rats are about to take control of Congress, that industry - the bankers and financiers who make college student loans - will have to contend with a lawmaker who has compared it to the greedy usurers Jesus drove from the temple of Jerusalem.
“It’s time to throw the money-changers out of the temple of higher education,” [...]

Gov. Janet Napolitano’s office has asked for a review to determine whether the nonprofit company designated as Arizona’s college loan authority improperly did business with for-profit corporations owned by one of its directors.
The Arizona Department of Commerce also was asked Wednesday to determine whether the procedure followed by Napolitano in making the designation is the [...]

Experience, Inc., the leading provider of career services for students and alumni, today announced the findings from its 2006 “College Life - Finances & Banking” survey. Experience polled more than 4,800 students from colleges and universities nationwide to learn about their use of credit cards and how they choose banks and loans during school.
In addition [...]

The state’s student loan authority wants the attorney general’s office disqualified from a lawsuit filed alleging the authority violated the state’s open meetings law.
Attorney General Jay Nixon sued the Missouri Higher Education Loan Authority in February, alleging its board violated Missouri’s open meetings law as it sought to develop a response to Gov. Matt Blunt’s [...]

Stanford University is preparing a plan to offer financial aid to international undergraduate students — an expensive and ambitious move that would open up a whole world, literally, of new applicants.
“We live in a global environment,” said Richard Shaw, Stanford’s dean of admissions and financial aid. “The idea that we can bring together the best [...]

Continuing to prepare students for living in a multicultural 21st century, Goshen president Jim Brenneman announced Wednesday morning that the college has received a $12.5 million grant from the Lilly Endowment.
The grant, the largest single grant Goshen College has received, will be used for the development of a Center for Intercultural Teaching and Learning to [...]

Arizona State University’s College of Nursing and Healthcare Innovation has been awarded a $1.3 million federal grant to design a program for improving nurse retention and patient care.
The college will partner with Abrazo Health Care of Arizona on the five-year Nurses-to-Nurses initiative. In the East Valley, Abrazo Health Care owns Paradise Valley Hospital, and its [...]

When Jeremy Hynd graduated from Vanderbilt University in 2004, he applied to consolidate $44,000 in student loans. With interest rates then at record lows, consolidation offered the opportunity to lock in a 2.5% rate for the life of the loan.
But Hynd discovered that $27,000 of his loans weren’t eligible for federal loan consolidation because they [...]

Learn more: Grant and loan programs
Federal loans provide the largest share of college financial aid, but there are other sources.
Federal Work-Study
The federal government gives money to colleges to pay students to work on or off campus during the academic year (part-time) and in the summer (full-time).
Pell Grants
Federal money for low-income students. Maximum award: $4,050.
Perkins Loans
Low-interest [...]

Learn more: Loan programs and planners
Washington Higher Education Coordinating Board, www.hecb.wa.gov/payingTailor-made for Washington residents: a directory of state-sponsored financial-aid programs.
Guaranteed Education Tuition (GET) program, www.get.wa.gov/Everything you ever wanted to know about Washington state’s own prepaid-tuition program.
The Northwest Education Loan Association, www.nela.netHelp with loan programs, tax breaks and budgeting for college. Includes calculator to estimate how [...]

NEW YORK - Student loan companies are under fire for reportedly offering bonuses, iPods and free trips to U.S. college and university administrators.
The New York Times said one student loan company earlier this year invited administrators and their spouses to attend a free education conference in the Caribbean.
Data from the College Board shows that college [...]

It turns out there probably will not be much talk about education on the Caribbean island of Nevis this February. The student loan company that invited university officials and their spouses to an expenses-paid education summit meeting there has canceled the event.
George Pappas, a senior vice president of the loan company, EduCap Inc., had said [...]