Here’s an infographic outlining the Obama Plan to help student’s with their student loan debt. But is it enough? In my opinion, the only way to look toward the future is to educate our kids about debt and make wise college choices that allow them to graduate with little or no debt. It’s not a “new deal”…just a band-aid.
Created by: Online University
Last week, I was a guest on #CollegeCash chat on Twitter discussing college preparation and the online resources that are available for parents and students. Since not everyone can attend these chats or is active on Twitter, I thought it would be nice to share the questions and answers here on my blog.
Question: When do parents start the college prep process?
Question: What do you see as the parent’s role in the college prep process?
Question: What online tools do you recommend for comparing colleges side-by-side?
Question: What online tools do you recommend for test prep?
Question: What online tools do you recommend for financial aid?
Question: What online resources do you recommend for college visit preparation?
Question: What online tools do you recommend to help with the essay?
Question: Where do you find information about individual college statistics?
Question: What information can you share about the Net Price Calculator?
Question: How can parents be assured they are getting EXPERT advice about college and not just being scammed?
I would also like to add another great resource for parents, especially because it’s another parent going through the process with her kids and blogging about it:
Dr. Strange College : How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Journey
Today is Veteran’s Day and all across America people will be celebrating this day and honoring our veterans past and present, stationed all over the world. Below is an infographic illustrating where our servicemen are currently stationed. Join me in thanking them and saying a prayer today for their continued safety.
If your college-bound student is interested in the military, here’s a post I wrote about the military academies and ROTC.
In the world of instant information and “non-accountability” there are scam artists out there who want to take your money. Just because someone has a website and claims to be credentialed, it doesn’t make it so. The internet is a jungle where you can post just about anything you want and claim to be an expert. It’s your job as a wise and savvy parent college coach to do the detective work and make sure a company’s or person’s claims are legitimate. It’s also your money and possibly your student’s future hanging in the balance. Parents Beware: it’s a jungle out there!
Following are my tips on how to “check out” the services offered by anyone in the college admissions industry:
In the next few weeks, I’m going to be compiling a list of TRUSTED EXPERTS in the college admissions field. Once it’s complete, you can just click on my TRUSTED EXPERTS tab on my website and be assured that these people I am recommending will not “take the money and run” and will give you and your student reputable advice.
It’s a jungle out there and you need a guide–PARENT COLLEGE COACH to the rescue!
Are sports scholarships really the best scholarships available? Do colleges spend as much money on sports athletes as they do on academics? Are college sports programs profitable? This inforgraphic answers just about every question you might have about college sports. I just have one question: If these statistics are accurate, why do colleges put so much emphasis on sports programs?
Created by Online Masters Degrees
Two-thirds of college seniors graduated with loans in 2010, and they carried an average of $25,250 in debt. They also faced the highest unemployment rate for young college graduates in recent history at 9.1%. The new report, Student Debt and the Class of 2010, includes average debt levels for the 50 states and District of Columbia and for more than 1,000 U.S. colleges and universities.
Part of your college decision process is based on cost factors. Examining states who have low student debt might open possibilities to your student that you might not have otherwise considered. You can also view individual colleges to determine the amount of average student debt giving you additional information to help you make wise financial college choices.
If you click on the graphic above you can use the interactive map to learn about the colleges your student is considering. Be an informed parent and teach your student about financial college responsibility.
I pride myself in saying, “I work best under pressure”. That might be true, but it causes havoc in my household when I’m scrambling to complete a project right up to the last second. Here’s one of those instances where I will say, “do as I say and not as I do”. You can’t use this philosophy in the college admissions process. Every aspect of the process revolves around deadlines.
Here is the list of deadline-specific tasks:
College admission is ONE task in life that won’t allow “do-overs” or “extensions”. It is an unforgiving process that will cost you hundreds and even thousands of dollars for procrastinating and not filing on the appropriate deadline. So here is my ONE PIECE OF SAGE ADVICE:
Remember that EVERY college is different; do your homework and stay abreast of any college-specific deadlines.
For a list of deadlines, check them out at the College Board’s website:
Here’s a great infographic that applies to the recent student loan news. The only “myth” that I might question is #5-Student Loans aren’t worth it. While the statistics show that college graduates do earn enough more over their lifetime than high school graduates, you have to be savvy about the amount of money you borrow and your ability to repay it.
Created by: Online Graduate Programs
I received this email from the Institute for College Access and Success. It was a press release issued on President Obama’s speech yesterday.
__________________________
Yesterday the Obama Administration announced important and timely new steps to help struggling student loan borrowers. We applaud the Administration’s steps to make more federal loan borrowers aware of Income-Based Repayment and to provide additional repayment relief for up to 1.6 million current students, including a lower monthly payment cap and loan forgiveness after 20 rather than 25 years of responsible payments.
IBR has already helped nearly half a million borrowers lower their payments and avoid default, but many more borrowers are struggling to keep up with their payments in these tough economic times and could benefit from IBR and the proposed Pay-as-You-Earn option.
By encouraging more borrowers to convert their bank-based federal student loans to more cost-effective Direct Loans, the changes announced today will also help more people qualify for Public Service Loan Forgiveness. Those working for a public or nonprofit employer could see their remaining debt forgiven after just 10 years of payments. Borrowers with bank-based federal loans must already convert them to Direct Loans for their payments to qualify for Public Service Loan Forgiveness.
The Administration took two additional steps to help students and families decide where to go to college and how to pay for it. The new model financial aid disclosure form, or draft “shopping sheet,” is designed to make it easier to compare the real cost of different college options. The new Student Debt Repayment Assistant will help current borrowers with both federal and private student loans, as well as those about to enter repayment, better understand their options.
With these changes on the way, it’s more important than ever to make sure that the millions of borrowers who could benefit from IBR know it’s out there. With the class of 2011 about to face their first student loan payments, there’s no time to waste.
IBR has been available to borrowers since July 2009. For more about how IBR and Public Service Loan Forgiveness work and how to apply, see our consumer website:www.IBRinfo.org.
For more on the Obama Administration announcement, please visit the White House website.
Last week during #CampusChat we talked about college search engines and their effectiveness in helping parents and students narrow down their college choices. There are many comparison tools out there, and today’s guest post from FindTheBest, offers parents and students some tips on how to conducting an in-depth side-by-side comparison search.
_______________________________________________________
Every fall the hype around college rankings consumes parents worried about whether their high school senior gets into a “Top 10 School.” Parents should remember, in the heat of admissions season, there are several factors that make a school right for your teen; there are also plenty of great schools out there, whether or not they’ve been recognized in top ten lists.
From school size to tuition, there are dozens of important things to consider when helping your child apply to college. Fortunately, a new college comparison tool helps you search for and compare colleges and universities by location, acceptance rate, tuition and more.
How to Search Beyond
The free tool, provided by the comparison engine FindTheBest, includes every College institution recognized by the Department of Education.
Looking for a small school on the West Coast with tuition under $25,000? Specify that criterion in the school filter and see what comes up in the search results. Can’t decide between a few schools? Conduct an in depth side-by-side comparison of up to ten choices, so you can review details about potential universities and see how they stack up against one another.
Because rankings are not the only consideration when it comes to choosing a college, helping your college-bound teen understand this alleviates concerns about not making it into a “top school”, by providing them with alternative choices.
This application season, do your homework; research various schools and what they offer and you’re sure to be happy with the outcome.