| Bowdoin to replace all loans with grants
College graduation is often associated with freedom. But with tuition costs at an all-time high, Bowdoin graduates often find themselves shackled by student loan debt years after receiving their degrees. No more. The College announced last week that it will replace all its loans with permanent grants beginning in the fall in an attempt to ease the amount of money students owe when they graduate. "The student loan burden that we have imposed on studentsthat has grown over the last 10 yearsis at a level that makes it very difficult for students at the College while they're here," said President Barry Mills in an online video released with the announcement. "It makes it very difficult for them as they think about their career options for the future." Tuition and fees totaled $46,260 this yearalmost $20,000 more than they did a decade ago.
How to make mountainous student debt less huge
There's student loan debt. And then there's student loan DEBT. The former is the $20,000 in loans of the typical college graduate. The latter is four or six times that amount, typically racked up by those attending grad school at an elite university or medical school. .
E-mails detail student loan firm's drive for profits
No new agreements can be made, but existing ones can continue as long as colleges invest the profits in need-based financial aid.
It was McCullough who suggested about four years ago that Des Moines University consider such an arrangement, university President Terry Branstad said last week. But the school picked Wells Fargo's bid instead of Iowa Student Loan's. That prompted McCullough to send an e-mail to select Iowa Student Loan employees in January 2004: "We need to consolidate the heck out of DMU loans."
Meanwhile, Wells Fargo, in the wake of criticism about school-as-lender deals, has decided to no longer enter into such arrangements.
Branstad said his school's deal with Wells Fargo will end in February.
But he defended such deals, saying if the university does not lend graduate students money, they will borrow money elsewhere.
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