Archive for the ‘Finances’ Category

New grants for college available

Thursday, July 6th, 2006

New federal grants of $750 to $4,000 are available for qualified students eligible for Pell Grants, Gov. Timothy Kaine announced yesterday.

The two grants, Academic Competitiveness grants and National Science and Mathematics Access to Retain Talent (SMART) grants, are designed to encourage students to take more challenging high school courses and to major in disciplines such as science, math, technology, engineering and certain foreign languages.

Students who want to find out if they are qualified to receive the grants can call 1-800-4FEDAID or go online.

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Student loan changes - what they mean

Monday, July 3rd, 2006

We recently published a story on the changes to student loan rates that went into effect July 1.

Now that it's too late for students to consolidate their loans and save, the task of measuring the impact on students has already begun. The Campaign for America's Future has come out with a state-by-state breakdown of what the increase in student loan rates - from 5.3 percent to 7.14 percent on old loans and to 6.8 percent on new loans - will mean in real dollars.

Their answer, for the average Virginia college student, is $2,290.

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July 1 deadline looms as student loans set to skyrocket

Monday, June 5th, 2006

The St. Petersburg Times had a story last week on student loan rates going way up. Parents and students paying attention to the debate in Congress over this decision have had awhile to consolidate their loans and potentially save thousands.

I've blogged about this topic before on multiple occassions and wrote a story in February about Virginia Tech students looking for ways to afford college.

Those who haven't paid attention still have until July 1 to save money by consolidating.

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New database explores cost of college athletics

Tuesday, May 9th, 2006

Anyone curious as to exactly how much big-time programs spend on sports and how much they make off of their athletes can now find out on a new database compiled by the Indianapolis Star.

Calling itself "the most detailed, publicly-available database of college athletic department financial information ever assembled" it breaks down several financial measurements of 164 public colleges that participate in Division I athletics, including Virginia Tech. That's a response rate of 76 percent.

According to the Virginia Tech breakdown, the university spent over $14 million on its football program during the 2004-05 school year. But football still netted about $11.3 million for the school.

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Board discusses student fees based on major

Wednesday, April 12th, 2006

At its retreat last month the Virginia Tech Board of Visitors discussed ways to close the funding gap in higher education without raising tuition across the board. They discussed aggressively pursuing earmarked federal funds as well as private research and development money. 

Another, more specific idea, was also discussed. Certain majors are more costly for the university to fund. Provost Mark McNamee said the university has looked into the possibility of targeting engineering majors to pay additional fees that would be used to improve the quality of curriculum in the engineering college.

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