Pell Grants

Pell Grants are based on financial need, costs to attend college, the student’s status as either a full-time or a part-time student and whether the student plans to attend college for a full academic year or less. The maximum Pell Grant award for the 2010-11 award year (July 1, 2010 to June 30, 2011) is $5,550.   Any Pell Grant eligible student whose parent or guardian died as a result of military service in Iraq or Afghanistan after September 11, 2001 is awarded the maximum amount if the student is under 24 years old and was enrolled at least part-time in college at the time of the parent’s or guardian’s death.

A student can receive up to two consecutive Pell Grant awards during a single award year to accelerate the program toward the student’s degree. The student must be enrolled at least half-time and in a program that leads to an associate or bachelor’s degree or certificate.

Income Based Repayment Program

Much of federal student financial aid is in the form of loans.  However, a new program called the Income Based Repayment Program makes federal loans less painful.  Borrowers who participate in this program will have monthly payments capped at 10 percent of the income a borrower has left over after covering basic needs and after 20 years any remaining debt is forgiven.  If the borrower becomes a teacher, nurse, member of the armed forces or other public service worker, the remaining debt is forgiven after 10 years.  Federal loans were already a much better deal than any private education loan, but with this new program, they become even better.

Current Income Based Repayment Program (IBR)

Right now students are eligible for IBR if their monthly payments under this plan are less than their monthly payments calculated under a 10-year standard repayment plan.  Also students have to pay for 25 years and meet other requirement s before any balances of their loans are canceled.  However, public service workers already can have the remainder of their loans canceled after 10 years.

For more important information about IBR, go to IBR Plan Information. Or, to download an IBR Fact Sheet in PDF format, click here.

Fill Out the FAFSA to Qualify for Federal Student Aid

Remember, students must fill out the FAFSA to qualify for federal student aid, so even if you think you make too much money to qualify for grants, it is always smart to fill out the FAFSA.  Some of the loans are not dependent on income level, so they are going to be available no matter what your income.  Interest is lower for federal loans and the new Income Based Repayment Program makes federal loans even more attractive.

The way I see it, the main job of financial aid officers should be to help the newly accepted and current students find a way to afford to go to their colleges or universities. In some universities and colleges, this is the way it is.

However, there are some colleges that actually plan that some students will not receive financial aid packages that will allow them to enroll.  This is called financial aid leveraging, and it maximizes the amount of money paid by students, while balancing that with the goal of meeting enrollment goals.  Because of this, richer students, who can afford to pay their Cost of Attendance (COA) will get more spots at the college than they would if ability to pay didn’t play a role in who would enroll.  Facts of life, folks.

Why Colleges Leverage Financial Aid

With colleges losing big chunks of their endowments when the stock market tanked, they’ve got to make it up somewhere.  Some cut costs; some raise tuition and fees.  (CNN recently reported that The Board of Regents of The University of California system just raised the undergraduate tuition 32 percent over the next two years.)  Others cut costs AND raise tuition, and some leverage financial aid.  There are even companies that help colleges and universities figure out how to do leverage financial aid  so they will get the tuition income plus enrollment figures they want.  It’s a rough world out there.

Christian College Parents to the Rescue

This is why you need to get reliable information when facing the daunting task of selecting the right college, applying to colleges, and finding financial aid for college.  A woman I met in, of all places, a mammogram waiting room, told me that someone had asked her for $900 to find scholarships for her child.  Totally unnecessary!

Financial Aid Ebooks Coming Soon!

You can get all the information you need on the website and in our upcoming ebooks on financial aid.  And it won’t cost you anywhere near $900!  Actually it will cost you a whole lot less.  Be sure to opt-in to our mailing list to get notified when the ebooks are available.

Blessings,

Bonnie

Actually what the article says is “The students from different ethnic groups like Native American, African American, Hispanics and Asian and Pacific Islanders are privileged under this scholarship. …. The Nationality also will not be a barrier for availing scholarships from the establishment. If you are a permanent resident of US, you are adequate for the scholarship.”

Huh?

Was it written by a software program or someone who doesn’t speak English? Either way they got the facts wrong, because The Gates Millennium Scholars (GMS) program is ONLY for African Americans, American Indians/Alaska Natives, Asian and Pacific Islander Americans, and Hispanic Americans.

Want More Info on the GMS Program?
For those of you who might be interested in this scholarship, there are other requirements for the scholarship, including a cumulative GPA of 3.3 on a 4.0 scale (unweighted), and meeting the Federal Pell Grant eligibility criteria (which is for lower income families). The recipients also have to be nominated by an educator and recommended by someone familiar with the student’s leadership and community service.

There is no mention of the two additional applications (by the nominator and the recommender) in the article I found. It does however say that the scholarship “will cover the major portion of the coaching fee.” I have no idea what that is supposed to mean because on the official website of the GMS there is NO mention of any “coaching fee.” Maybe he’s talking about the tuition? He also gives a specific dollar amount for the scholarship, but, in reality, it varies depending on a number of factors. Again I wonder who or what really wrote the article.

The deadline for the GMS program is January 11, 2010 (11:59 p.m. EST), so there is still time to apply. However, before you do anything else, you should go to the GMS website, which you can find here. That way you can get the whole truth and nothing but the truth about this scholarship. You should do this with any scholarship for which you plan to apply.

What about the Nominators and Recommenders?
The educators who qualify as Nominators are principals, teachers, guidance counselors, higher education representatives, and other professional educators. They are invited to nominate students with outstanding academic qualifications, particularly those likely to succeed in the fields of computer science, education, engineering, library science, mathematics, public health, or science. There are no limits on how many students a Nominator can nominate, so if your student meets all the qualifications, I wouldn’t hesitate to ask an educator to nominate him or her. It may be that an educator who knows your child would be delighted to nominate her or him, but doesn’t know about this particular program.

As far as the Recommender goes, the GMS website even suggests that you “choose your Recommender carefully.” It can even be the Nominator if that person is also familiar with the student’s non-academic activities.

Speaking of Financial Aid…
The Financial Aid ebooks are almost ready. You’ll be the first to know when they are available!

Blessings,
Bonnie

Other universities are cutting faculty, freezing jobs, and admitting more students in an attempt to make sure that their classes are filled in the fall. This is good news for cash-strapped parents who are worrying about sending their children to college. To help students pay tuition and expenses, colleges are cutting their expenses and digging deeper into their endowments.

The important message for bargain-hunters is that you need to look at the bottom line when comparing colleges, because private universities give out lots of financial aid. This is especially true with smaller, lesser known colleges like University of St. Thomas.

Parents shouldn’t tell their children that they will be able to go to any college they are admitted to, unless the parents can afford the school without financial aid. However, they should encourage their children to apply to private colleges that might try harder to get them to attend by giving them the financial aid they need to make that a reality.

COMING SOON:“The Secrets of Financial Aid” – an ebook with all the secrets I’ve discovered in my comprehensive research of the subject. Make sure you’re on my email list, so you can get a copy as soon as it is released. Just fill in the boxes on the right hand site of this blog. You’ll also get a free copy of the ebook “A Parent’s Survival Guide to College” by insider Neil P. O’Donnell, academic advisor and professor at a private college in NY.

Blessings,
Bonnie