Islamabad—The Pakistan Red Crescent Society (PRCS) on Tuesday released financial assistance to the family of its paramedic who died in Nawabshah while providing health services to the 2011 flood victims. Pakistan Red Crescent Society (PRCS) Chairperson Senator Nilofar Bakhtiar handed over the cheque of Rs 0.5 million to the brother of deceased Rizwan Gul at the PRCS National Headquarters.
PRCS Acting Secretary General Muhammad Ateeb Siddiqui and PRCS Sindh Provincial branch secretary Kanwar Waseem were also present on the occasion.
Speaking on the occasion, Senator Nilofar Bakhtiar paid rich tribute to the deceased and said that PRCS is proud of its staff and volunteers who gave their lives in serving the humanity.
She said that its is because of the services and sacrifices of these staff members and volunteers PRCS reached out to millions of affectees all over the country.
She said that the PRCS keeping in view the nature of work has enrolled all the staff members for health and life insurance in order to compensate their families in case of any mishap during and relief operations.
PRCS Sindh branch has also contributed in the financial aid to the deceased staff member.
It is pertinent to mention here that Rizwan Gul was working with the PRCS for the last many years and performed his duties during the most critical times in far-flung areas of the country.—APP
BY EMILY McFARLAN emcfarlan@stmedianetwork.com February 21, 2012 6:44PM
Updated: February 21, 2012 7:52PM
ELGIN — There are a lot of misconceptions when it comes to the Free Application for Federal Student Aid, or FAFSA, that most college students and their parents fill out each year.
There’s the misconception that if you fill out FAFSA incorrectly once, that’s it — you’re done, you can’t apply for aid again, according to Kim Wagner, managing director of student financial services at Elgin Community College.
“No, come back. We’ll help you,” Wagner said.
Or the misconception that applications must be submitted by a specific date, like filing taxes, she said.
Actually, in Illinois, the director said, “You can file any time.”
That’s why Elgin Community College’s Financial Aid and Scholarships Office is offering free help with FAFSA during open houses from February through June. The first open house will be 10 a.m. to noon next Monday in the Financial Aid and Scholarships Office, located inside the Student Resource Center at the college, 1700 Spartan Drive.
Financial aid professionals will be available during those hours to answer questions about eligibility for federal aid and help fill out applications, according to the community college. Appointments also are available.
Applicants should bring a copy of their 2011 taxes if they are applying for aid for the 2012-13 school year, which includes summer 2012, according to the college.
“We’ve always had FAFSA workshops,” Wagner said.
That has included help at “college nights” hosted by feeder high schools in Elgin Community College District 509.
But, added Assistant Director of Financial Aid and Scholarships Mary Crowe, this is the first year the Financial Aid and Scholarships Office has had five computers to use for those workshops. Before they moved into their new space in the Student Resource Center, financial aid professionals had hosted workshops in one of the campus computer labs.
This also is the first time the office has been able to offer that assistance in Spanish, Crowe said.
And staffers are seeing more and more students coming in, looking for help with financial aid, she said.
The office saw 23,000 walk-ins in 2011, Wagner said. That’s up from 15,000 the year before, she added.
It also answered 20,000 phone calls last year, Crowe added.
And 54 percent of Elgin Community College students receive financial aid, Wagner said. That’s a little over 6,000 students, she said, which shows students have a lot of questions about aid.
“We really advocate for them to (fill out FAFSA), even if they don’t think they’ll qualify or get money,” Crowe said.
Students are considered “dependent” on their parents, with few exceptions, until they turn 24 years old, Crowe said. But even if their parents make too much money to qualify for financial aid, students still need to fill out FAFSA if they plan to apply for loans, work/study programs or scholarships, she said.
And she encourages all students in District 509 to list Elgin Community College as a possibility on those applications because, Crowe said, plans and circumstances always can change.
More information about financial aid is available from Elgin Community College’s Financial Aid and Scholarships Office at 847-214-7360 or financialaid@elgin.edu.
It would be of great interest if you provide your own (or the DP’s) view on this, as it is at the heart of Penn athletics future. Essential to any team success is the ability to recruit the best athletes, and that involves financial aid in the form of outright grants rather than loans.
It has been often repeated that Harvard has the most generous financial aid packages, followed by Princeton. If this is accepted as a given, how can Penn and the other Ivies CONSISTENTLY compete on a manifestly un-level playing field?
It is no longer questionable that Penn has reduced internal funding for Intercollegiate Athletics, and most teams have to be self-funded to a major extent. Penn Park and the wonderful Weiss Pavilion notwithstanding, where’s the declared commitment in the form of financial support for Penn sports from the administration and trustees? Most succinctly, where’s the money?
2012-02-21 19:36
Durban – The University of KwaZulu-Natal’s Westville campus has extended the closing date for the registration of students who are struggling financially.
“Returning students who are on financial aid appeals will be expected to register as soon as their appeals have been finalised and no later than February 29,” university spokesperson Nomonde Mbadi said on Tuesday.
Students eligible to apply to the registration appeals committee were those studying towards a qualification.
“They are eligible to register if they have not been academically excluded and have a family income less than a threshold of R180 000 per annum,” Mbadi said.
Other requirements included students who owed less than R4 000, students who owed money and had applied for financial aid for the first time and students who owed money but were on financial probation.
Mbadi said students who submitted appeals to the registration appeals committee would be contacted to consult with the staff of student fees offices.
“Regarding the issue of the selection of residence assistants, a meeting will be held with manager of the student residence affairs Mr Themba Khumalo to find an amicable solution to the challenge,” she said.
Mbadi said first year students who had applied to the central applications office for financial aid and who qualified for assistance would be cleared to register.
Students at the university protested last Monday and Tuesday because they wanted funding to be made available to over 1 000 students.
They also wanted the university to provide housing for more students.
The students went on the rampage on Tuesday after being told about a court interdict against the protests of the past weeks.
Police spokesman Colonel Vincent Mdunge said students barricaded roads with burning tyres and rocks, preventing vehicles from entering or leaving the institution.
Four students were arrested for malicious damage to property and three students were injured.
Mbadi said the strike at the university had been called off and normal academic programmes had resumed.
- SAPA
For international students, studying in the United States can be a pricey endeavor. Many U.S. colleges are expensive, cash-strapped, and in demand, giving some institutions little motivation to help international students financially. And unlike their American peers, international students typically don’t qualify for federal loans to help them fund their education.
[Read more about international student trends.]
But while financial aid for international students tends to be very scarce, it does exist. At least 776 colleges offered some amount of financial aid to undergraduate international students for the 2010-2011 school year, according to school-reported data to U.S. News. The average award packages ranged from several hundred dollars to tens of thousands, with the highest average packages topping $50,000.
The list below includes the 10 ranked schools that awarded the highest average financial aid packages to undergraduate international students for the 2010-2011 school year. Those schools enrolled varying numbers of students from abroad, but all awarded, on average, $47,469 or more.
[See which universities enroll the most international students.]
Yale University tops the list of schools that offer the most generous average aid packages to undergraduate international students, reporting that the average award in 2010-2011 was $51,044. Like Yale, all the universities on the list below are private schools. Many are national liberal arts colleges, which means they focus on undergraduate education and grant at least half of all degrees in liberal arts majors, such as English, humanities, and philosophy. Nearly all are located in the northeastern United States, in states including Connecticut, Massachusetts, and New York.
Keep in mind that these statistics aren’t a guarantee of financial aid at a certain school. Since these awards are averaged over the number of international undergraduates enrolled, it’s possible that some students may have received much more money than their international peers at the same school. In addition, schools that are designated by U.S. News as Unranked, meaning they did not meet certain criteria required by U.S. News to be numerically ranked, were not eligible to be on this list.
These 10 schools awarded the highest average aid packages to undergraduate international students for the 2010-2011 school year:
School name (State)
Average aid awarded to international undergraduates
Number of international undergraduates enrolled
U.S. News rank & category
Yale University (CT)
$51,044
348
3, National Universities
Wesleyan University (CT)
$50,743
84
12, National Liberal Arts Colleges
Skidmore College (NY)
$50,000
56
49, National Liberal Arts Colleges
Amherst College (MA)
$49,010
146
2, National Liberal Arts Colleges
Trinity College (CT)
$48,999
119
37, National Liberal Arts Colleges
Gettysburg College (PA)
$48,908
43
47, National Liberal Arts Colleges
University of Chicago
$48,436
63
5, National Universities
Williams College (MA)
$47,713
128
1, National Liberal Arts Colleges
Vassar College (NY)
$47,623
122
14, National Liberal Arts Colleges
Colby College (ME)
$47,469
94
21, National Liberal Arts Colleges
Don’t see your school in the top 10? Access the U.S. News College Compass to see all schools that offer financial aid to international students, complete rankings, and much more.
U.S. News surveyed more than 1,800 colleges and universities for our 2011 survey of undergraduate programs. Schools self-reported a myriad of data regarding their academic programs and the makeup of their student body, among other areas, making U.S. News’s data the most accurate and detailed collection of college facts and figures of its kind. While the data comes from the schools themselves, these lists have no influence over U.S. News’s rankings of Best Colleges or Best Graduate Schools.
Penn’s Undergraduate Tuition Increase for 2012-2013: 3.9%
February 21, 2012, Volume 58, No. 23
The University of Pennsylvania reaffirmed its commitment to an all-grant, no-loan financial-aid program at last Friday’s meeting of the Board of Trustees as they authorized a $181 million financial-aid budget for 2012-2013 while increasing total undergraduate charges by 3.9%, the second lowest in 44 years.
Increasing access for undergraduate students is one of Penn President Amy Gutmann’s top priorities, and this year’s financial-aid budget reflects an increase of $13 million, or 7.7%, over 2011-2012. Since Dr. Gutmann took office in 2004, Penn’s financial-aid budget has grown by 129%, averaging 9.9% per year, more than twice the average annual growth in total charges.
“We want to enable students to make career and life decisions based on their interests, talents, and passion—not on whether they’ll make enough money to pay off their student debt,” Dr. Gutmann said. “We promise all admitted students who qualify for financial aid that they will be able to attend without loans. Especially in these challenging economic times, we want prospective students and their families to know that Penn is affordable to them.”
As a result of Penn’s innovative financial-aid program, the average net cost for aided students to attend Penn today is less than it was in 2004.
Penn has substituted grants for loans for all aid-eligible undergraduates since 2009. Next year, the average grant for students is estimated at $38,250. In 2011-2012, the number of undergraduates receiving financial aid increased by 2.5%, and University aid expenditures grew by 8.7%.
Total undergraduate charges for 2012-2013 —tuition, fees and room and board—will increase by 3.9%. Undergraduate tuition will increase to $39,088 from $37,620; room and board will increase to $12,368 from $11,878; and fees will increase to $4,650 from $4,478. Tuition and fees cover 70% of the direct cost of delivering a Penn education. This is the fourth consecutive year that Penn has kept its tuition growth under 4.0%.
This year, almost 45% of Penn’s undergraduate students received need-based grants from the University. Most undergraduates from families with incomes of less than $175,000 are receiving grant assistance, and the typical student with family income of less than $40,000 receives grant aid that covers full tuition, room and board.
Over the past several years, as increasing numbers of students have required financial assistance, Penn has maintained its commitment to meeting full need with no-loan packages.
Penn is one of fewer than 50 private institutions in the United States that admit academically qualified students without regard to their families’ ability to pay while also meeting the determined full need of all undergraduates. Of the other colleges and universities with no-loan financial-aid policies for undergraduates, Penn has the largest undergraduate enrollment at 10,300.
Increasing educational access remains a priority of Penn’s historic $3.5 billion Making History campaign, which has raised more than $3.5 billion to date. The campaign includes a fundraising goal of $350 million for undergraduate student aid and another $323 million for graduate and professional student aid.
Additional information on undergraduate financial aid at Penn is available at www.sfs.upenn.edu/paying/paying-pro.htm
The University of KwaZulu-Natal’s Westville campus has extended the closing date for the registration of students who are struggling financially.
“Returning students who are on financial aid appeals will be expected to register as soon as their appeals have been finalised and no later than February 29,” university spokesperson Nomonde Mbadi said on Tuesday.
Students eligible to apply to the registration appeals committee were those studying towards a qualification.
“They are eligible to register if they have not been academically excluded and have a family income less than a threshold of R180 000 per annum,” said Mbadi.
Other requirements included students who owed less than R4 000, students who owed money and had applied for financial aid for the first time and students who owed money but were on financial probation.
Mbadi said students who submitted appeals to the registration appeals committee would be contacted to consult with the staff of student fees offices.
“Regarding the issue of the selection of residence assistants, a meeting will be held with manager of the student residence affairs Mr Themba Khumalo to find an amicable solution to the challenge,” she said.
Mbadi said first year students who had applied to the central applications office for financial aid and who qualified for assistance would be cleared to register.
Students at the university protested last Monday and Tuesday because they wanted funding to be made available to over 1 000 students. They also demanded the university to provide housing for more students.
The students went on the rampage on Tuesday after being told about a court interdict against the protests of the past weeks.
Police spokesperson Colonel Vincent Mdunge said students barricaded roads with burning tyres and rocks, preventing vehicles from entering or leaving the institution.
Four students were arrested for malicious damage to property and three students were injured.
Mbadi said the strike at the university had been called off and normal academic programmes had resumed. — Sapa
(MoneyWatch)
A few weeks ago, I outlined several financial moves to make now that could help increase the financial aid for your student this year.
Since most folks need financial aid for college costs each year, it can also pay to think about financial planning now: Doing so can increase financial aid when you complete and file the FAFSA, or federal financial aid application, in future years.
The concepts here are simple enough: use financial strategies that can reduce your base year income and reduce includable assets. If your base year income is lower, you could be required to make a lower expected family contribution towards college costs and therefore receive more financial aid. In regards to includable assets, an important concept to keep in mind is that depleting assets held by the student first can help to increase financial aid in later years. That’s because assets in accounts owned by a parent for a dependent student are reported on the free application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) as a parental asset. Parental assets are assessed at a maximum 5.64% rate in determining the student’s expected family contribution. For assets owned by the student, a higher percentage of assets, 20%, is required to be used towards college costs.
But making financial moves takes planning so you’ll need to think ahead, as making a few well-timed financial moves can help to decrease your expected family contribution and increase your student’s eligibility for some federal financial aid programs such as federal loans and work study programs.
Financial strategies to make this year that could increase financial aid when you file the FAFSA in the following years can include:
Maximize retirement plan contributions. Since assets in retirement accounts are not includable, making the maximum contributions to 401(k) accounts this year and using your savings outside retirement accounts to pay for living expenses is a viable strategy to reduce includable income and assets.
Spend student’s assets first. If you feel that the student’s assets should be used towards education costs (which was probably the purpose of these savings in the first place) then use up all of the student’s assets towards college costs this year, before using any of the parent’s assets.
Minimize taxable income. Think twice before selling investments in taxable accounts. Realized capital gains on investment sales are included income. Avoid taking taxable withdrawals from retirement accounts and delay exercising stock options. Also, if your employer offers one, use a nonqualified deferred compensation plan to defer any bonus income until a later year, if possible.
Delay gifts to student. Ask family members to hold off on making monetary gifts directly to the student. Instead, make gifts after graduation, which the student can then use towards paying off student loans, etc.
Parents and their students will find that the financial aid process is full of complexity and opportunity. Reading guides like this will help you and your student make the most of it.
(MoneyWatch)
A few weeks ago, I outlined several financial moves to make now that could help increase the financial aid for your student this year.
Since most folks need financial aid for college costs each year, it can also pay to think about financial planning now: Doing so can increase financial aid when you complete and file the FAFSA, or federal financial aid application, in future years.
The concepts here are simple enough: use financial strategies that can reduce your base year income and reduce includable assets. If your base year income is lower, you could be required to make a lower expected family contribution towards college costs and therefore receive more financial aid. In regards to includable assets, an important concept to keep in mind is that depleting assets held by the student first can help to increase financial aid in later years. That’s because assets in accounts owned by a parent for a dependent student are reported on the free application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) as a parental asset. Parental assets are assessed at a maximum 5.64% rate in determining the student’s expected family contribution. For assets owned by the student, a higher percentage of assets, 20%, is required to be used towards college costs.
But making financial moves takes planning so you’ll need to think ahead, as making a few well-timed financial moves can help to decrease your expected family contribution and increase your student’s eligibility for some federal financial aid programs such as federal loans and work study programs.
Financial strategies to make this year that could increase financial aid when you file the FAFSA in the following years can include:
Maximize retirement plan contributions. Since assets in retirement accounts are not includable, making the maximum contributions to 401(k) accounts this year and using your savings outside retirement accounts to pay for living expenses is a viable strategy to reduce includable income and assets.
Spend student’s assets first. If you feel that the student’s assets should be used towards education costs (which was probably the purpose of these savings in the first place) then use up all of the student’s assets towards college costs this year, before using any of the parent’s assets.
Minimize taxable income. Think twice before selling investments in taxable accounts. Realized capital gains on investment sales are included income. Avoid taking taxable withdrawals from retirement accounts and delay exercising stock options. Also, if your employer offers one, use a nonqualified deferred compensation plan to defer any bonus income until a later year, if possible.
Delay gifts to student. Ask family members to hold off on making monetary gifts directly to the student. Instead, make gifts after graduation, which the student can then use towards paying off student loans, etc.
Parents and their students will find that the financial aid process is full of complexity and opportunity. Reading guides like this will help you and your student make the most of it.
Frazer Memorial United Methodist Church will be the host site for a free workshop to help students and their families navigate the complexities of applying for financial aid.
The FAFSA, or Free Application for Federal Student Aid, is used to determine financial aid and can be an important part of applying to college — and a vexing one.
“The financial aid form can be confusing. We want to make sure we provide all the assistance necessary. It’s very important people realize college is affordable,” said Kanesha McCollum, an EMERGE Torchbearers Leadership Class III member who is helping to organize the workshop.
The event is part of an ongoing effort by the leadership group to assist Montgomery Public Schools. The group created the Young Professional Advisory Board for Montgomery Public Schools, which is hosting the workshop along with the school system.
The group has already spent time in the school system’s traditional high schools talking students through FAFSA information, explaining to them how the forms work and what they’ll need to complete them. But that was earlier this school year and the FAFSA application process started in January.
“Now is actually time to do the forms,” McCollum said, adding that while the sessions before let students know what was gong to happen, but now it’s time to get parents involved and get more details.
The workshop will be held at 5:30 p.m. Feb. 28 at Frazer in the church’s main fellowship hall.
McCollum said there will be guidance counselors on hand to assist and there will be a PowerPoint presentation followed by a question and answer period.
“At this workshop, they will receive pointers on how to fill out FAFSA forms,” she said, adding they will also find out how to research other scholarship offers.
The workshop also plans to provide a list of available scholarships.
“If you need money, just come to the workshop,” McCollum said. “It’s just a very good opportunity to pull everyone into a neutral location and let them know the young professionals of Montgomery are concerned and we want to help them apply for aid.”
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