WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 12, 2007
Wednesday Edition: Schools Replace Loans with Grants
What was a fad may be turning into a trend. Colleges are moving away from issuing loans and are issuing grants instead.
Look at this Associated Press story about Harvard University, for example:
The university said it would replace all loans with grants and spend up
to $22 million more annually on aid, mostly targeting middle- and
upper-middle class students. Families earning under $60,000 already pay
nothing to attend the world's richest university, with an endowment of
nearly $35 billion.
The story adds:
The announcement is the latest of a string by
well-endowed universities who are trying to combat perceptions they are
unaffordable with major initiatives to reduce the price students
actually pay.
A
handful of schools, starting with Princeton in 2001, had eliminated all
student loans, but Harvard had declined to match that step until
Monday's announcement.
:
Williams College announced that it will eliminate loans from all
financial-aid packages beginning next school year and replace them with
grants. Amherst College recently announced a similar initiative. And
Davidson College in Davidson, N.C., began this fall replacing loans
with grants and student employment.
Other schools are stopping short of getting rid of
loans entirely, but are still finding new ways to minimize debt, at
least for some students. Colby College, a private college in
Waterville, Maine, announced this month that it will eliminate loans
for Maine residents starting next fall. Beginning with next year's
freshmen, Wesleyan University in Middletown, Conn., will eliminate
loans for its neediest undergraduates and reduce debt by an average of
35% for all other students on aid.
And this year, Emory University in Atlanta announced
its "Emory Advantage" program, which eliminates loans for undergraduate
students whose families earn less than $50,000 a year, while capping
total loan volume at $15,000 over four years for families with income
of up to $100,000.
that offers a wide range of alternatives for tuition help, including grants to older students and a seldom talked about budget line that allows state representatives in Maryland to dole out scholarship money to constituents.
Where the Candidates Stand on College Costs
The Des Moines (Iowa) Register says college costs are a big issue in Iowa, as they probably are where you live, too. The paper has a roundup of what the candidates say they would do to control college costs. One popular idea is to provide community college classes for nothing, or next to nothing.
The
Register reports:
Republican candidates [...] are torn between wanting to reduce the
federal government's role in education and looking for ways to expand
access to college.
Democratic presidential candidates John
Edwards, Chris Dodd, Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton and Joe Biden are
among those who have rolled out plans that could pay for a portion, or
all, of a person's community college tuition. Some plans also include
money for fees and other costs.
Democrat Bill Richardson's plan offers two years of loan forgiveness
of tuition and fees in exchange for each year of national service, an
offer that extends to graduates from post-secondary institutions at all
academic levels, including community colleges.
Most Republican
candidates said they opposed plans for essentially free community
college, and have instead emphasized ways the federal government could
make it easier for families to save money to pay for college.
For
example, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney said he would cut the
tax rate on interest, dividends and capital gains earned by households
making less than $200,000 per year to zero, which he said would help
parents save for college.
John McCain also is among those who have said he wants to keep taxes low to make it easier for families to pay for college.
The
debate comes as tuition nationwide has increased at a rate faster than
inflation, albeit more quickly at public four-year institutions than
community colleges, according to the Project on Student Debt.
College
debt is a hot topic in Iowa. Students at Iowa State University
typically graduate with more than $30,000 in loans, according to a
report last year from the Iowa Board of Regents. That's more than the
national average of about $19,646 in debt for students who graduated in
2006, the Project on Student Debt reported.
Increasingly, more Iowa students are turning to lower-cost community colleges for their first two years of study.
Some
top advocates warn that some states' programs for low- to no-tuition
community colleges haven't resulted in higher graduation rates.
"The
free community college can sound good," said Robert Shireman, executive
director of the Project on Student Debt. "We essentially have no-
tuition, no-fee community colleges in California, and we do not have in
California a high college completion rate."
Gift Card Mania
The National Retail Federation says Americans will spend $26.3 billion on gift cards this holiday season, compared with
$24.8 billion in 2006. Additionally, the average consumer will spend
more on gift cards this year than last year ($122.59 in 2007 versus $116.51 in
2006). As I mentioned in
a column last month, gift card sales also increased from 2005 to 2006.
Here is a Web site that is a one-stop shopping center for "zillions" of gift cards.
It is even possible to "re-gift" a gift card.
U.S. News & World Report says:
Thirty percent of people have regifted gift cards or gift certificates,
Tassimo found. Alternatively, you could sell, albeit at a discount, or
swap your gift card for a different store on
swapagift.com
for a $3.99 listing fee, regardless of the amount on the card. "Sellers
can turn their gift cards into cash," says Michael Kelly, the president
and chief operating officer of the Langhorne, Pa.-based company.
"Swappers can trade them for cards they really want."
Here are the National Retail Federation's
"Top 10 Tips" for giving gift cards.
Holiday Ground Shipping Deadline Nears
Tuesday, Dec. 18, is the last day you can ship by ground and expect the package to arrive by Christmas, parcel shipping companies say. Consequently,
more than three-quarters of the retailers who shop.org surveyed designated Dec. 18 as the last day of deals on free or reduced-price shipping.
We are always looking for your great ideas. Send Al a few sentences and links.
Editor's
Note: Al's Morning Meeting is a compendium of ideas, edited story
excerpts and other materials from a variety of Web sites, as well as
original concepts and analysis. When the information comes directly
from another source, it will be attributed and a link will be provided
whenever possible. The column is fact-checked, but depends on the
accuracy and integrity of the original sources cited. Errors and
inaccuracies found will be corrected.
Posted at 12:16:10 AM
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