Financial Aid News

Tweaks To GI Bill Move Ahead

Tue, 28 Dec 2010 17:29:47 -0700

Proposed reforms to the Post-9/11 GI Bill will necessarily reduce benefits for some veterans, but supporters of the changes say that’s a necessary price to pay in order to ensure new provisions are approved in the waning days of the Congressional session. A key change in the U.S. Senate bill, which passed the Senate Monday and moves on to the House for consideration, creates a new national baseline on benefits for veterans attending all colleges -- public, private and for-profit. While the current law derives its maximum payout from the highest in-state public tuition in a given state, the new legislation would cap annual payouts at $17,500. Any expenses above that threshold could be covered by the Yellow Ribbon Program, which allows participating private colleges to enter into dollar-for-dollar matching agreements with the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs.

Cruzado Uses Inaugural To Highlight Students

Mon, 13 Sep 2010 10:00:35 -0600

“Montana State University President Waded Cruzado meandered Thursday through a room displaying student research projects and declared it to be "wonderful," reports the Bozeman Daily Chronicle. "It fills me with emotion to see the vibrancy, the scholarship," Cruzado said as she checked out more than 20 examples of students' work. The projects ranged from building an award-winning moon-dirt digging machine for NASA, to inventing a new way to build affordable housing, to engineering a faster race car and discovering ways to fight infections.

Report Aims To Boost Number Of U.S. College Grads

Mon, 26 Jul 2010 09:25:03 -0600

Education leaders and federal and state policymakers will gather today in Washington to discuss how the USA can reclaim its position as a world leader in educational attainment — a goal President Obama also set shortly after his inauguration.
There's plenty to do at every step on the education ladder, says a report out today by the nonprofit College Board. The report, developed over two years by a commission studying access, admissions and success in higher education, outlines 10 recommendations aimed at boosting the percentage of young adults with at least an associate degree from 40.4% today to 55% by 2025. That's where three countries — Canada, Korea and the Russian Federation— are now.

Retooling The GI Bill

Mon, 26 Jul 2010 09:22:54 -0600

"Gathered at a hearing here Wednesday, U.S. senators grappled with legislation that would attempt to simplify the often-dizzying formula for calculating veterans' benefits under the Post-9/11 GI Bill," Inside Higher Ed reports. "At issue for the U.S. Senate Committee on Veterans' Affairs is S. 3447, legislation that would revamp the benefit formula that has been in place since the Post-9/11 GI Bill was implemented nearly two years ago. While the proposed bill would make few changes for the funding of undergraduate education at public institutions, it would establish a new national cap on benefits for private colleges -- both for-profit and nonprofit."

Films Shot By MSU Students Used In Gulf Oil Spill PSAs

Mon, 12 Jul 2010 10:17:26 -0600

“In early May, Devon Riter and Christi Kuhn were at a party with fellow students in Montana State University's science and natural history filmmaking program celebrating the end of their first year of graduate school,” reports the Bozeman Daily Chronicle. “The mood was high before the conversation turned to the then-recent disastrous BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. "I felt like I had to go there," Kuhn recalled of the conversation.” "I felt there was something I could do."