Student Loan Default Rate Up by 50% In Two Years!
From Andrew Gillen, of the CCAP:
The Department of Education reports that the default rate on student loans for the latest cohort is now 6.9%.
So 6.9% of students who began repayment between Oct 06 and Sept 07 were in default by Sept 08. That in and of itself is pretty distressing, but even more so is the fact that this is 50% higher than the rate just two years ago (4.6% in FY 2005, 6.9% in FY 2007). Be sure to check out Tim Ranzetta at Student Lending Analytics and this Quick Take at Inside Higher Ed for more discussion. Why this isn’t getting more attention is beyond me, though perhaps it has to do with the fact that nothing gets a headline anymore unless it involves a trillion dollars.
I’m starting to get the feeling that we’re encouraging students to mimic the rest of the country in taking on unsustainable debt. (The upper right chart here shows the astronomical increase in our dept to GDP ratio).
That didn’t work out so well for the country. I hope the students fare better.
1/3 of Parents of Freshmen Say the Economic Downturn will affect Education Financing
From Doug Lederman of Inside Higher Ed:
Even as many colleges report increased student applications, administrators remain deeply worried about what will happen to enrollments this fall, given the economic turmoil facing many families. A new survey of parents of current college students suggests that college leaders’ concerns are legitimate, but that the damage may not be as severe as they fear.
At least a third of the parents of freshmen at public and private colleges say the downturn will affect how they finance their children’s college education next fall, according to the survey by the research company Eduventures…Continue reading on Inside Higher Ed >>
Related: Think a Student Loan is the Answer? Inside Higher Ed also has a Quick Take Today, explaining how the Student Loan Lobbying is Intensifying:
As Congress prepares to take up their 2010 budget blueprints, supporters and critics of President Obama’s proposal to eliminate the Family Federal Education Loan program are ramping up their arguments for and against the plan. The Consumer Bankers Association has attracted more than 4,000 college financial aid administrators, parents and loan industry officials as signers of a petition asking lawmakers to sustain the competition between the lender-based guaranteed loan and the competing direct loan programs…Continue reading on Inside Higher Ed >>
(Postponed) Live Podcast, 03/31/09 – Dr. Joseph Martino: Just Wars
Update 03/31/09: This podcast has been postponed until further notice.
Join us for our next Live Podcast on Tuesday, March 31, 2009 at 3PM Mountain – as Dr. Joseph Martino discusses with Dr. Bishirjian Just Wars
After earning degrees in physics (A.B., Miami University), Electrical Engineering (M.S., Purdue University), and Mathematics (Ph.D., Ohio State University), Dr. Martino joined the U.S. Air Force, where he served for 22 years, retiring as a full Colonel in the early 1970s.
While in the Air Force, he was a member of the Plans Staff of both the Air Force Avionics Laboratory and the Air Force Office of Scientific Research and was also Chief of the Environmental Analysis Division of the Air Force Office of Research and Analysis. In these positions, he was responsible for preparing forecasts of critical technologies for future weapons systems.
After leaving the Air Force, Dr. Martino became a Senior Research Scientist at the University of Dayton Research Institute (1975-1993), where he conducted research for the Army Missile Command, Martin Marietta, AT&T, IT&T, the Hobart Corporation, and other sponsors. He also created and taught graduate-level courses in Technological Forecasting and Technology Assessment in the School of Engineering – courses that covered technological forecasting (its application to R&D planning, business, and government) and methods of anticipating the social, economic, and environmental consequences of new technology. These courses were offered to practicing engineers preparing for management responsibilities.
Dr. Martino is now a private consultant in the field of technology management. He is a Fellow or Associate Fellow of several professional organizations, including the Institute of Electrical & Electronics Engineers, the American Institute of Aeronautics & Astronautics, and the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
Among his publications is the widely-used textbook, Technological Forecasting for Social Change. And, in Science Funding: Politics and Porkbarrel, he argues that the long-term effects of Federal funding have been and will continue to be detrimental to American science.
Dr. Martino has taught on-line courses for the New School for Social Research and the University of Phoenix and is nationally known for his knowledge of Just War Doctrine, and his writing and lectures about the application of the Just War Doctrine in the modern world.
You’ll be able to listen here by clicking on the player below. If you’d like to join in the chats, you’ll need to register for a Blog Talk Radio listener account. If you are a Blog Talk Radio member, be sure to add Yorktown-University to your favorites.
Live Podcast: 04/01/09 – Dr. Thomas Payne – Constitutional Law
Dr. Thomas Payne will be speaking with Dr. Bishirjian on Wednesday, April 1, 2009 at 3PM Mountain.
Thomas Payne majored in History at the University of Notre Dame where he was inspired by the classes of Professor Gerhart Niemeyer to become a political theorist. Dr. Payne holds both a Ph.D in Government from Claremont Graduate School and a J.D. from the Vanderbilt University School of Law.
From 1983 to 1987, he was an Associate Professor of Political Science at Hillsdale College, where he helped build and expand the small department of history and political science into one recognized nationally for academic excellence.
In 1988, Dr. Payne served as a clerk in the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Ohio and in 1990 became a clerk for the Sixth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals. He joined the New York law firm of Cravath, Swaine & Moore in 1991 as a Litigation Associate. Cravath is one of the nation’s premier business firms, with IBM, CBS, and New York’s Chemical Bank as clients. In his role as associate, Dr. Payne participated in cases involving securities regulation, first amendment law, patent infringement, and corporate governance. Later, with the Philadelphia firm of Felheimer, Eichen & Braverman, he worked on antitrust, lender-liability, and bankruptcy cases.
Since 1995, he has been a sole practitioner of the law, handling a wide range of cases: commercial leases, corporate governance, probate litigation, and post-decree divorce matters. Several of his cases have been reported in legal publications. One of the most important is Ouellette v. The Christ Hospital (S.D. Ohio), which establishes that a claim is not preempted by the ERISA Law where the plaintiff alleges that the negligence of an HMO in establishing financial incentives for cost-containment caused malpractice by a physician.
Dr. Payne’s interest in government and politics is more than academic. He has been a campaign worker for city council and congressional candidates, a precinct worker for Ronald Reagan’s gubernatorial and presidential campaigns, a regional political director for the Reagan-Bush Committee, and, as a member of the Reagan Transition Team, he helped prepare the final report on multilateral development banking. Dr. Payne was retained as a consultant to the Office of Cultural and Education Affairs at the United States International Communication Agency (USICA) to research and write a history of cultural diplomacy of the United States.
He has been admitted to practice as a member of the Bar in Ohio, New York, and Pennsylvania and is a member of both the Philadelphia Society and the Federalist Society. He has published articles in political philosophy, arms control theory, and American politics and has been honored with the American Jurisprudence Book Award in Criminal Law and Professional Responsibility.
You’ll be able to listen here by clicking on the player below. If you’d like to join in the chats, you’ll need to register for a Blog Talk Radio listener account. If you are a Blog Talk Radio member, be sure to add Yorktown-University to your favorites.
No More Football at Colorado College…?
Here’s a Quick Take from Inside Higher Ed:
Colorado College Drops 3 Teams, Including Football
Colorado College has announced plans to cut three teams from its athletics program: football, softball and water polo. In an open letter announcing the changes, college officials cited the need to cut spending. While many colleges are pushing to control athletic (and other) spending, Colorado has a particularly difficult time, the letter noted, because it is the only Division III program in the Mountain Time Zone, forcing particularly high spending on travel. The teams were selected for elimination on the basis of “competitive success, conference affiliation, available facilities, fund-raising success (or endowment earnings), roster size, and recruiting success,” the letter said. It added that college officials also wanted to be sure the athletics program met federal gender equity requirements.
Poll: Are you thinking about quitting school?
March 26, 2009 by DQU Admin
Filed under Don't Quit U. Recommends
Are you thinking about quitting school? If so, why? Please share your concerns in the comment section below.
Recommended Accredited Internet Colleges and Universities
March 26, 2009 by DQU Admin
Filed under Don't Quit U. Recommends
Following is a great list of Accredited Internet Colleges and Universities:
- Yorktown University
- Patrick Henry College
- The Catholic Distance University
- Liberty University
- College of the Humanities and Sciences
- Regent University
Texas Senate Votes to Modify ‘10%’ Admissions Law
A “Quick Take” this morning, from Inside Higher Ed:
The Texas Senate on Tuesday approved significant changes in the state’s “10 percent” admissions law, which has guaranteed admission to the public university of their choice all students who graduate in the top 10 percent of high schools in the state. The changes, The Dallas Morning News reported, would apply the law until a college or university had filled half of its entering class. An additional 10 percent of the class would have to come from those in the top 10 percent of their high school classes, but universities could consider other measures too. Then universities would be free to select students on a range of criteria. The law was adopted at a time Texas was barred by federal court order from considering race or ethnicity in admissions, and the law helped preserve diversity in higher education at the state’s competitive universities. Because many Texas high schools are overwhelmingly Latino or black or white, the law assured a steady stream of minority students — and was seen as sending a message of inclusion to students in low-income areas. But the University of Texas at Austin has been fighting to change the law, arguing that so many of these students enroll there that the university has lost all ability to create a class using a range of criteria. University officials and their legislative backers have said that the change need not hurt minority enrollment levels.
Cost Gap in Public v. Private Ed Narrows
From Doug Lederman, of Inside Higher Ed:
With each passing day, as the economy turns down and Americans’ financial uncertainty ramps up, the competitive environment for higher-priced colleges grows tougher. They will continue to make longstanding arguments about their relative quality compared to less-expensive competitors, particularly when factoring in the likelihood that students will get through in a shorter time period. And they will make the point that the gap in the actual price of attending is a lot narrower than the difference in sticker price. But in a world of simple messages, higher prices are still a hurdle.
In recent weeks, two private colleges have introduced or expanded programs in which they match the tuition price of local or regional public universities for some portion of the potential applicant pool. Their reasons for doing so are different — California Lutheran University is very directly trying to take price out of the equation for a group of high-quality students, while officials at Davis & Elkins College say they are focusing on making higher education a more viable option for place-bound students in their Appalachian West Virginia region.
But in both cases, the colleges hope that a simple message — quality private higher education at a public college price — will get through the information clutter and financial jitters of this era…Continue reading on Inside Higher Ed >>
CCAP Chart of the Week – College Tuition Outpaces Inflation
“New data from the Digest of Education Statistics shows that college tuition continues to rapidly outpace inflation.”
