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Tag: tuition

  • Financial Aid: Simple Tips That Help

    If you are going to college, you will want to apply for financial aid. Some high school guidance counselors and teachers will help you apply before you even graduate high school, but if you didn’t get any help, you might be a little confused and intimidated by the financial aid process.

    Not everyone qualifies for financial aid, but many people do. The best way to find out is by turning in the FAFSA as soon as possible. Here are a few simple tips that will make your application process go a little smoother.

    Apply Online
    You may have been given the FAFSA paperwork in high school or at your college orientation, but you can also apply online. Applying online is much easier and faster and the online application form offers tips and advice to help you fill it out as you go. You can also submit your completed application online and check the status of it whenever you want.

    Be Aware Of Special Circumstances
    If you find out that you are not eligible for financial aid or are not going to get as much as you thought, see if there are any special circumstances that may have prevented you from getting the right amount. A guidance counselor or financial aid counselor will be able to help you fill out a special circumstances form and tell you if there are any other ways you can qualify for financial aid.

    Keep Trying
    If you don’t qualify for financial aid this year, don’t give up and keep trying. If your income changes you may be eligible for financial aid next year. There are a lot of things that can change in a year. You could be missing out on thousands of dollars if you don’t reapply every year.

    If you are having a hard time applying for financial aid or are confused about eligibility, talk to a teacher or the financial aid office at your college and don’t be afraid to ask for help.

  • Teen Who Sued Parents Denied Support

    Teen Who Sued Parents Denied Support

    The eighteen-year-old girl who sued her parents for child support and tuition has lost her case. The judge’s reasoning for denying her support was that the case, if won, would set a bad precedent on limits for parenting, which could lead to a flood of these kinds of cases.

    Rachel Canning insisted in court that her parents kicked her out of their house 2 days before her eighteenth birthday back in October. Her parents, including former Lincoln Park Police Chief Sean Canning, say that the teen left on her own because she didn’t want to follow basic rules of their household like doing chores, being respectful, and the curfew, according to Fox News.

    Ms. Canning was asking for $654 per week in child support and for her parents to pay tuition to her catholic high school for the remainder of the year. A new case, tentatively scheduled for April 22nd, will determine if her parents will have to pay for her college or not. Rachel has already been accepted to several colleges for next year.

    The judge in the case, Morris County Court Judge Peter Bogaard, did rule that her parents will keep Rachel on their health insurance policy and that they will continue to contribute to her college savings account.

    Sean Canning paints a picture of a bit of a spoiled brat, saying that their expectations were very reasonable, perhaps even too lenient.

    “I’m a liberal, liberal parent,” he said. “I wish I could have grown up in my house. I was tougher on my cops at work than I’ve ever been at my home, that’s for sure.”

    He just wishes the whole thing was over, and that Rachel would come back home. Her parents both want her to be a part of their family again.

    “This whole thing is just destroying our family,” he said. “We love our daughter. She’s our pride and joy. The door is wide open. We want her to come home.”

    What do you think? Is this the latest manifestation of the “entitlement generation” or do you believe that Rachel Canning deserves to have her family’s financial support?

    Image via YouTube

  • Utah Student Pays Tuition in $1 Bills

    Luq Mughal, a 21 year old engineering student at the University of Utah, decided he’d had enough with the high cost of college tuition. So earlier this week he sent the powers that be a message by paying every dollar of his tuition bill. Literally. He lugged a metal case full of money into the bursar’s office and paid for his entire tuition bill in singles.

    As an in-state student and the son of a faculty member, Mughal already receives a substantial discount on his cost of attendance. But he’s not on daddy’s dime for the remainder of the cost, instead forgoing weekend frat parties for shifts at Home Depot.

    “By no means am I the saddest story on campus. There’s a lot of people here just as bad and probably worse,” he said. “The people making the prices are not actually aware of how hard it is on the students,” referring to a 5% price bump approved by university administrators this year. Utah’s tuition already had more than doubled over the past decade, from $2,742 for the ’02-’03 academic year to $6,511 this year, as a response to declining state funding for higher education.

    “When you spend cash, you feel every dollar that you hand over to someone else,” Mughal said. “You feel that you’re losing that. If you just swipe your card, it could be 10,000 or 100,000 bucks and you don’t really feel it. When you actually slide over a huge pile of cash, you really feel like you’ve spent that. That’s your money, and you also want to make that worthwhile by doing well in school.”

    Technically, Mughal had to mix a few five dollar bills into his payment, as the local banks where he got all his cash began to run out of singles.

    Not everyone was impressed with the stunt. In line behind Mughal was graduate computer science student George Zhang, who chose Utah over schools such as NYU due to the lower cost of attendance. “I think it’s pretty fair,” said Zhang.

    Now America waits as someone tries to do the same at the University of Michigan, which weighs in as the most expensive tuition for out-of-state students at a whopping $39,109 for tuition and fees alone.

  • Oregon May Soon Begin Tuition-Free College Plan

    ABC News is reporting that the Oregon state legislature has unanimously approved a plan to provide free tuition to students while they attend community college and public university. The groundbreaking plan is designed to help students hit by the recent doubling of student loan interest rates.

    The program is called “Pay It Forward, Pay It Back”. Its structure is fairly straightforward. It will allow students to go to a public university or community college tuition-free with a binding contract that they will pay a small, fixed percentage of their annual adjusted gross incomes after they graduate from college.

    The beauty of the program is that it was conceived and proposed by students. Barbara Dudley, professor with Portland State University’s College of Urban and Public Affairs: Hatfield School of Government, has been heavily involved with the planning and proposing of the program. It was her students that came up with the idea. They worked with Rep. Michael Dembrow, as well as he Oregon Students Association.

    Dembrow presented the idea as a House Bill. State senator Mark Hass, chair of the senate education committee, sponsored the bill in the senate.

    One of the proposals that Dudley’s students ran with is that all community college students pay 1.5 percent of their incomes for 20 years, and all four-year public university students pay 3 percent for 20 years.

    “Essentially what it does is allows you not to carry a debt load,” Dudley said. “It’s not a debt that you graduate with. Your debt-to-credit ratio is not mucked up and you can participate in the economy.”

    The average college debt that a student walked out with in 2013 was $35,200. If a state university graduate makes $80,000 per year (AGI) after graduating, and pays 3 percent each year as agreed, that is a payback of $48,000 over the 20-year life of the “loan”. There is, of course, inflation to be factored in. But there are also cost-saving measures that the states can implement with colleges that could make the return on investment even more profitable. If the students stay in Oregon, they contribute to the economy of the state. If they leave, they are still paying back their “tuition”. Meanwhile, they have had no adverse listings on their credit, and their payment remains a percentage, not a prohibitive amount with interest tacked on.

  • Canadian Pays Off Entire Student Loan in Cash

    Stop me if you’ve had this dream before: Armed with pockets stuffed to overflowing with cash, you stroll into the bank that handled your student loan, slap those sweaty wads of paper currency on the proverbial barrelhead, and walk away with a receipt that proclaims all of your college debt has been paid off. It’s a scenario that many graduates have daydreamed about while serving cold french fries to angry mothers with a gaggle of screaming children in the backseat of their SUVs. And, chances are, they’ll be imagining the same thing tomorrow afternoon.

    Prepare to engage jealousy shields, as the preceding paragraph actually took place somewhere within the wilds of Toronto, Canada. Business Insider, by way of Reddit, posted the story earlier today, and I think they were as astounded by the embedded image as I am. Most people are forced to address their college tuition in small, monthly payments over an extended period of time. So when you’re pouring over your budget this weekend, think about this individual and the freedom he or she is experiencing as a result. Then, you know, cry yourself to sleep.

    Sorry if this ruins your day. Seriously.

    (image)