Financial Aid

President Bush -- the 1948 baseball captain and a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Yale -- may unwittingly preside over the unraveling of the Ivy League. This improbable scenario is, with very little attention, already unfolding.Many view the league as a powerful monolith whose stone buildings rest upon billion-dollar endowments. But the league itself, as opposed to the schools in it, is still young. And its one distinctive operational reality may not survive this winter. Negotiations are under way with the U.S. Department of Justice concerning allegations that the league's financial-aid program violates the Sherman Antitrust Act of 1890.

Filling out financial aid forms is difficult enough, but it can be particularly challenging for today's blended families. Ask Bill from Elkton. Bill is divorced and his two daughters live with his ex. He lives with his second wife and her son. He's working on the Free Application for Federal Student Aid form for his stepson. Bill says it looks like his income will be included on his stepson's FAFSA along with the income of the boy's father. "This seems like a double whammy," he says.

A top financial aid administrator at the Johns Hopkins University was put on paid leave yesterday while the university investigates her ties to a student loan company that is at the center of a national probe by New York's attorney general, Hopkins officials said. University officials were informed yesterday by the lender's parent company that Ellen Frishberg, director of student financial services, received about $65,000 in consulting fees since 2002 from Student Loan Xpress. The loan company is one of several "preferred lenders" Hopkins recommends to families for financing their children's education.

Most grants and scholarships are for students trying to attain that first college degree. But what's available for nontraditional students, those who are older and pursuing a graduate degree? We're talking about students like Daniela Bostic-Clark, 44, who a week ago was accepted into a graduate program at Georgetown University. The one-year master's in leadership program will cost $43,600. "At this stage of my life, I can't afford to be saddled with loans," says Bostic-Clark, an Accokeek, Prince George's County, resident in who works for a nonprofit in Virginia.

Maryland Attorney General Douglas F. Gansler asked representatives of Maryland's public and private colleges yesterday to adopt within two weeks a statewide student-loan "code of conduct," governing the relationships between schools and lending institutions. At a closed-door meeting at the University of Baltimore, Gansler also told the several dozen assembled college officials - among them several presidents - that his office would be requesting documents detailing their historical relationships with student-loan providers.

Colleges urge parents and students to submit their Free Application for Federal Student Aid as early as possible after the new year, but rushing to fill out this important yet complicated form can lead to mistakes. Students must complete the FAFSA to apply for federal aid. States and colleges typically rely on the FAFSA, too, to award their aid. Colleges encourage families to file the FAFSA as early as possible to make sure they meet state deadlines - in Maryland it's March 1 - but also because aid from institutions is usually doled out on a first-come basis, says Vincent Pecora, financial aid director at Towson University.

For many high school students and their parents, procrastination is as much a part of applying to college as taking the SAT.The future often seems like a better time than now for perusing stacks of college information, preparing for the SAT, visiting colleges, filling in admissions application forms, writing essays and scouting for scholarships."

The best of buddies, they were always "as close as a phone call." Faye Wilkes Perry lived in North Baltimore; her mother, Juanita Wilkes, and sister, Brenda Wilkes, lived together in Clinton.They called each other regularly and met several times a month to shop or have lunch or trek to the racetrack at Dover Downs in Delaware.But that trip ended in tragedy Oct. 9. All three women were killed when their car collided with a tractor-trailer near Centreville as they returned from Dover Downs.

This is the season when parents of college-bound students come to grips with the reality of their child's educational future. Coupled with decisions about what course of study to pursue and where to pursue it is the stressful process of determining how to pay for it.Repeatedly, you're told of innumerable scholarships, funds and grants for college students. But what is your student really eligible for?You can pay the equivalent of a lawyer's fee to a professional to guide you through the financial aid quagmire.

THE CHALLENGES of grade point averages, Scholastic Assessment Test scores and acceptances at colleges of choice pale in comparison with the challenge of paying for four years of tuition, room, board and books. To assist parents and students of college-bound seniors, Glen Burnie High School will play host to a financial-aid seminar at 7 p.m. tomorrow in the school auditorium.Information on financial aid and grant applications will be provided, including step-by-step instructions on filling out the applications.

In a prosperous year, the University of Maryland, College Park might receive 300 appeals from students who believe they're not receiving enough financial aid. In the first eight months of 2009, the university has received 1,500 appeals for more money. This staggering increase is only one example of the recession-fueled pleas that are deluging financial aid offices at colleges around the state. As campuses open for the fall semester, thousands more Maryland students have applied for financial aid than in 2008.

Maryland colleges are starting to send out fall tuition bills, and signs indicate that more families will struggle to pay. Applications for federal student aid are up. More families are appealing aid packages to get additional assistance. And more parents are being rejected for federal loans. If you are among those who will have trouble meeting the tuition bill, call the school's financial aid office as soon as possible. Aid officers can walk you through your options, from monthly payment programs to potential sources of funds.

Phone calls stream into the financial aid office at University of Maryland, College Park and the callers say much the same thing: A parent has lost a job or suffered a pay cut, and the family needs help paying for school. It's become such a frequent refrain that counselors this month underwent sensitivity training to ensure that they are as patient and caring the 100th time they hear a hard-luck story as they are the first time. "When you see 90 appeals that look the same, you can get a bit desensitized," says Dan Beaty, a financial aid counselor.

The pleas for more financial aid have come pouring in to College Park and to other campuses, public and private. There's the family whose college savings have been "depleted because we used them to pay bills during unemployment" and another whose income dropped by $50,000 in December. Suddenly, they can't live up to their obligations to pay the college tuition. Even as the need for aid has grown, the University of Maryland, College Park has less money to give because of a $1 million drop in the amount of income generated from one of its endowments.

The Johns Hopkins University, the state's largest private employer, said yesterday that it will freeze hiring and salaries, eliminate overtime and lay off some workers in response to a revenue shortfall estimated at $100 million by the summer of 2011. Top Hopkins administrators will also take a 5 percent salary cut, with the savings going into financial aid as the university tries to protect its students from the recession that is taking a steep toll in higher education. The carnage in the financial markets has reduced Hopkins' endowment by 20 percent.

JOHN A. BLACKBURN, 67 University of Virginia dean of admissions John A. Blackburn, the University of Virginia's dean of admissions since 1985, died Tuesday of cancer at his home in Charlottesville, Va. He had planned to retire in June. Mr. Blackburn pushed for U.Va. to boost its financial aid and abolish its early-decision admissions policy, which he believed gave an unfair advantage to students who could afford to commit to attending without first seeing a financial aid offer. He traveled extensively to promote the AccessUVa financial-aid program for students from lower-income backgrounds.

Bad time to cut funding to community colleges Historically, during an economic downturn, students turn more than ever to community colleges for workforce training and an affordable alternative to more expensive public and private four-year institutions. Howard Community College is already experiencing significant increases in the number of high school graduates enrolling. Additionally, this fall's full-time equivalent student enrollment increased 6.26 percent over last year - more than double the projected increase of 3 percent.

Keisha Hogan, 28, of Columbia said that without a scholarship to Howard Community College, she would have to work more hours, which would be difficult to balance with classes, studying and caring for two children. "Every little bit [of scholarship money] works towards something, because college costs," said Hogan, who has a 9-year-old son and 8-year-old daughter. "Scholarships allow us to free up the time to go to school." Last week, Hogan and more than 80 other students had an opportunity to express their appreciation in person to the sources of their financial support at HCC's student/donor reception on the Columbia campus.

When Ronald J. Daniels began to sense that he was a serious candidate for the Johns Hopkins University presidency, he drove to Baltimore by himself to check the place out. Daniels had never been to Hopkins before. His meetings with the presidential search committee had all been in New York. So one day this summer, he walked around Hopkins' leafy Homewood campus and admired the colonial architecture. He explored the medical campus in East Baltimore and then picked up crab cakes to take home to his family in Philadelphia.

The pinch of rising food, fuel and other costs is driving more families with children in private and parochial schools to request financial aid, school officials in and around Baltimore say. With price tags that can rival tuition costs at four-year universities, it's no surprise that many families seek financial aid when first applying to a private school. But that's not the population with the greatest rise in requests, schools say. "There are people applying to financial aid who never needed it before," said Matthew Micciche, the head of Friends School of Baltimore.