World-Shaker

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So they don’t take Pell Grants?

New system to allow students to calculate cost of higher education →

West Virginia colleges and universities now have a new high-tech tool to help prospective students calculate college costs before they even apply.

Concord University and Bluefield State College are two of the 13 schools statewide now using Net Price Calculators, a technology that estimates merit and need-based aid. The calculator allows students to see an estimate of how much they will have to pay for college by subtracting how much money they are eligible for through scholarships from the college’s published cost of attendance.

This is simultaneously a great and depressing idea.

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This already IS me.

EDIT: Look at what kind of money he’s holding.

via i.imgur.com

For-Profit Colleges Offer High-Risk Loans To Keep Fed Dollars Flowing, Consumer Group Says →

Many of the large corporations that own for-profit colleges are increasingly issuing their own in-house private loans to students — even though some schools expect more than 50 percent of such loans to go into default, according to a report released this week by the National Consumer Law Center.

Through the eyes of those who run for-profit schools, the risky sideline lending business enables them to satisfy a federal law that requires at least 10 percent of a school’s revenue to come from sources other than federal financial aid. By complying with the 10-percent requirement, schools can then access the lucrative 90 percent of revenue that comes from the federal government.

Federal student-aid dollars have been the lifeblood of the for-profit education sector, allowing the industry to more than triple the number of student enrollments over the past decade — far outpacing the growth of private and public traditional universities. That growth has come amid questionable outcomes for its students, who default on student loans at twice the rate of their counterparts at public universities.

Community Colleges: Where's Our $12 Billion? →

During a 2009 speech, President Obama promised $12 billion for community colleges. But they never saw any of that money because the president couldn’t sell his plan to Congress.

Now the ongoing cuts in state funding for higher education are so deep that community colleges are struggling to deliver the very services they’ve been praised for.

Community college officials say the impact of state funding cuts has never been this bad.

“I don’t know if the sky is falling, but the challenge we face right now is quite severe,” said Noah Brown, president of the Association of Community College Trustees.

According to his organization, 43 states have slashed funding for higher education and financial aid for needy students.

Ivy Tech Community College, for example, and its 23 campuses in Indiana took a $10 million hit last year. Funding from the state dropped from $3,000 per student to $2,300.

Ivy Tech president Tom Snyder said a majority of those students, about 70 percent, are unemployed adults.

“We actually are educating the people that will help rebuild the economy,” Snyder said.

To save money, Snyder said, his institution now relies almost entirely on part-time, adjunct faculty. It has also had to offer more of its courses online.

It’s a bare-bones budget, but it’s not nearly as bad as other places.

Cheaper Student Loans, But Shortage of College Grants Likely in 2011 and 2012 →

Although the federal government will hand out billions of dollars more in college grants in 2011 and 2012 than ever before, the nation’s financial aid programs as a whole are not keeping up with rising tuition, government officials and financial aid analysts say.

That means for millions of America’s working and middle class families, “college is going to become less affordable,” warns Mark Kantrowitz, publisher and founder of Finaid.org and the scholarship search site Fastweb.com.

Isn’t it Alanis? Don’t you think? We cut funding for higher education at the state and federal level, and then wonder why financial aid (which we only provide token increases for) doesn’t cover the rising tuition costs.

But no worries, there are now cheaper loans you can take out. You know, because nothing says starting your adult life like a mountain of debt on top of you.

The Cost Of College Dropouts: A State-By-State Breakdown →

According to a new study by the American Institute for Research, students who drop out of college after their first year cost the nation more than $9 billion in state and federal money between 2003 and 2008. (See a state-by-state breakdown of costs below.)

And herein lies the issue:

We have a problem with our priorities.

$9 billion between 2003 and 2008 is a lot of money. Unless you consider that $12 billion was being spent in Iraq every month during that time.

War figures via WaPo.

The Great Recession's Toll on Higher Education →

Illinois, Michigan, and Ohio have run out of scholarship money and are turning down thousands of qualified applicants. Public universities in Georgia, Virginia, and Washington have all raised their tuition by about $1,000 for the fall semester. Public colleges in Florida, Louisiana, and Nevada are canceling hundreds of classes for lack of state funding. California has simply shut the door on hundreds of thousands of its high school graduates and workers hoping for new skills.

College officials in troubled states such as Louisiana are girding for further cuts that will be “difficult, painful, and destructive,” John Lombardi, president of the Louisiana State University System, warned recently. Students have no choice but to pack into the crowded courses that remain, where overloaded instructors are replacing essay assignments with easier-to-grade (but less educationally rigorous) multiple-choice tests.

The Great Recession has had a devastating effect on higher education, forcing many students across the country to pay more for colleges that offer less. Yet the downturn has also penalized individuals who don’t spend the time and money to get a college degree. Even in today’s weak job market, the unemployment rate for college graduates is less than 5 percent, about half the rate for those with only a high school diploma. “It’s a grim situation,” says Lindsay McCluskey, vice president of the United States Student Association. “But what choice do young people have?”

"I would shower, and it would give me at least some sense of being clean."

— College Students Hide Hunger, Homelessness : NPR

Colleges hold firm on no-loan financial aid - Apr. 9, 2010 →

Yale, Harvard and the University of California network are among the at least 50 colleges planning to limit or remove loans from their financial aid packages, according to a report released this week by the Institute for College Access and Success. While 50 might not seem like a lot, their student bodies represent 8% of all four-year college students in the United States.

Why They Take So Long →

infoneer-pulse:

The implication of the study, the authors write, is that those who want students to graduate more promptly need to talk about money. “Our finding of increased stratification in resources among colleges and universities — both between publics and privates and within the public sector — suggests that the attenuation of resources at less-selective public universities in particular limits the rate of degree attainment,” write the authors, John Bound of the University of Michigan, Michael F. Lovenheim of Cornell University, and Sarah Turner of the University of Virginia.

» via Inside Higher Ed