 vote, with Vice President Dick Cheney casting the deciding vote. This act brought a gargantuan number of changes to student loan programs and involves some hefty interest rate hikes to your loans as of July 1, 2006. Here's a rundown of what's new:
1. Stafford Loans will have fixed rates of 6.8%, a major increase from today's 4.7% for students in school and 5.3% for graduates in repayment. Bad for students.
2. PLUS Loans will have fixed rates of 8.5%, a huge increase from today's 6.1% parents are paying. Bad for students - and parents.
3. Elimination of Stafford loan in school interest rates, which currently give a 0.6% discount to students in school or in their grace periods. Bad for students.
4. Increases student loan limits for selected student loans. Good for students. However, does not change aggregate maximums, meaning students will hit maximums sooner, potentially causing them to be ineligible for federal aid for an entire academic year. Bad for students.
5. Allows graduate and professional students to borrow PLUS loans. Good for students. However, those loans will not have any kind of deferment available while students are in school, making them unappealing for students.
6. Establishes a supplement to the Pell Grant for students in high-need areas of mathematics and science, up to $4,000 per year. Good for students.
7. Makes administration of student loan programs discretionary funding instead of mandatory funding. Thus, Congress can zero out the administrative budget of any student loan program, effectively killing it without having to pass politically unpopular votes. Bad for students.
8. Adds a provision for deferral of student loans for active duty military personnel. Good for students.
9. Doubles student loan origination fees. If you take out a federal loan after July 1, 2006, your fees will double. Bad for students.
10. Prohibits students who consolidate their loans with a FFELP lender from reconsolidating with the Direct Loan program. Currently this is allowed and is part of a consolidation program called a "Super 2 Step", giving students more lender choice. The change in law makes it nearly impossible for students to switch lenders. Combined with the existing single lender rule, students will be locked into loan programs with no hope of changing lenders. Bad for students.
11. Consolidation of student loans for students in school is prohibited. Bad for students.
12. Student loan lenders are not obligated to report student loans to credit bureaus. Thus, if you have a good payment history, it doesn't help your credit rating. Bad for students.
13. Allows teachers at private schools to qualify for loan forgiveness. Good for students.
14. Student loan rehabilitation made easier with 9 consecutive payments to pull a loan out of default instead of 12. Good for students.
15. Allows the Department of Education to retrieve IRS tax data on borrowers. Bad for students, especially if you have privacy concerns!
16. Drug related offense ineligibility changed so that you are ineligible for federal aid if your drug offense occured while you were receiving federal financial aid. Good for students.
The net of these changes is that students will be paying more, paying higher rates, and will have far fewer choices when it comes to student loan lenders than ever before. This is bad overall and bad for students, especially those who rely on federal loans for the bulk of their financial aid.
What does this mean for you?
Three things:
1. If you have not already consolidated your federal student loans, do so now. Immediately. Do not delay even a minute. Visit
http://www.StudentLoanConsolidator.com
or call 877-328-1565 to consolidate right now! If this July 1 pans out like last July 1, you run the risk of your application being significantly delayed if you don't file for consolidation early; unlike last July, because this is a Congressional mandate, the Department of Education might not offer the "grace period" to consolidate at today's rates if your consolidation is not complete by July 1; file now to avoid costly delays.
2. With loan costs increasing, federal student loans become less competitive contrasted with private student loans. Consider private student loans like Act Education Loans for your education finance needs. Visit:
http://www.AlternativeStudentLoan.com
3. Scholarships will become more important than ever as loan programs become more expensive for students, which leads us to...
Be sure to visit our new, free scholarship search site, with 86 awards in it worth $68,022,523 with new awards being added regularly.
http://www.StudentScholarshipSearch.com
In addition, we continue to maintain our paid scholarship search site at:
http://www.GotScholarships.com
And of course, not to leave out international students, visit:
http://www.InternationalScholarships.com
Finally, subscribe for free to the Financial Aid Podcast. DAILY scholarship and financial aid information!
http://www.FinancialAidPodcast.com
Here are a few selections from www.StudentScholarshipSearch.com:
Mercedes Benz Drive Your Future USA Scholarship Program
DRIVE YOUR FUTURE: The Mercedes-Benz USA Scholarship Program, now in its third year, will grant $10,000 scholarships ($2,500 per year for four years) to 100 high school seniors across the country who demonstrate financial need and exceptional achievement in the areas of academic performance, leadership and school and community activities. As an extension of this program, an additional $500,000 will be made available for the new Mercedes- Benz DRIVE YOUR FUTURE Performance Awards, designed to recognize students interested in pursuing a degree in the performing arts. Fifty of these $10,000 scholarships ($2,500 per year for four years) will be awarded. learn more about the programs and access application materials beginning Jan. 4, 2006 through the Feb. 10, 2006 deadline. Scholarship recipients will be announced in May 2006.
http://www.StudentScholarshipSearch.com
Curtis Institute of Music Merit-Based Full-Tuition Scholarships
Since 1928 Curtis has maintained an all-scholarship policy, and it remains the only major music conservatory to provide merit-based full-tuition scholarships to all students regardless of their financial situation. For the 2005/2006 school year, the value of this scholarship is $28,500 per year for undergraduate students and $39,500 per year for graduate students. These scholarships are renewed each year during your enrollment at Curtis. Visit:
http://www.StudentScholarshipSearch.com
And now a word from our sponsors...
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Student Credit Cards
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Traveling abroad spring semester? Got Insurance?
Spring semester is very often the "travel abroad" semester for students.
Whether you're just island hopping for a couple of weeks for spring break,
or spending the entire semester abroad, you need to ensure that you've got
travel and medical insurance. Get the peace of mind you need for travel
abroad! Visit:
http://www.InternationalStudentInsurance.com
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