On Wednesday, under the College Cost Reduction and Access Act of 2007, the repayment of college loans will become a whole lot more manageable for lower income wage earners.

New Options

The new Federal Student Loan Forgiveness Law is set to help student repayment in two significant ways:

• Lowering the monthly student loan payment on federal student loans (Income Based Repayment or IBR); and

• Canceling remaining loan debt after 10 years for those who have entered public service (Loan Forgiveness for Public Service).

Income Based Repayment (IBR)

Income based repayment (IBR) offers enormous potential reductions in the monthly payments for high debt/low income borrowers. Designed for those with “partial financial hardship,” IBR limits annual educational debt payments to 15% of a borrower’s discretionary income. For the purposes of the law, discretionary income is defined as adjusted gross income minus 150% of the poverty level for the borrower’s family size.

Under the IBR plan, the loans eligible for consideration include: all Federal Direct Loans (FDL) and federally guaranteed loans (FFEL) including subsidized and unsubsidized Federal Stafford loans; Federal Grad PLUS loans (but not Parent PLUS loans); and Federal Direct Consolidation loans. Federal Perkins Loans are only eligible when part of a Federal Direct Consolidation Loan.

The Detroit Free Press offers the following as an example of the potential savings:

Take a college grad who has $40,000 in federal student loans and an adjusted gross income of $30,000 each year.

If we use this example, the grad would pay $171.94 a month using the new plan — compared with $460.32 with a standard 10-year repayment plan or $277.63 a month for an extended 25-year repayment plan.

As a person receives annual salary increases, the monthly payment would rise only according to the percentage of salary increase. In the case of a married couple, each would be eligible for the program and the eligibility would be dependent on each individual’s situation, not the combined income of the two individuals.

The new IBR option goes into effect July 1, 2009. Members of the Class of 2009 become eligible within two months of graduation.

Loan Forgiveness for Public Service Employees

In addition to repayment reduction under the law, students entering public service are also eligible for loan forgiveness. Upon entering full-time public service, once a borrower makes 120 qualifying loan payments on a Federal Direct loan (including Federal Direct Consolidation loans), the unpaid balance remaining including the accumulated interest on the loan is forgiven. The worker must remain in public service for the entire ten year period and the 120 payments timeframe but there is no limit to the amount to be forgiven.

The time period for public service is retroactive to October 1, 2007 meaning those borrowers who have already elected public service may begin counting the ten year period at that point. Some restrictions occur for those who had already consolidated their loans and those restrictions may move the eligible period forward to July 1, 2008.

In the case of loan forgiveness, only Federal Direct loans (including Federal Direct Consolidation loans) are eligible. Payments made on federal loans in the Guaranteed (or FFEL) program are not eligible for the loan forgiveness aspect (only eligible for IBR).

A Major Step Forward

The new law represents an enormous positive development for those students who have accumulated significant federal college debt yet have limited income. To learn more about the program and examine the calculation process visit:

• Georgetown Professor Phil Shrag’s law review article detailing IBR and Loan Forgiveness for Public Service Employees (pdf).
• The IBR monthly repayment calculator.
• Federal direct consolidation loan information and applications.

It has been interesting to watch the Obama administration attempt to tackle the notion of healthcare. Whereas both the exorbitant costs and the poor standard of care flew under the radar for years, both elements seem to be getting greater and greater scrutiny these days.

At the same time there has been a strong push back from the system to retain the status quo. But after a report like the recent one from the Archives of Internal Medicine, it is clear that our healthcare system is in vast need of a major overhaul.

Substandard Care

The issue of quality healthcare came under discussion again this week with the release of a new study published in the Archives of Internal Medicine. One startling result involved abnormal patient test results.

The study revealed that 7 percent of such results aren’t reported to patients. That means one of every fourteen patients that undergoes some form of medical tests, often extremely expensive in their own right, may have health issues yet they never are apprised of the potential problems.

Generally, anyone undergoing such tests likely assumes that if they do not hear from their doctor the results must have been routine. Clearly, this new report indicates otherwise.

According to the study, nearly one third of the practices reviewed did not report testing results to patients. This finding came despite the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality insistence that doctors should inform patients of all test results, normal or abnormal.

Fortunately, the study did not appear to reveal any missed cancers. But there were instances of where women were not told of the need for a follow-up Pap smear or mammogram to review an abnormal finding.

The Real Issue and What to Do?

Many insist that the real issue here involves the payment practices of the American system. Here, doctors don’t get reimbursed for the time taken to review test results but do get paid for ordering tests.

Others insist that the issue simply involves doctors that are just too busy to keep up with the demands of the profession. Yet another group insists that the reason that doctors are too busy stems in great part from the system’s structures.

The bottom line is that any patient not receiving test results from their physician must take the basic step of calling to follow up themselves. To have a sense as to when to call, begin by asking when you can expect to hear from the doctor regarding the test results. When you get home, mark that date on your calendar, then if you have not heard call the office.

You should insist on such contact even if the office reports the use of electronic medical records. While systems are designed to safeguard test results, the study found that both practices using electronic records as well as those using paper record keeping missed reporting. In fact, the worst came from those practices using a mixture of the two forms of record keeping.

Lastly, if you cannot get your doctor or the office to return your call, vote with your feet and switch doctors. Experts suggest that if you do not hear within three days then it is a sign that the practice you are using is simply not well-managed.

Healthcare Reform

The more we hear the clearer it has become that we are in need of healthcare reform. What makes the issue so challenging is that even though our care system has been costly, once upon a time that care was considered the best in the world.

Not so today.

And while it is clear that we are in need of healthcare reform, it is imperative that as we wait for must we take the steps necessary to ensure our own health. In the case of the latest data, that means following up on test results whenever your physician fails to contact you.

A long time ago we set up a Twitter account that we forgot about. Recently I asked the site admin about integrating our new blog posts into Twitter and he found a way to do it.

If you are on Twitter please follow us!

When the time comes to purchase a car, the old folks recommend that you give the tires a good kick and that you take a peek under the hood. It is an expression that reminds us to look beyond the shadow and the glitz to what really matters. In the case of a car, the most important element is not how it looks but whether it gets you where you need to go.

Likewise, when it comes to attending college, it is important to remember what the ultimate goal is: earning a degree. As with that automobile, it is imperative that prospective college students look beyond the shadow and the glitz to the substance. In the case of a college education, one of the most important elements is completing your college program.

New Report

With the purpose in mind, we turn to the American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research and the results of their recent study, Diplomas and Dropouts – Which Colleges Actually Graduate Their Students (and Which Don’t). And we offer directly the words from the Executive Summary:

In the fall of 2001, nearly 1.2 million freshmen began college at a four-year institution of higher education somewhere in the United States. Nearly all of them expected to earn a bachelor’s degree. As a rule, college students do not pack their belongings into the back of a minivan in early September wondering if they will get a diploma–only when.

For many students, however, that confidence was misplaced. At a time when college degrees are valuable–with employers paying a premium for college graduates–fewer than 60 percent of new students graduated from four-year colleges within six years. At many institutions, graduation rates are far worse. Graduation rates may be of limited import to students attending the couple hundred elite, specialized institutions that dominate the popular imagination, but there are vast disparities–even among schools educating similar students–at the less selective institutions that educate the bulk of America’s college students.

In simplest terms, the report notes the incredible “variation in graduation rates across more than 1,300 of the nation’s colleges and universities.” What makes the report so important for prospective students is that the folks at AEI found such variations within colleges of similar admissions criteria and students. Not only did the researchers find that four-year American colleges had a graduation rate of 53% within six years, they determined that rates below 50%, 40% and even 30% were distressingly easy to find.

The report offers a very tantalizing summation statement:

…..while student motivation, finances and ability matter greatly when it comes to college completion, the practices of higher education institutions matter, too.

And as for the impact for higher education in the long run, AEI reports:

…graduation rates as calculated here do convey important information–information that should be readily available to students selecting a school, parents investing in their child’s education, and policymakers and taxpayers who finance student aid and public institutions. We believe that the graduation rate measure included here should be just the beginning of a deeper inquiry into college success.

Schools with low graduation rates are not necessarily “bad” schools. A low graduation rate could reflect any number of factors, including a high degree of quality control. A low graduation rate at a school with a special focus on engineering, for instance, could be a signal of the rigor of its curriculum. Low graduation rates also reflect transfer rates, and students could be transferring to more selective schools out of these transfer institutions, thus depressing their graduation rates.

In general, however, we would argue that low graduation rates are an important indicator that
a given school may not be serving the needs of its degree-seeking students. When schools
that admit similar students have vastly different graduation rates, consumers should wonder
what this implies about institutional practices and quality.

Growing Recognition of a Major Issue

The latest report from AEI further raises questions related to America’s higher education system. Given a pass for many years, the paltry graduation rates of many colleges and universities are only now coming to light.

Students considering an institution of higher learning should give careful consideration to this data and information available from AEI. We certainly agree with the latter judgment expressed by the institute:

Low graduation rates are an important indicator. To us, a poor graduation rate reveals a lack of commitment by the school to provide the necessary supports required to ensure the success of degree-seeking students.

Our hat goes off to Sam Lee, a graduate student, and to Inside Higher Ed, for shedding some more light on the shaky college rankings game. Lee had noticed that the University of Southern California ranked lower than seventh on all of the graduate level engineering category subfields yet somehow managed to earn the number seven slot on the U.S. News and World Report College Rankings.

Lee’s questioning led Inside Higher Ed to contact both U.S. News and USC to see if it could get to the bottom of the matter. Turns out the large number of the engineering school’s professors that were reportedly also members of the National Academy of Engineering helped push the USC rankings to seventh.

But while USC reported to U.S. News 30 professors belonging to the academy and the school’s web site listed 34 such professors, Inside Higher Ed, through a very simple fact check, was able to determine that these figures were entirely inaccurate.

For reporting purposes, the school was supposed to be sending along the number of full-time faculty members that met the prestigious status. Turns out, of the 34 listed on the web site, 17 did not meet the criteria set forth by U.S. News.

U.S. News immediately acknowledged that if the school did have fewer faculty members in the academy than had been reported, the engineering college’s ranking would indeed fall. The exact drop would of course depend on the final numbers reported and how they related to competitor schools.

And in one of the most important acknowledgments for students to hear, officials for the magazine also indicated they were not in the business of verifying the accuracy of the reports from schools. Instead, they trust the schools to be institutions of integrity and simply take what is reported at face value. Of course, they also base their rankings on the information provided.

This episode comes on the heels of the surprising candor of a Clemson official who publicly expressed how the rankings could be gamed (including the very issue expressed here, the accuracy of the reported data). That story was all over the internet in prompt fashion as was a followup admonishment from school officials.

Ultimately, the lesson for students is not to put too much emphasis on these rankings. Especially now that it is clear that those doing the ratings acknowledge they do not verify the information provided.

Many times, when students begin researching scholarship opportunities, they are extremely disappointed to learn that many require an essay.

If you happened to be one of those students for whom writing just a letter is an enormously challenging prospect, this essay requirement is a non-starter. In other words, instead of considering the requirement, you skip over each and every scholarship application that expects you to write such a document.

We think no one should ever look past any scholarship opportunity. It goes without saying that free money is the best kind of money you can obtain so writing an essay is a very small task with a potentially large payoff.

Especially given the fact that as long as you progress in an appropriate manner towards earning your degree most scholarships are renewable for your entire four years.

Getting Help

The key for many students is to find some help with the essay process. In today’s internet age, it is important for students to realize that an enormous amount of help is available for students.

There are a number of web sites offering sound advice and helpful tips. Certain sites feature a focus on creating ideas, others on making your work more distinctive.

One free site, InternationalStudent.com, actually is an excellent, one-stop possibility for those seeking a particular scholarship. First if offers four distinct categories regarding types of essays, admissions, scholarships, etc. Most importantly it features a great, three-step break down of the essay process.

For many students, the most difficult aspect is coming up with an essay topic. Internationalstudent begins with an in-depth look at the process of brainstorming a list of topics.

Once you have constructed a potential list, the site coaches you through the process of winnowing that list to a single topic to pursue. All too often, this step is omitted on other sites but it actually represents one of the most critical and difficult aspects for students (certainly harder than brainstorming possible topics).

Lastly, the site walks a student through the process of turning that selected topic into a meaningful essay. It even provides a list of review questions to consider to ensure that the final document meets expectations.

We also like the site because it gives detailed explanations of the areas students should focus on during each step. The site even provides suggestions as to the amount of time students should spend on each of the three aspects.

While we like this particular site, there are many more worthy ones available. For other free options, simply do a Google search of “free essay advice.”

Essay Editing Help Also Available

While you may hate to write that essay, these documents are used by scholarship committees to narrow their choice. In the case of where there are limited funds, these essays are the determining factor as to who will receive the money.

In virtually all cases, the need of each student is real and significant. So to decide from among many qualified applicants, scholarship committees examine a student’s personal essay very carefully.

Therefore, once you have constructed your essay, you may want to have one of the fee per service sites or a teacher help you put some finishing touches on the document. Spending $50, $75 or even $100 can be well worth the money when scholarships are often in the four-figure range yearly and the five-figure range for the four-year period you are in school.

These essay services can help you polish your product. Their professionals can help make your document sing and eliminate any chance that you have grammatical or spelling errors. They can even make helpful suggestions as to how you might be able to improve the content of the essay.

Just remember, having experts assist you is acceptable. It is totally appropriate to work with essay-editing services as you pursue scholarship applications.

However, under no circumstances should a student pay to have someone else, a professional service or a fellow student, to write their essay for them. Placing your name on a document as if it is one you wrote when in fact you did not will put you in serious jeopardy regarding all forms of aid. Claiming something as yours when it is not can lead to serious discipline issues and may even result in a school terminating your student status.

Pursue those Scholarships!

Given the cost of college today, no student can afford to ignore any potential scholarship option. Ignoring a scholarship opportunity just because the application process requires an essay is something you simply cannot afford to do.

Moreover, students should realize that in some cases simply completing the process will result in a certain amount of money coming their way. The fact is, many students will not apply when an essay is required.

Therefore, these scholarships offer less competition in the long run. In addition, most scholarship committees really want to help students. In many cases everyone completing the application process receives careful consideration and at times even a small sum from a larger pool of dollars.

There is little doubt that test preparation can affect your SAT exam scores. Students seeking admission to the most selective universities have been known to pay significant sums of money for personal tutorials to ensure they are well-prepared for these all-important tests.

While it is clear that preparation does matter, those with limited budgets simply cannot afford the costs associated with private tutorial services. But those on a budget should not ignore this important test preparation – they just need to seek out the most cost-effective options.

Options to Consider

First, students should gain access to sample tests. These practice exams help students become acquainted with the format of the tests and the styles of questions being asked. Familiarity is a real key to reducing the overall anxiety that comes with taking such important standardized tests.

Students can gain access to one copy of the exam free at the Peterson’s College site. You will need to register and you will be limited to but one sample but it is a great place to start and again the point of emphasis is that the test can be accessed free of charge.

Two of the agencies offering private tutorial options have entered the video game market. Students looking for additional test prep practice options can turn to the Princeton Review for My SAT Coach and to Kaplan Test Prep for the game FutureU.

The games are from two gaming industry giants, Ubisoft and Aspyr. FutureU which is currently available for download to a PC or Mac computer but the My SAT Coach is available only for Ninetendo DS. Both will set the user back about thirty bucks.

A standard, cost-effective option that many students and parents swear by is the College Board’s $19.95 “Official SAT Study Guide.” The reason that most find it the item to purchase is the booklet provides four critical elements.

The guide first offers a basic tutorial on the test-taking process. Second, it contains a math review of the key topics that students can expect to see.

Third, it gives students the chance to practice taking timed tests. Finally, it is similar in format to the real process: it is done without a computer using the traditional pencil and paper format that is a hallmark of the SAT.

Other such options do exist. There is the Princeton Review’s Cracking the SAT, Barron’s SAT 2400, Gruber’s Complete SAT Guide, and Kaplan SAT Premier Program. Each works in a similar manner.

Other Important Considerations

If students find that they are weak in the vocabulary areas, they can turn to another tech option, a new site called VerbaLearn. While there is no attempt to tie the building of vocabulary to the actual style of testing one faces on the SAT, access is free and the site is designed to prepare students for any nationally-normed test (SAT, ACT, and/or GRE). The key to making this site effective is to spend time on vocabulary building then return to the actual sample tests to determine if you have indeed built your fundamental vocabulary to a more appropriate level.

Lastly, there is always the issue of self-motivation. Those with a desire to prepare and an ability to structure their own time will find all of these more cost-effective tools great options to consider.

If on the other hand structure isn’t your strongest suit and procrastination an issue, you may well want to consider the test-preparation classes and their related-tutorials. The only issue to remember is that this latter option is the most expensive way to go.

It was a practice that I made great use of over the years, especially the latter years of high school and college.

To determine if I truly knew my material, I would close my book and put away my notes. I would find a quiet place and begin imaging in my mind the text and the notes.

Pen in hand, I would write down what I could recall, section by section using an outline format. To make the task manageable I used abbreviations, summary language, whatever I could to make the time writing things down minimal. The key of course was to be able to determine, upon further review, if I had committed the critical elements to memory.

Lastly, a simple comparison would allow such a determination. Upon consulting my notes and book and contrasting, any aspects that were too thin or omitted were re-reviewed at that juncture.

Later, I would do the same process without the writing, trying to recall the original block that I had written down but adding those new areas that came from the comparison review.

This last time I simply recited it verbally though my sense is that if I had been so motivated as to have written it down once again it might have been even better.

Practice De-Emphasized

That sort of thinking seems to be going by the wayside. Without a doubt, professors today place substantially less emphasis on information recall.

The rationale for the change is that the process I used quite successfully is deemed to focus too much on rote learning and not enough on a process that seeks deeper levels of learning. The primary basis for the assertion is the reliance on Bloom’s Taxonomy as a teaching and learning model. In that context, recall is placed substantially lower on the taxonomy than is the idea of comparing and synthesizing information.

New theories of learning insist that the internet has essentially changed everything. Today’s workers must be able to process new information at lightning speed and in the 21st century we are going to have to reinvent our knowledge base multiple times. That leads some to insist that the memorization of facts and figures is a major waste of time.

While there can be no debate on those general assertions (processing at a greater rate and reinventing our knowledgeable base many times over), there is growing evidence that successful students must first have a strong knowledge base. Without internalizing some critical, fundamental facts, we could never properly synthesize information.

In addition, some educators insist that the process of rote learning, especially in younger learners, is a catalyst to the development of the brain as a whole. In other words, higher thinking skills and connections are possible only if the brain has been exposed first to recall demands.

Rethinking Practices

David Glenn recently took a look at this issue at one of the most respected of higher education publications: The Chronicle. Glenn uses the following slogan to describe the method I found great success with:

Close the Book. Recall. Write It Down.

Glenn then goes on to take an in-depth look as to why professors no longer preach this method of learning. As he does so, Glenn offers strong contradictions to the notion that the internet-based information age demands that this prior practice be summarily tossed aside.

Accordingly, the writer cites two recently published papers from psychology journals that note this age-old practice is in fact extremely effective. In simplest terms, the process of active recall is the most effective method “to inscribe something in long-term memory.”

Reciting or writing down what you recall is also the best method for determining whether you truly grasp the material. According to the folks Glenn references, the mistake that most students make is to simply reread material, either the text or their notes, and think that the familiarity they have gained represents real understanding.

That is simply not so. The only way to determine whether you truly can deconstruct the material, then actually synthesize in a test or quiz setting, is by going through an active recall process. Otherwise, as a learner, you may have a false sense of security that may come undone in the test setting.

And as for knowledge and the idea of rote learning, a simple contrast is to consider the study of biology. While there is no doubt that professors should ask that higher level or critical thinking skills be placed into action, it only stands to reason that the terms and concepts that form an understanding of the subject must first be internalized.

Drawing inferences and analyzing ideas can only take place when fundamental materials are fully grasped. And to be fully grasped, the person must have them mentally in place.

Exemplary Learning Practice

I could not agree more. The advice: Close the Book – Recall – Write It Down – definitely has enormous merit and served me very well over the years.

Students who utilize this approach will demonstrate superior levels of understanding. Not only will they be able answer any fact-related questions more readily, they will in turn find their ability to answer inference-related questions to be vastly improved as well.

While your professors may no longer espouse this practice, I am convinced that every student would perform much better in any test or quiz setting if they were to incorporate this technique into their ongoing study habits.