FAP626: Free Stuff Friday will melt your brain, borrower benefits, Jodi Shaw

Student Financial Aid News
+ Chronicle: Community and technical colleges in Washington State could get a financial reward for improving their students’ performance under a new plan approved by the state board that oversees the institutions.
+ The Seattle Post-Intelligencer reported today that the colleges could earn extra money every time a student passed a remedial examination, racked up a certain number of credits, or earned a degree.
+ An official with the Washington State Board for Community and Technical Colleges said the panel believed the incentive program was the first in the country. While other states have offered extra funds to reward colleges for graduating students, they have not given institutions additional money for meeting specific benchmarks, Jan Yoshiwara, the board’s director of education services, told the Post-Intelligencer.
+ Economic incentives for academic performance
+ Another bank, this one in England, failed, according to multiple market sources
+ In the big picture, the credit crunch in world financial markets combined with the recent student loan legislation results in the end of borrower benefits
+ Prior to the current legislation and market conditions, a student loan would be issued and then securitized on the market, turned into an investment
+ The legislation removed a hefty amount of profitability of the loans, making them poor investments compared to other loan investments – consider that if a student loan only yields 0.72% profit – meaning 3/4 of a penny on the dollar – you can earn more in a regular savings account as an investor
+ The credit crunch, brought on by the collapsing housing market, also means that investors are wary of investing in anything loan related right now because they don’t know who’s going to go under – 48 different banks and brokerages have failed since the start of this year
+ The net result is that student loan companies are cost cutting as much as possible, and that means no more borrower benefits on federal student loans
+ Interestingly enough, borrower benefits are ramping up on private student loans
+ Ours now have 0.25% ACH and cosigner release after 48 months for Act Education Loans
+ Private student loan consolidation benefits are 1/48 and 0.25% ACH as well

Scholarship Update
+ Cappex “GPA Isn’t Everything” Scholarship
+ No essays. No printed app. No stamp to lick. Get some cash for getting an A in street smarts.
+ Amount: $2,000 – Minimum GPA to apply is 2.0 on 4.0 scale. – The scholarship will go to the most well-rounded student as defined by extracurricular, leadership and volunteer activities. – Recipient must enroll at an accredited college or university located in the United States. – You must be a U.S. citizen or permanent resident. – Deadline: Nov. 30, 2007.
+ Details at our free college scholarship search site

Free Stuff Friday
+ Build a reclined laptop dock
+ Totally Scored – RSS Sports Scores
+ iTunes Art Grabber
+ Growl 1.1.1 Update
+ Google + MediaFire
+ Lightning for Thunderbird
+ Holy heck! Google Earth Flight Tracking!

Promo
+ PodCamp Boston 2

Podsafe Music
+ Jodi Shaw, Out of Love

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.

Direct MP3 file download: MP3 file