Because of the economy many students are rethinking their expensive private school education.  Rachel Harrison who had been attending an expensive private school in New York has had to make a difficult decision.  Should she continue at her $40,000-a-year-private school or leave and enroll at a cheaper school near her home in Arizona. 

After weighing the pros and cons, Harrison decided that she like many other students across the nation would move home and attend a cheaper university.  Not only would she get in state tuition in Arizona, but it would also be cheaper to live there.

Attending classes at her private college was no longer financially possible, unless she wanted to leave school over $100,000 dollars in debt.  The one year of school, almost drained her college fund.  Not only are college students being forced to make a college change, but high school seniors are also being forced to make this same decision.

Many high school seniors have already decided to forgo costly schools.  Instead they have decided to attend schools that are closer to home and have cheaper tuition.  Many public colleges have seen an increase in the number of transfer applications this year.  Many students reported their decision to transfer was due to money.

Some tips for determining whether an expensive institution is right for you.  First of all, make sure that the expensive private school is really what you want and need.  Second, make sure that you will still be able to go to grad school, medical, or law school after earning your bachelor’s degree. 

And if you already attended the expensive school but are considering transferring to a different school but you have already completed two years of a degree, then it may be better to stay at your school.  Otherwise, you might have to spend an extra semester or two retaking classes required by the new school.

So the take home message is make sure that an expensive institution is right for you.  Make sure you have a lot of money and a financial plan beyond the first year.  Have realistic expectations and really consider your options.  And make sure that when you have chosen a degree that you are going to stick with it; or else you will waste a lot of time and money.
 

The Department of Education, starting this week will allow anyone with a federal student loan to apply for a program which will cap monthly payments based on income, and forgive remaining balances after 25 years.

Loans can even be forgiven after 10 years for those in the public service. Eligibility for the income-based repayment (IBR) is determined by the size of the loan, and income of the borrower. The plan will become available Wednesday for those that are interested.

This new IBR program comes from the College Cost Reduction and Access Act of 2007. It allows students that have both Federal Education Loan (FFEL) and Direct Loan Borrowers on all Stafford and graduate PLUS loans to apply.

Monthly payments would be less than 10 percent of an individual’s income for most of the expected one million people in the program.  Payments would not exceed 15 percent of any income above $16,000 a year. For those who earn less than $16,000 a year, they would not make any monthly payments.

This plan is supposed to help relieve those with average salaries that are struggling to repay student loans. By stretching the repayment over a longer period of time, monthly payments stay at a reasonable proportion of their income.

IBR "can lower costs and provide light at the end of the tunnel" for borrowers. There is greater financial flexibility to buy a home, pay off a car, save for retirement or save for their children’s education. However, the accruing interest can increase the loan.

The wise thing to do would be to maintain your payments and pay off the loan as soon as possible.  However, if someone does decide to go on the program and their salary jumps, and they are disqualified as a borrower for the capped monthly payments; then they are still responsible for the cost of the loan and the interest that has accrued to that point.

Granted this is easier said than done, but try to stay out of debt as much as possible. It’s better to be poor while you’re in college than being poor later on. There are lots of different options out there on how to finance your education, so check all of the different avenues before taking out a loan.

For those with debt this repayment plan can help those that are struggling to make ends meet; but only use ithe plan if it’s absolutely neccesary.  The plan almost guarantees that the borrower will end up paying more on the loan the longer it takes to pay off. Getting an education is very important, but be careful with the loans that are used to finance that endeavor.

There can be many benefits of learning a new language. It will enrich your life by giving you new ways to look at the world and relating to different groups of people. You may get to know people that you may not have had the chance to otherwise.  Best of all, you may be able to help someone else by being a translator and helping them adjust in a country where the language is new and strange to them.  It can also give you a glimpse into the culture of that language.

Knowing a language will also add to your skill set and perhaps even make you more competitive in the job force.  Employers would prefer to have an employee that speaks another language over one that doesn’t.  They have more mareketable skills and can be very useful with the company’s customers or contacts.  Those that know a foreign language also have greater opportunities to earn more money.  So learn a language, you never know what good may come of it.

So not only will these individuals have an advantage in the workforce but also in the classroom.  Students can either take foriegn language courses to learn or improve their skills, or earn college credit by passing the foreign language test. Depending on the school, students can get different amounts of credit for passing the langauge test.  This can not only save time and money but help them become succesful. So learn a language!