More Help For Students!

Here is more information about the recently-passed student loan reform program:

The student loan reform does not eliminate private lending it only requires that students receiving federal loans acquire them directly from the government.

It seems that so far 20,000 people have signed up for this kind of program.

Full time students are eligible who work at least 20 hours a week.

College students can now apply for food stamps and still get grants and government loans. However students will now only be able to get their student loans through the government.

There Is Financial Help For Needy College Students!

There is help available for families struggling with paying tuition for their kids!

Applications for student aid are up!

More and more families are appealing denied decisions for aid packages to get additional assistance as more and more parents are being rejected for loans.

Schools say they are doing what they can. For example:

• One college that usually accepts aid appeals until mid-June has suspended their deadline so families whose fortunes suddenly change can appeal their aid package at any time. "We had so many families that seem to have financial circumstances that were changing negatively, we made a decision to continue to accept the appeals," says a spokesperson for the learning institution. The college's financial aid office has dealt with households with severe investment losses, small business owners whose companies have nose dived, families where both parents have lost jobs and a student who returned home for spring break to find her family's house in foreclosure.
  
  
• A university is handling a 20 percent increase in aid appeals. Most of the appeals are due to job losses.
  
  
• Another college that gives out about $1.1 million in grants to needy students says that year's pot of money has gone faster than usual, but the grants went to needier families than in years past.
  
  
• A university has launched a campaign this year, so far raising $234,000 for students needing emergency aid to remain at the school. The money started being disbursed this month. It comes during a year when appeals are up 52 percent over last year and applications for government aid rose 12 percent as many higher-income families apply for the first time.

If you're having trouble with tuition bills, here are some options:

• Pay through installments. Most schools allow you to pay tuition over a 10-month period. You'll pay a $50 to $100 fee, but you won't pay any interest. If you can swing the payments, this is better than a loan.
  
  
• Get aid from Uncle Sam If you must borrow, government loans are the way to go. The fixed interest rate is lower than what private loans offer and the repayment terms are friendly. It's not too late to apply for a government student loan program. In fact, you can do so any time during the academic year. For instance one government student loan program limits this year are $5,500 for freshmen, $6,500 for sophomores and $7,500 each for juniors and seniors. In one particular government student loan program the new fixed rate for the loans are subsidized, meaning the government pays the interest while students are in school, is 5.6 percent. The rate for non-subsidized loans is 6.8 percent. You must show financial need to get a subsidized loan, but any student can qualify for a non-subsidized loan.
  
  
• If student loans aren't enough to cover the tab, parents can take out a specific loan to make up the difference. The fixed rate is 8.5 percent, or 7.9 percent through the government's direct lending program. Parents can postpone repayment until six months after graduation. Parents must pass a credit check to get this loan.

Uncle Sam last year started cutting parents a little slack if they had fallen behind on a mortgage or medical bills. If parents are denied a the loan, students can borrow more under the government student loan program. The limits are $9,500 for freshmen, $10,500 for sophomores and $12,500 for juniors and seniors.

There are websites where strangers agree to lend students money and the website acts as the middleman in the transaction. About 10% of the students using these sites are funded and the terms are comparable to other other private loans.

It may be too late in the game to find scholarships for this coming fall, but it can't hurt to try searching online. If anything, you'll get a head start on scholarships for next year.

Over $90 Million Dollars In Grant Money Is Still Available In Texas! Non-profit organizations in the Texas area are eligible to apply for Millions in federal grant money to help them get back on their feet again. The grants will be distributed to agencies in any county declared a disaster area because of Hurricane Ike. The grant money can be used in a wide array of organizations that provide services such as case management, adult and child day care, food programs and mental health care. Unfortunately many of the smaller social service agencies that are eligible to apply for these same grants have little experience in applying for them. It would be very beneficial to them if they had a connection to a professional grantwriter or consultant who could help them to apply for these kinds of grants! Applications for funding must be in by Aug. 25!. The council will approve funding for agencies Sept. 15th. Agencies seeking funding want to be able to use the grant money for: One hospice care center has cited that the hurricane and a slowing economy have strained the agency’s ability to provide hospice care regardless of the client’s ability to pay. Says a spokesperson, "Getting some of the federal money could prove vital to keeping those services going". Another non-profit organization that serves families of young patients who receive cancer and burn care would like to receive the funding to repair a broken elevator so it can make better use of its second floor.

A grant for $186,574 will allow a food bank to help launch a program stressing proper nutrition and fresh produce for low-income families. The food bank is launching a
two-year pilot program that seeks to supply fresh produce to area families. The food bank organization is a major supplier of emergency food supplies made available to low-income families in a local area region. Teaming up with an interfaith council provides the project established links to city neighborhoods. The hope is that by promoting proper nutrition and access to good food at affordable prices that program will produce results, particularly in the area of childhood obesity.

Childhood obesity in the area nationwide is "a perverse form of malnutrition" where often the most affordable foods are the least nutritious. "We want to learn ways to make affordable and nutritious food available to families.

The organization will explore urban agriculture, community gardens, and ways to bring produce grown on farms around the local area into the city's neighborhoods and corner stores and make it affordable to low-income families.

Animal Shelter Receives $100,000 Grant! An animal shelter has received a grant from a foundation to purchase enough vaccine to inoculate all its incoming dogs and puppies against kennel cough (infectious tracheobronchitis) for approximately one year. Kennel cough is similar to the common cold; it is a contagious virus that shelter managers would like to eradicate.It spreads rapidly, and treatment is costly. Shelters are often compelled by their budgets to euthanize otherwise adoptable dogs to stop the spread of the disease. The real key to stopping this scourge is prevention, and that's the aim of these kinds of grants: stopping kennel cough before it gets started. The grants are part of a foundation's program. Funding is made possible through the foundation's partnership with another animal organization and individual donations.

Need Help Paying Back Your Student Loan?

You might want to consider volunteering for the following program that is being funded by a grant!

10 Volunteers are being sought for a program which assists with outreach and community revitalization and improvement programs in one local county. These volunteer positions are hoped to be filled as early as July 2009 and will include five full-time, three half-time and two quarter-time positions. The full-time volunteers will perform 1,700 hours of service over their year with the program "which is roughly like a full-time job with a couple of weeks of vacation", says a spokesman for this government grant provided program. The volunteers will provide a wide variety of services such as child care, run summer programs and act as youth mentors.

Those full-time members who complete their service earn a special education award to help pay for college, graduate school or to pay back qualified student loans. Those who serve part-time receive a partial award. Members also earn a stipend during their term of service, and full-time members are eligible for benefits such as health care.

For more information or to apply to the program, you can contact the project coordinator by phone or via email



In other words this is a grant program that will PAY you to become a volunteer!

Another Grant Program For Individual Artists! If you are an artist that is interested in working on new artistic and cultural programs throughout one local area then this may be the grant program for you! In it's 31st year, this grant program offers 2 different grant programs! Both are open for individual artists to apply, however one of the grant programs requires that the individual artist be sponsored by a fiscal agent that meets the criteria of the grant program. Grant money awarded in this category may range from $400-$5000. The other grant program consists of 2 grants of equal value awarded to individual artists that are residents of the area who wish to create new arts and cultural projects with a community context. Applications materials are now being made available and for further information you may go to their website or contact the grant coordinator via email

The governor of one state has pointed to a 44 percent funding increase for college scholarships which reward financially needy students for taking rigorous high school coursework!

An organization is sponsoring a measure to give grants of up to $15 million over five years, to organizations providing transport to rural veterans needing health care. This grant program would also authorize pilot programs to treat rural veterans at their local hospitals or clinics, and would make permanent a mileage reimbursement of 41.5 cents a mile.

Proposed Grant Program To Help Pay Back Student Loans.....

Although this program is only in the "proposal" stages now this is the procedure of how new grant programs get started all the time!

There is a current proposal underway to start a new state program that will help provide doctors to areas that are medically "underserved".

The proposal includes the offering of grants to help repay education loans and other incentives (including financial incentives) to help make it more attractive to doctors to serve in areas that do not have adequite medical help.

source
Empire State News

So many people have emailed me and asked me about whether or not there are any grant programs out there to help them pay off their student loans and here is a very good example of a grant program (even though its still in its early proposal stages) that talks about just that!

To find out about other grant programs relating to paying back student loans you can take a look at my Grants Related Page and click on the "Student Loans link that appears near the top of that page.

Students - Are You Looking For Money To Attend College?

Well you may not have to! There is a growing trend of colleges and universities that are elimination student loan packages and replacing them with grant packages - grants meaning money that you do not have to pay back!

There is even one well known university where if your parents make under $50,000 a year, you don't have to pay anything to attend!

The list of colleges and universities that are following this trend is growing. I have a list of these colleges and universities that I give to my clients upon request.

Grants For Teachers

Beginning next year, people studying to be teachers might qualify for grants worth as much as $4,000 a year for a total of $16,000.

The grants come with strings. Recipients will have to teach a subject in high demand, such as math, science, special education or a foreign language. They must commit to teach at least four years in an area where there is a shortage of educators.

Recipients get eight years after graduation to fulfill their obligation. If they don't, the grants convert to unsubsidized student loans, and they will owe not only the principal but accrued interest.

It is being used as incentive to make sure people keep their end of the bargain.

Student Loan Forgiveness Programs For Teachers

Eligible applicants are permanent classroom K-12 school teachers. Applicants must spend the major portion of the school day during the school year teaching in a classroom at an eligible urban or rural school district. The program offers up to $2,500 in forgiveness for each year that the teaching commitment is fulfilled and up to $10,000 will be forgiven for any participant.

Students?

It never ceases to amaze me how many times I have seen students who post that they are looking for scholarships and other types of funding to continue their education! While they might get some good leads and references from others online why don't they just go to the financial aid offices of their schools? Here are some excerpts from my Grant Basics 101 blog:

There is a government program that provides tuition costs to white students who want to attend black colleges!

excerpted from The Reader's Digest - Learn to haggle - Some private colleges have become used to hearing parents say, "Even with your aid offer of $10,000, I still can't swing the other $15,000." In fact, in 1994 New York University heard some 1000 variations on that theme - and listened. The school increased grant money for about 650 of those parents. Schools may be willing to reconsider your aid package. But first you must convince them that you are less well off than they thought. Losing your job is a clear ground for appeal. But don't get too aggressive or try to bluff.

Do you realize that there are funding programs out there that will pay the full cost of your tuition! For those students that are studying to become nurses there are funding programs out there that will pay your full tuition costs? There are even some fellowship programs that pay for you to study overseas and will pay you a regular stipend besides! That means that your tuition costs will be paid PLUS you'll be getting paid by them with money paid directly to you to live! If you're an engineering student there are more funding programs than you can ever use and these funding programs are not student loans but funding programs that you do NOT have to pay back!

All in all if you want to be able to go to college and are looking for ways to finance your going to college without having to pay it back then you should be looking into the many funding programs that are out there that are available to you to apply for! Some of these funding programs go without applicants and either that money is rolled into the next year's funding program or that funding program is discontinued due to lack of interest!

Student Loans - The Dark Side of....

I just posted in my Financial Basics Blog about a recent article I was reading about student loans.It seems that some colleges and schools were receiving "kickbacks" and other things from student loan companies. Some of the for-profit schools and colleges were even accused of accepting students who didn't even have a good chance of graduating just so that student could apply for (and the school would get) the student loan.

Some of these student loan companies are protected by the federal government if some of their student loans go into default so getting as many students as they can to sign up for these student loans means more money for them.

I also talk about some of the programs that help students pay back their student loans on my Grants Related page.

What is being done about this? Well one congressman wants to introduce a bill that will stop the colleges/schools from acting as the middlemen for these student loan companies.