Home

Families of College Bound Students: Tips on Financial Aid Forms

20.05.12

For parents of college students and awaited college students (Fall of 2012), financial aid forms need to be submitted speedily. Typically financial aid forms for prospective students are due in January or February, while forms for returning students are due in Walk or April. Be sure to check the deadlines for each school where the student is applying and/or attending. Depending on the school there may be multiple forms to fill out. The first progression is to determine which forms are needed: Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) Variety: This is the basic form required for financial aid at all colleges including all federal student loans, such as StaffordEspeciallyLoans and PLUS loans. The FAFSA form asks for information such as student and parent revenues and assets, but does not take into consideration retirement assets or the equity in the train residence. The FAFSA will determine the family's "Expected Relatives Contribution", which is the amount that the family is thought to be able to pay - often a higher number than theAs a ruleparent thinks they can afford! Information and forms can be found at www.fafsa.ed.gov . Even if the m does not think they are eligible for need-based aid, but wants to access Stafford loans and Advantage loans, the FAFSA must be filled out. Certain merit scholarships may also coerce completion of the FAFSA forms. Stafford Loans: Most students who fill out a FAFSA form are proper for unsubsidized Stafford loans. First year students can borrow up to $5,500. The interest anyhow on unsubsidized loans is currently 6.8 percent and is not based on the applicant'sGenerallycredit score. Need-based subsidized Stafford loans now have an interest grade of 3.4 percent in 2011-12 and the interest does not accrue while the student is in school. Federal Forthright PLUS Loan: Parents can also borrow through the Direct PLUS program. Parents can draw up to the cost of attendance less any other financial aid received. The interest rate is presently 7.9 percent and is charged source with the disbursement of the loan. Please note that certain fees apply to thesePredominantlylending programs, so read the details carefully. CSS PROFILE Form: Some withdrawn colleges use a different methodology for calculating financial aid and require the College Accommodate's CSS PROFILE form. A list of schools requiring the CSS PROFILE organization can be found on the College Board website . The CSS PROFILE form asks more exhaustive and broader financial questions than the FAFSA and takes into account other factors such as thePre-eminentlyequity in your house. Some schools may also request a copy of a tax return, so if imaginable, try to get your taxes done early. Additional Forms: Occasionally a college may be short of supplemental information, so be sure to check with the school. For divorced parents and parents who never married, the rules may veer as to what is required, so check with the school as well as FAFSA and CSS Profile.

Source: NASDAQ

Defining 'High Quality'

20.05.12

The sound out is a difficult one, given both the lack of consensus on how to define teacher quality and the negotiators' varying backgrounds and points of vision (around the table are representatives of groups frequently at odds, including nonprofit and for-profit colleges as well as the teachers' unions and Coach for America). Still, the panel’s 18 members and their alternates will attempt to to on those and other questions related to teacher education this week, in the first of three scheduled negotiated disregard making sessions.

The negotiations are intended to recommend new reporting requirements on program nobility at both the institutional and state levels, as well as determine the criteria that states should use to assess educationist preparation programs and identify those that are not performing well. Panelists, who represent all sectors of higher drilling as well as elementary and secondary education and interest groups, will also deal with issues related to School in grants, which provide aid to students who plan to become teachers and work in “on a trip need” areas.

At first, it appeared that panelists would tackle the quality outflow head-on, with some members calling for it to be moved to the beginning of the rule-making period so that the definition of a “quality program” could inform guidance for reporting and materials collection. Instead, the panel decided to deal with the issues in the order suggested by the Lesson Department, beginning with what data teacher preparation programs should be required to communication about the students they enroll.

But although the discussions provided little insight into what the panelists think about marks of quality in teacher preparation, the Obama administration has laid out a crystalline blueprint of its own . In guidance to the rule-making panel, and in a proposal released in October, the regulation has called for replacing or supplementing “input-based data” -- such as entering students’ ACT scores, or passing rates on statewide assessments -- with “crop-based data” on how an institution’s teachers perform in the classroom.

“Intense programs recruit, select, and prepare teachers who have or learn the skills and schooling they need to be hired into teaching positions, be retained in them, and lead their students to undiluted learning gains,” the administration wrote in its proposal. “Faint programs set minimal standards for entry and graduation. They produce inadequately trained teachers whose students do not authorize sufficient academic progress.”

In guidance to the panel's members this week, the Lesson Department stressed the same issues, saying that states have not “historically held instructor preparation programs to a high standard,” in part because there is no federal definition of a record-quality program. (TEACH Grant funds can go to either traditional certification or alternate certification programs, as long as the program is based at an institution of higher tutoring.)

The definition of a “high-quality program” will determine which institutions are proper for their students to receive TEACH grants, which currently are awarded at 800 of the 1,400 don preparation programs nationwide. The discussion is likely to focus at least in part on clinical preparation, including student teaching, which the furnishing has stressed as a key part of teacher education and that panelists singled out Wednesday as in need of recovery.

One alternate committee member said he feared the administration's core will add to a perception that teacher education is generally low-quality. "We really do desideratum to look at other ways of trying to determine the way we provide information about teacher edification," said Michael Morehead, dean of the college of education at New Mexico Brilliance University. The current system is "becoming outdated," he said, but resisted generalizing about the problems. "I don't squabble that there are challenges, but it's not as bad as you make it sound." But although the administration’s views are assured pure, what the panel will suggest remains an open question. The American Association of Colleges for Advisor Education has put forth five “principles” it hopes will govern the talk, including that any data used to evaluate teacher education programs should be based on well-regulated standards, and that the committee should rely on peer-reviewed research. The administration's map, when released, was praised for its focus on outcomes but criticized as potentially infeasible.

By the end of discussions Wednesday, panelists had not reached a consensus on which, if any, of the more than 400 reporting requirements for schoolma'm education programs should be eliminated. Still, they said they agreed the data should be focused on dope that makes a difference in program quality. "We don't want more observations that doesn't do anything," said David Steiner, dean of the Huntress College School of Education and until recently the state commissioner of education for New York.

The discussions go on today and Friday and then adjourn until the next rule-making session in February.

Source: Inside Higher Ed