Podcast Series: Innovations in Education

Explore the full series of eCampus News podcasts hosted by Kevin Hogan—created to keep you on the cutting edge of innovations in education.

The app that puts college within reach of Dreamers

According to the U.S. Department of Education, about 65,000 undocumented students graduate every year from high school. But too many of them are thwarted from pursuing higher education because they don’t qualify for federal student aid.

In 2008, Sarahi Espinoza Salamanca was one of those teenage students. She came to the U.S. with her family when she was four, studied diligently, and dreamed of getting a degree as a first-generation college graduate. But without a Social Security number, she was ineligible for government assistance and felt “hopeless and lost.”

After working at cash-only jobs to pay for some college classes, then dropping out to support her family, she was able to obtain a social security number under the DACA program and was named a Champion of Change by the White House. In 2015, she won the Voto Latino Innovators Challenge to solve a community problem with technology.…Read More

3 ways colleges are using technology to help students borrow less

Last month, a group of six senators introduced a bill designed to help prevent unnecessary student loan debt by encouraging greater transparency. The “Know Before You Owe Act” would, among other features, require colleges to counsel students on financial aid before they agree to expensive student loans.

And with good reason. The obligations of some 43 million student borrowers now exceed $1.3 trillion, having long ago surpassed credit card debt as the country’s second biggest source of personal debt. It’s a challenge that stems from the rising cost of higher education, but it’s exacerbated by the complexity of an aid system that puts a heavy burden on financial aid staff and can leave students and families guessing about the real cost of college.

Research suggests that one in five student-loan holders does not understand the terms of his or her loan, and about half of students can’t accurately identify the cost of their first year of college within $5,000. Brookings estimates that more than half of first-year students seriously underestimate how much they actually borrowed. And that lack of understanding can lead to overborrowing at critical points in a student’s higher-ed journey.…Read More

Financial aid technology: More productivity, less drudgery

Financial aid offices struggled through sequestration talks in Washington.

Changes to college students’ financial aid packages caused by the political saber rattling of Congress’s sequestration talks last spring were updated almost in real time, an impossibility in campus financial aid offices of yesteryear.

Colleges and universities in February and March scrambled to let current and incoming students know that the aid available for their college education was in flux, subject to the whims of legislators who couldn’t come to an agreement on how to best solve the nation’s budget deficit.

Tara O’Neill, Marquette University’s associate director of the Office of Finance and Student Financial Aid, said if this sort of political crisis had threatened to alter financial aid awards already doled out to students in need of college funding in the mid-2000s, schools wouldn’t be able to make the proper adjustments and send updated information for days after changes tool effect – weeks, even.…Read More

Forget financial aid, soon-to-be college students need financial ed

“If I had only known then what I know now.” If it feels as if you know where this one’s going, it’s probably because you’ve heard it before. As student indebtedness continues its steady upward climb, it’s increasingly become a common refrain among cash-strapped college students and graduates, groaning under the weight of hefty student loan payments. Yet at a time when a $1 trillion student loan bill nationally continues to balloon and cripple so many, a new survey finds that the root of many students’ financial woes may have started long before they ever set foot on campus, CNBC reports. According to the first annual High School Student Borrowing Survey, conducted by the Credit Union National Association (CUNA), nearly 50 percent of high school seniors in the U.S. can’t even guess how much money they will need to pay for college. What’s more, “even greater numbers appear unable to understand the basic terms of a student loan,” the survey concludes.

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Tuition.io helps manage all student loans in one place

Tuition.io shows students what company is servicing each of your federal and private student loans.

After graduating from Columbia University in the height of the recession and acquiring $120,000 in debt, including 12 student loans from seven servicers, Brendon McQueen was left with a film degree and a six-month grace period before his first loan repayment was due.

Frustrated by the lack of options in tracking and managing his various loans, McQueen, like many other entrepreneurs, took matters into his own hands.

“I tried to find a tool out there that offered a comprehensive solution, and I couldn’t, so I said, ‘Well, let’s create one,’” McQueen said.…Read More

Colleges see competition in streamlining data

Many campuses have seen student applications spike.

Legions of filing cabinets have become casualties of higher education’s war for students.

Computer-based admissions and financial aid systems are not nearly ubiquitous in higher education, with many schools shuffling reams of paper from office to office, costing precious time and staff hours while competing colleges process their decisions as many as several days earlier.

Campuses with paper-based admissions and financial aid processes are at a distinct disadvantage in their always-heated competition for students applying to many schools every winter and spring.…Read More

Deals with banks stack millions in fees on college students

U.S. student debt tops $1 trillion, according to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

It took Mario Parker-Milligan less than a semester to decide that he was paying too many fees to Higher One, the company hired by his college to pay out students’ financial aid on debit cards.

Four years after he opted out, his classmates still face more than a dozen fees — for replacement cards, for using the cards as all-purpose debit cards, for using an ATM other than the two on-campus kiosks owned by Higher One.

“They sold it as a faster, cheaper way for the college to get students their money,” said Parker-Milligan, 23, student body president at Lane Community College in Eugene, Ore. “It may be cheaper for the college, but it’s not cheaper for the students.”…Read More

Unease grows about future of financing for Pell grants

With the lame-duck Congress winding down and a $5.7 billion gap in financing looming for next year’s Pell grants–and a further $8 billion gap for the following year–there is growing uncertainty about the future of the grants, the nation’s most significant financial-aid program for college students, reports the New York Times. After months of wrangling, Congress grappled Friday with stopgap financing to keep the government in business after the budget expires this weekend. But the temporary measures, probably extending to mid-February, will most likely continue the current budget without providing extra Pell money. Earlier this year, Congress passed legislation that provided an extra $36 billion over 10 years to the Pell grant program and increased the maximum grant to $5,550, up from $4,050 five years ago. But with a new Congress arriving in January and determined to cut spending, it is unclear whether that expansion is sustainable. If Congress does not cover the gap in financing, millions of students could see their Pell grants reduced by more than 15 percent, with the maximum grant shrinking by about $845.

Financial aid officers are starting to worry about a program that is supposed to provide more than $30 billion next year to college students.

“Our students count on that money, and we don’t have the resources to try to make that up,” said Alice Murphey, director of financial-aid management at the City University of New York. “There’s always been a lot of support in Washington for Pell, and enough people on our side. This is the first time it’s ever looked like there wouldn’t eventually be a solution.”…Read More

Blackboard unveils system for disbursing student aid

Students will be able to use Blackboard Pay cards to withdraw from ATMs.
Students will be able to use Blackboard Pay cards to withdraw from ATMs.

Some college students will be able to use their allotted financial aid by swiping a debit card instead of waiting for paper checks to come to their dorm rooms or houses after Blackboard Inc. this week launched a student payroll system.

Officials from Blackboard, the largest provider of learning management systems (LMS) software in K-12 schools and colleges, said the Blackboard Pay program would not charge overdraft fees or other penalties common among banks and other companies that issue debit cards.

Blackboard is teaming up with First Data and Discover to distribute the cards, which students will use to spend the per-semester or annual aid they are granted through federal or private loans. Student card holders will be able to use the Blackboard Pay cards to get cash from ATMs with the Pulse, Allpoint, or STAR Network logos, among other companies.…Read More

Experts split: Are FY11 student aid increases enough?

One financial aid expert said Pell Grants would have to be doubled to increase the number of degree-holding Americans.
One financial aid expert said Pell Grant amounts would have to be doubled to increase the number of degree-holding Americans.

President Obama’s fiscal year 2011 budget includes $156 billion in student aid, a second consecutive increase in Pell Grant funds, and a lower cap for student loan repayments—but financial aid officials said the proposals fall short of policy changes that would make college universally accessible.

The president’s budget, released Feb. 1, raises Pell Grants from $5,500 to $5,710. The Pell Grant program would see a $17 billion increase under the administration’s plan; Obama boosted Pell Grants by 13 percent in his fiscal 2010 budget. The budget calls for linking Pell Grant increases to the annual inflation rate plus 1 percent, making the maximum Pell Grant nearly $7,000 in 10 years.

The administration’s student aid package marks a 60-percent increase since 2008.…Read More