Image via Wikipedia FAP831: Need based financial aid, Free Stuff Thursday Listen now: Student Financial Aid News + Inside Higher Ed: A shift back to need-based aid isn’t hurting at least two colleges. In the last few years, some colleges have pulled back from the policies everyone else says they’d like to pull back from. Notably the sky hasn’t fallen (and neither have their admissions numbers). Consider the cases of Hamilton College, which completely eliminated merit aid to spend more on need-based aid, and of Tufts University, which imposed a limit on its use of early decision. Both colleges are competitive in admissions, with excellent academic reputations – but neither has even close to the endowment or admissions clout of Harvard or the other institutions at the top of the admissions pecking order. + IHE: Many University of Chicago graduate students will need to find new loans — quite likely under terms less favorable than they are used to receiving. The Chicago Tribune reported that the university has had to end its use of the “school as lender” program for graduate students because of the inability of the Illinois Student Assistance Commission to renew its line of credit. Chicago officials believe that the graduate students who have used the program will be able to find loans elsewhere, but will likely not find some key benefits of the old program, such as the lack of origination fees and a reduction in interest rates after four years of on-time repayment. + In some ways, what people were talking about legislating last year, the market has corrected this year + Prudence and caution are back in style + Had an interesting case yesterday when the computers would have said yes, I said no - and with good reason Scholarship Update + Scholarship Idol SLN Scholarship + A Scholarship Points Contest + Watch the embarrassingly poor quality YouTube video Free Stuff Thursday + Free cotton shopping bag + Free Snuggle fabric softener + Rhapsody free album with signup + Astroglide… uh, yeah. + Swurl is pointless fun + Make your Mac sing in Terminal + Joys of Summer Gift Pack - 50 ziploc bags + Free pretzel from Auntie Anne’s + Get lost a lot? Free Atlas + Sell Back Books - they pay you, including shipping Free Song of the Week + David Usher, Kill the Lights + See the YouTube video Did you enjoy today’s show? If so, please consider subscribing for free to get it delivered to you . Subscribing for free means you don’t have to remember to download it every day. + + + Direct MP3 file download: Click here to download the MP3 Reminders + + Financial Aid Podcast Show Notes at FinancialAidPodcast.com. + Free scholarship search secrets eBook at StudentScholarshipSearch.com/ebook + Open an FDIC-insured savings account today! + Private student loans available at any time - visit AlternativeStudentLoan.com + Student credit card information at StudentPlatinum.com + FAFSA form tutorials and free help at FAFSAonline.com + Financial Aid discussion forums + Get FAFSA news at the FAFSA blog + Stafford federal student loans at StaffordLoan.com + The Financial Aid Podcast is a publication of the Student Loan Network. I want to hear from you! Email me at financialaidpodcast {at} gmail {dot} com, visit http://www.FinancialAidPodcast.com, or call 206-350-1208. ShareThis Less