FAP623: RFP equals cash for college, default rate, guarantors, Lascivious Biddies

Student Financial Aid News
+ It’s September 11th. Moving on…
+ Chronicle: Four years after promising to improve its oversight of the federal student-loan program, the U.S. Department of Education has received another failing grade from its inspector general.
+ The latest audit concerns guarantee agencies, which are nonprofit corporations entrusted with distributing and monitoring billions of taxpayer-backed dollars given to lenders that participate in the federally guaranteed student-loan program.
+ The department’s Office of Inspector General issued an audit in July 2003 that found widespread problems with the way in which guarantee agencies were keeping money in their own “operating fund” separate from their “federal fund,” which is a pool of money under their control that belongs to the federal government.
+ The new audit, distributed this past weekend, follows up on the 2003 findings, and in it the inspector general again deems the department’s oversight inadequate. The new report says the department’s review of those 27 agencies “provides no assurance” that the organizations’ federal and operating funds were established in compliance with federal law.
+ Federal funds were “established incorrectly” at 16 of the agencies and that the Education Department had inadequate records to make conclusions about the other 11 agencies.
+ The audit is the latest in a series to question the Education Department’s oversight of the student financial-aid program. The inspector general, in another audit last September, said the department’s Office of Federal Student Aid “emphasized partnership over compliance in dealing with guarantee agencies, lenders, and servicers” (The Chronicle, October 2, 2006).
+ Chronicle: The rate at which borrowers default on their federally guaranteed student loans has declined to 4.6 percent, in part because of a record number of consolidations, the Education Department announced on Monday.
+ “Borrowers took advantage of the opportunity to lock in record-low interest rates by consolidating their federal student loans,” the department said in a written statement.
+ The new default rate, for the 2005 fiscal year, represents the percentage of borrowers who began loan repayments between October 1, 2004, and September 30, 2005, and who defaulted before September 30, 2006, the department said.
+ Consolidate your student loans at StudentLoanConsolidator.com

Scholarship Update
+ Ayn Rand Institute 16th Annual Anthem Essay Contest
+ ANTHEM For 9th and 10th Graders Entry Deadline: March 20, 2008 FIRST PRIZE: $2,000 5 SECOND PRIZES: $500 10 THIRD PRIZES: $200 45 FINALISTS: $50 Cash Awards 175 SEMIFINALISTS: $30 Cash Awards
+ RULES Entrant must be in the ninth or tenth grade. To avoid disqualification, a stapled cover sheet MUST include: your name and address; your e-mail address (if available); the name and address of your high school; topic selected (#1, 2 or 3 from list above); your current grade level and (optional) the name of the teacher who assigned the essay, if you are completing it for classroom credit. Essay must be no fewer than 600 and no more than 1,200 words in length, and must be typewritten and double-spaced. One entry per student, please. Essay must be postmarked no later than March 20, 2008. Essay must be solely the work of the entrant. Decisions of the judges are final. Employees of the Ayn Rand Institute, its board of directors and their immediate family members are not eligible for this contest.
+ Details at our free college scholarship search site

Financial Aid Hacks
+ US News and World Report: applying leverage to colleges
+ Take it to the next step with new media
+ Use blogs, podcasts, social networks to publish what colleges can offer you
+ Invite members of admissions offices to read your stuff and submit competitive bids
+ Think of the RFP process – if you have something colleges want, put it up for bid
+ The first secret is to have something colleges want – something unique, promotional, and of value
+ Academics aren’t enough
+ Are you already an influential public speaker?
+ Are you already a broadcaster?
+ Do you have a track record even at a young age?

Podsafe Music
+ Lascivious Biddies, Coney Island Day

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.

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