Consolidate Students

As a result of the string of rate cuts made by the Fed over the last year, most parent and student borrowers who have existing variable-rate federal student loans will see their interest rates drop by 3 percent on July 1, 2008 — the biggest rate drop in the history of the federal student loan program.

The government hopes a new loan forgiveness program will give students an incentive to consider a career in public service. In exchange for 10 years on the job in a field of public service such as public safety, education, or social work, the Department of Education will erase certain borrowers’ remaining federal student loan debt.

Some 1.6 million veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars will see their GI Bill benefits more than double from approximately $40,000 to $90,000 as the new Post-9/11 GI Bill goes into effect today.

Some banking industry experts have long regarded the federal student loan program, established in 1965, as one of the most successful public-private partnerships ever created. A historically steady and reliable source of financing for parents and college students needing help paying for school, the federal student loan program also used to be a mostly risk-free and profitable venture for private lenders issuing government-backed student loans.

On July 28, just a few weeks before the fall semester gets underway, some 40,000 college students in Massachusetts suddenly found themselves facing outstanding tuition bills with no money to pay them, when the nonprofit Massachusetts Educational Financing Authority announced that it wouldn’t be able to provide any private student loans for the upcoming semester. MEFA, the largest issuer of student loans to Massachusetts residents, had already suspended its federal student loan program back in April.

NextStudent Inc. announced today that it intends to explore alternatives for creating liquidity for the outstanding auction rate notes issued by NextStudent Master Trust I.

A growing trend in how students apply to college is changing the landscape of college admissions, forcing admissions offices to rethink the number of students the school needs to admit and, in turn, how the school awards its available federal grants, student loans, work-study, and other limited financial aid funds.

Though the United States continues — at least for now — to be the top destination of choice for prospective international graduate students seeking their postbaccalaureate degree, it can no longer take for granted its ability to attract a growing pool of international applicants, according to a report by the Council of Graduate Schools released this month.

As some 17 million students prepare for college in the fall, financial aid offices across the country are scrambling to find new student loan lenders to replace those that are no longer offering federal student loans at their institutions.

The Online Education Database recently released its second annual Online College Rankings list, highlighting the top 41 undergraduate online degree programs in the country.