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student loan money!!!!!!?

Jan 26, 2009 by Lisa S | Posted in Financial Aid

I in days of yore got private student loans through lenders like Chase or Astrive... however, now I'm not able to get ANYTHING from these types of companies. Even our asseverate's educational private loan company, Iowa Student Loans has shut down.

Do you have a bank account? do your parents? Perhaps these banks will contribute money to people that have an established relationship with them.

Question about debt incurred by spouse prior to marriage?

Aug 03, 2007 by matthemouse | Posted in Personal Finance

My spouse took out a student loan years before we met and got married. The loan is in my spouse's name only, and (to rehash) was taken out before we knew each other.

My spouse defaulted on the loan when they were unable to make the payments.

Iowa is NOT a community trait state. There are 9 community property states: Arizona, California, Idaho, Louisiana, Nevada, New Mexico, Texas, Washington and Wisconsin.
http://www.escrowhelp.com/articles/20000 114.html

As to your

Iowa Student Loan Consolidation

www.readerpoint.info

The Indebted Graduates of 2008

Seniors who graduated with student loans in 2008 faced a rough job market, as the U.S. economy started heading into a recession and unemployment began rising. But according to an analysis of borrowing data released yesterday, these recent entrants to the labor market had an added disadvantage—large levels of debt.

According to the report “ Student Debt and the Class of 2008, ” released yesterday by the Project on Student Debt, an initiative of the Institute for College Access and Success, seniors at four-year universities who graduated last year with student loans (federal or private) on average owed $23,200, an increase of more than 24 percent over what the class of 2004 borrowed. Students who attended public universities owed $20,200 on average, while those at private, nonprofits owed $27,650.*

Though the average figures are high, the report notes that the actual amounts owe vary a great deal both by state and institution. Student borrowers attending a school in Utah, for example, owed an average of just $13,041, while those in Washington, D.C., owed more than double that, with average debt of $29,793. The capital’s appearance at the top is somewhat skewed by the fact that it has only one public four-year institution, so the borrowing reflects only students at Georgetown, George Washington, and other similarly expensive schools.

By contrast, Iowa’s appearance as the second most-indebted state is more troublesome. Graduating student borrowers there owed an average of $28,174, including an average of $31,616 owed at Iowa State University. That is a surprising result given that Iowa State’s tuition is just $6,161, which is less than what the University of Iowa charges, but it’s students owe nearly $9,000 more on average than those enrolled in the flagship. Further worrying is the fact that 73 percent of Iowa’s seniors graduated with loans, the second-most in the sample ahead of all states except for South Dakota, where 79 percent graduated with debt. On the other hand, only 49 percent of seniors in D.C. graduate with loans.

The big debt levels in the Hawkeye state are somewhat unsurprising given the allegations that have surfaced in the past few years about Iowa Student Loan , a local not-for-profit lender that aggressively marketed its products in the hopes of achieving massive growth in its loan volume. has more on the company’s practices here .

Debt levels also vary a great deal by institution. At the high end, seniors with loans graduating from the St. Louis College of Pharmacy took out an average of $105,576, with $78,871 of that coming in the form of federal loans. This institution is more like a medical school, though, as it offers a six-year pharmacy program for students coming right out of high school. That said, there were 41 other private four-year institutions with average debt above $35,000, with another 24 public four-year schools or systems with average debt of more than $25,000.

On the other hand, only 28 four-year institutions (public and private) that reported borrowing information had average debt levels below $10,000. Some of these, such as Princeton and Williams likely got this status by offering generous institutional aid packages, while others have low tuition that is more affordable for most students.

It would be easy to look at these results and automatically equate high debt with bad and low debt with good. Unfortunately, it’s a bit more complicated. Debt is not necessarily an evil thing–taking out $40,000 to attend Harvard is likely to pay off in the end. Borrowing $1,000 instead to enroll at Jay’s Technical Institute is probably not. (A similar argument based upon intended profession could also be made, but is not as strong since students change their minds frequently.)

Unfortunately, the debt choice is usually not so clear cut. What about having to make the decision between Boston University ($37,050 in tuition and fees) versus the University of Massachusetts, Amherst ($10,232 in state)? Graduation and cohort default rates provide some indication as to whether a student is likely to complete a program and pay back their debt, but that provides little information about how the two institutions are viewed by employers, whether their students succeed in the workforce, or if they come out of school having actually learned anything. Without better information on what student loan debt actually borrows it’s difficult to judge the relative merits of borrowing short of spotting the obvious ripoffs.

But there is one gradation within the borrowing data that absolutely matters: private versus federal. Owing $40,000 in federal loans seems like a lot, but they may be eligible for income-based repayment and have a low fixed rate of interest to keep payments manageable. On the other hand, private loans do not have these benefits, so taking out $15,000 of this type of debt could very well be more expensive than taking out $25,000 in federal loans.

Overall though, it is fair to say that the general upward trend in student borrowing is not a positive development. An Education Sector report from earlier this year noted that loan borrowers make up the majority of students at all types of four-year institutions, and the average loan amount has been steadily increasing in real terms since 1992. Consistently borrowing more to purchase a largely unchanged product will move students ever closer toward the point where the price tag demanded simply is not worth the debt. It’s probably already at that point for the lowest quality schools and probably edging there for others.

Schools have two options if they want to avoid future concerns that their price tag is not worth it—cut costs or demonstrate value. Institutions have a long track recording of being unable or unwilling to do the former, so the long-term viability of all but the most elite expensive colleges and universities may well depend on the latter.

*In the interest of the English language figures represent seniors who graduated from a four-year institution in 2008 and took out a student loan, either federal or private. State data refers to the location of the institution, not a student’s home state. The percentage of students borrowing does, however, refer to the entire institution.

It seems as though public and not-for-profit schools could probably learn a bit about cutting costs from schools like Jay’s Technical Institute. If you ever take a tour through a tech school, they’ll brag about their facilities, while showing you a classroom right out of the 1950’s. And for their state-of-the-art perks, you’ll have the privilege of paying $25,000 per year- courtesy of the federal government and the school itself. Because these schools have also perfected university student loans , as the ultimate financial aid for “bridging the gap”.

Source: The Quick and the Ed

Funding For Pell Grants Likely To Increase By $40 Billion

After three years of major increases in federal Pell grants for needy college students, President Obama aims to boost the aid further with $40 billion in funding over the next decade. But even that influx might not ensure that the grants will recover and sustain the purchasing power they once held.

Experts agree on the reason: soaring college costs. In the late 1970s, the maximum Pell award covered more than two-thirds of tuition and fees for a public four-year university. In the 1980s, it covered roughly half of such expenses. In the last school year, it covered about a third.

"There is an increasing gap that students have to cover on their own," said Sandy Baum, a senior policy analyst for the College Board , in New York. "It's obviously a problem for students. They're working more; they're borrowing more."...

U.S. Rep. George Miller (D-Calif.), chairman of the Education and Labor Committee, said that a student aid bill the House passed last month would strengthen the Pell program with $40 billion in additional funding, indexing it for the first time to inflation, but that it would not erase questions about spiraling tuition and fees.

"This is a very important round of resources to be made available to students and families," Miller said. "But clearly, for a host of reasons, the costs continue to rise faster than families and the federal government can keep up with them. . . . We've arrived at a point where we have to, in a most serious vein, ask about what's the future for financing higher education in this country."

The grants, launched in 1973 and named for Claiborne Pell, a longtime Democratic senator from Rhode Island, have become the bedrock of undergraduate aid. Coupled with state and school awards, Pell grants determine how much needy students must work or borrow to pay bills.

This school year, according to the Obama administration, about 7 million students from low- and moderate-income households will qualify for the grants through the Free Application for Federal Student Aid. The average award will be $3,611, and the maximum, $5,350. The total federal outlay: $25 billion.

The maximum Pell award has jumped since 2006 after it was frozen for several years at $4,050.

Skeptics say the grants give schools an excuse to raise tuition and fees, often at a rate well beyond inflation, at a time when state revenue shortages and endowment losses are squeezing universities.

"When you look at the overall trend, it is very clear that colleges and universities eat up all of this money, eventually," said Neal McCluskey of the Cato Institute, a public policy research foundation in the District. "It sort of gives them a constantly increasing budget."

But proponents say the program's aim is to help poor and low-income students who otherwise would be unable to attend college. "The person that we're trying to help here is the person who's on the brink," said Chris Lindstrom of U.S. PIRG, a District-based public interest advocacy group. "Folks who are one car breakdown away from not being able to go to school."

Two-thirds of Pell recipients have family incomes of $30,000 or less, according to a College Board analysis. Two-fifths are surpassing their parents by entering college, and one-tenth are single parents, according to federal statistics ...

Under the House bill, the grants would rise with the consumer price index, plus 1 percentage point, starting in 2011. The estimated maximum award in 2019 would be $6,900. To fund the increase, the bill would end subsidies to private student loan providers and establish the government as the direct lender for the entire federal student loan market as of July 1. The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office projects that the lending overhaul would save $80 billion over a decade. About half of that would be channeled into Pell grants.

The House passed the bill Sept. 17 on a largely party-line vote, 253 to 171 . Republicans criticized what they called a government takeover of lending and said the bill would cost more than advertised. The Democrat-led Senate is expected to take up a similar bill soon.

Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa), chairman of the Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions, said his proposal for Pell funding would mirror the House bill's. "This is one that goes directly to students based on need," Harkin said. "After all these years, we've got good data to show that increasing the Pell awards encourages low-income students to go to college."

Despite partisan divisions over the student aid bill, many Republicans also back the Pell program. "It helps people, no question," said Rep. Howard P. "Buck" McKeon (R-Calif.), a senior member of the Education and Labor Committee. "There are people having a hard time who can benefit from it. It's more money in their pockets."

But McKeon said the government should prod colleges to contain costs, perhaps through the threat of withholding funds from those that jack up tuition the most. That, he said, would "address the root problem."

After three years of major increases in federal Pell grants for needy college students, President Obama aims to boost the aid further with $40 billion in funding over the next decade. But even that influx might not ensure that the grants will recover and sustain the purchasing power they once held.

Experts agree on the reason: soaring college costs. In the late 1970s, the maximum Pell award covered more than two-thirds of tuition and fees for a public four-year university. In the 1980s, it covered roughly half of such expenses. In the last school year, it covered about a third.

"There is an increasing gap that students have to cover on their own," said Sandy Baum, a senior policy analyst for the College Board , in New York. "It's obviously a problem for students. They're working more; they're borrowing more."...

U.S. Rep. George Miller (D-Calif.), chairman of the Education and Labor Committee, said that a student aid bill the House passed last month would strengthen the Pell program with $40 billion in additional funding, indexing it for the first time to inflation, but that it would not erase questions about spiraling tuition and fees.

"This is a very important round of resources to be made available to students and families," Miller said. "But clearly, for a host of reasons, the costs continue to rise faster than families and the federal government can keep up with them. . . . We've arrived at a point where we have to, in a most serious vein, ask about what's the future for financing higher education in this country."

The grants, launched in 1973 and named for Claiborne Pell, a longtime Democratic senator from Rhode Island, have become the bedrock of undergraduate aid. Coupled with state and school awards, Pell grants determine how much needy students must work or borrow to pay bills.

This school year, according to the Obama administration, about 7 million students from low- and moderate-income households will qualify for the grants through the Free Application for Federal Student Aid. The average award will be $3,611, and the maximum, $5,350. The total federal outlay: $25 billion.

Source: A Blue View