FAP424: Making some beer money with gigs, Ursinus scholarship, tons of news, Enigma

Student Financial Aid News
+ From Banknet 360: SLM Corp. shareholders are beginning to question whether the Reston, Va.-based student lender is still a good investment.
+ Sallie Mae -- SLM Corp.âs common name -- controls $100 billion of the $380 billion student loan market, and its growth has been spurred by the rising costs of college tuition the subsequent increased reliance on debt to pay for it.
+ But since the November elections, which restored Democratic control of the House and Senate, Sallie Mae stocks have stumbled, dropping 5% the day after the election, and last week hitting a 52-week low of $45.20 per share.
+ Arizona State University in Tempe, Ariz., is being criticized by peers, among others, for taking payments from San Francisco-based Education Finance Partners Inc. in exchange for sending it business.
+ ASU can receive a maximum payout of $40,000 through the deal if students borrow a minimum of $20 million per year.
+ The âpreferredâ lender arrangement with universities, known as ârevenue reinvestment,â is a common practice for student lenders trying to secure private loan business.
+ The Democratic Congress has announced that it will not attempt to redo the 2007 budget, opting instead to work on the 2008 budget and keep federal funding at roughly 2006 levels. However, this change means that no significant new financial aid will be available, and a scheduled $100 increase in the Pell Grant also will not happen. Also, some higher education lobbyists predict that instead of an immediate cut in interest rates, the 2007 Congress will need to phase in rate cuts over a period of time to pay for them.
+ Need some relief for student loan payments before Congress gets to it? Student loan consolidation can help. 877-328-1565 or StudentLoanConsolidator.com
+ About 70 community colleges will share nearly $125 million in grants awarded Tuesday by the U.S. Department of Labor in the second year of the Community-Based Job Training Initiative. The program awards competitive grants to two-year colleges to train workers in high-demand fields, such as health care, biotechnology and aerospace.
+ From the Chronicle of Higher Education: Officials at the University of California at Los Angeles have warned some 800,000 people -- including students, alumni, and faculty and staff members -- that their personal information was exposed when a computer hacker managed to break into a mammoth database used by campus employees.
+ The hacker first breached the database in October of 2005, exploiting a software flaw that UCLA's computer-security technicians had not detected. Campus officials did not notice the breach until last month, when they identified "an exceptionally high volume of suspicious database queries," according to a Web site the university set up after learning of the attacks. Over the year that he or she had access to the database, the hacker had "sought and obtained some Social Security numbers," according to the site.
+ Do you get what you pay for? John Strassburger, the president of Ursinus College, a small liberal arts institution here in the eastern Pennsylvania countryside, vividly remembers the day that the chairman of the board of trustees told him the college was losing applicants because of its tuition. It was too low. So early in 2000 the board voted to raise tuition and fees 17.6 percent, to $23,460 (and to include a laptop for every incoming student to help soften the blow). Then it waited to see what would happen.
+ Ursinus received nearly 200 more applications than the year before. Within four years the size of the freshman class had risen 35 percent, to 454 students. Applicants had apparently concluded that if the college cost more, it must be better.

Scholarship Update
+ Zacharias National Scholarships from Ursinus College
+ $25,000 per year, renewable up to 4 years
+ For academic leaders with awards
+ $2,500 summer research grant
+ Requires FAFSA and interview
+ Deadline February 15 of each year
+ Details at our free scholarship search site

Beer Money
+ Tackling gigs
+ What's your skill set?
+ What's your spin?
+ Lots of gigs out on Craigslist
+ Develop a portfolio
+ Keep a spreadsheet of running gigs and a calendar
+ When you're part time and freelance, reputation is even more important - even if you run late, keep in touch
+ What if you don't have the skillsets? Develop them! They do pay.

Podsafe Music
+ Enigma, Principles of Lust
+ Music via the Podsafe Music Network
+ Stop by our MySpace page!

Reminders
+ Private student loans available at any time - visit AlternativeStudentLoan.com
+ Stafford federal student loans at StaffordLoan.com
+ Student loan consolidation at StudentLoanConsolidator.com
+ FAFSA form online filing at FAFSAonline.com
+ Financial Aid Podcast Show Notes at FinancialAidPodcast.com.
+ The Financial Aid Podcast is a publication of the Student Loan Network.

Questions? Comments? Suggestions? Email me at financialaidpodcast {at} gmail {dot} com, visit http://www.FinancialAidPodcast.com, or call 877-328-1565 x529 or 206-350-1208. AIM: FinAidPodcast Add me to your iTunes by visiting http://www.FinancialAidPodcast.com/itunes/

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