Part 1: Answers to Your Questions About Paying for College ...

Guidance Office

Q. and A.: Paying for College

Laura Perna, a professor at the University of Pennsylvania and a researcher in college finance and affordability, is answering select reader questions about paying for college.

The Choice has invited Laura Perna, an author, professor at the University of Pennsylvania and researcher in college finance and affordability, to answer your questions about paying for college in the blog?s Guidance Office, a forum for college applicants and their families seeking expert advice.

The moderated Q. and A. session, which begins Monday, will continue throughout the week.

In this first installment of answers, Ms. Perna responds to questions about alternative sources of financial aid, how financial need affects admissions, universities with no-loan policies, and financial aid for international students.

Some questions, and answers, below have been edited, including for length and style. ? Tanya Abrams

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Sources of Financial Aid

Q.

What other options are there beyond student loans, aid in the form of grants, scholarships or otherwise that I can pursue toward financial assistance?

? Jeffrey Wolf

A.

Student financial assistance comes primarily from the federal government, state governments, and colleges and universities. These sources offer grants and scholarships (money that does not need to be repaid), loans (money that must be repaid), and work-study (money that must be earned through employment at the college or university or other designated employer).

Most financial aid is awarded to students based on financial need. To apply for need-based financial aid, students must complete the Free Application for Federal Student Aid. I?d encourage you to visit a January 2013 Guidance Office session, in which Mark Kantrowitz addresses questions about the Fafsa.

Smaller amounts of financial assistance are available from other sources. According to the College Board?s Trends in Student Aid report, about 9 percent of the financial aid received by undergraduates in 2011-12 was from federal education tax credits and deductions, and 4 percent was from grants from private organizations and employers.

Some employers offer their employees tuition reimbursement programs. Civic organizations, foundations and other organizations also award scholarships to students who meet particular criteria. Both the eligibility criteria and application procedures for private grants are idiosyncratic and the scholarship awards are typically small.

There are many online tools for finding private scholarships, including the College Board, Fastweb.com and Zinch.com.

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The Impact of Financial Need on the Admissions Process

Q.

Does the pursuit of financial aid lessen the chances of admission versus a full-paying student? Most likely we will be pursuing a private school and, as you know, it is extremely expensive.

? Jeffrey Wolf

A.

The most important consideration in the college admissions process is a student?s academic record. Some colleges do not consider a student?s financial need in the admissions process, but others do.

Colleges that use need-blind admissions policies typically communicate this practice on their Web sites. At need-aware colleges, self-paying students who meet the college?s academic requirements may have an edge in the admissions process.

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Avoiding Student Loans

Q.

My son will be a senior next year. I believe he will qualify for financial aid, but I?m wondering if there is a way to avoid having to take out student loans. I will not be able to take out loans on his behalf and I don?t want him to have to start his post-college years saddled with debt. I have heard that some schools are taking student loans out of their financial aid packages. Is this a growing trend? Is it possible to get financial aid without loans?

? Elizabeth

A.

About 50 colleges have adopted no-loan policies over the past decade. (Some of these colleges amended their programs in the wake of the Great Recession.)

Colleges with a no-loan policy generally meet 100 percent of undergraduates? financial need from sources other than loans. These colleges also tend to have relatively low admissions rates.

At most colleges, loans are a typical part of financial aid package. The Institute for College Access and Success calculated that two-thirds of students who graduated from four-year public and private colleges in 2011 used student loans; the average amount of student loan debt for those who borrowed was $26,600.

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Financial Aid for International Students

Q.

I?m an international student and I?m interested in applying for financial aid at an American college. Can you please give details on the way you determine whether or not to give financial aid to international students? (I am specifically pointing at the Ivy League here.)

? Curious Junior

A.

Federal financial aid is generally available only to American citizens, American nationals, and permanent residents of the United States. The U.S. Department of Education identifies a small number of exceptions.

As Mark Kantrowitz indicated in Part 3 of his responses to questions about the Fafsa, some colleges award institutionally funded grants to international students.

Each college creates its own policies and practices for awarding its institutionally funded aid. EduPass lists colleges that award financial aid to international undergraduate students.

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To pose a question to Ms. Perna, please use the original post soliciting questions or the comments box below. We will accept questions through March 20.

Source: http://thechoice.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/03/18/guidance-office-paying-for-college-1/

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Samira Ibrahim speaks (Powerlineblog)

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Enduring storm surprises New England with big snow

A house on the Plum Island seacoast in Newbury, Mass., sits partially collapsed into the churning surf, driven by winds from a slow-moving storm centered far out in the Atlantic Ocean, at high tide Friday morning, March 8, 2013. The storm dropped up to a foot of snow in some parts of New England, caused coastal flooding in Massachusetts and slowed the morning commute in the region to a slushy crawl. (AP Photo/Newburyport Daily News, Jim Vaiknoras)

A house on the Plum Island seacoast in Newbury, Mass., sits partially collapsed into the churning surf, driven by winds from a slow-moving storm centered far out in the Atlantic Ocean, at high tide Friday morning, March 8, 2013. The storm dropped up to a foot of snow in some parts of New England, caused coastal flooding in Massachusetts and slowed the morning commute in the region to a slushy crawl. (AP Photo/Newburyport Daily News, Jim Vaiknoras)

A woman makes her way across the bus station in downtown New Bedford, Mass., as heavy snow falls Friday, March 8, 2013. The storm dropped up to a foot of snow in some parts of New England, caused coastal flooding in Massachusetts. (AP Photo/The Standard-Times, Peter Periera)

A Subaru Outback is rolled over on Rt 20 in Charlton, near the Sturbridge line, blocking part of the westbound lane Friday, March 8, 2013. The National Weather Service reported that central Massachusetts, areas southwest of Boston and Middlesex County are getting the most snow from a slow-moving storm that hit Massachusetts harder than expected. (AP Photo/Worcester Telegram & Gazette, Dan Gould)

People shield themselves from driving snow in Foley Square during a storm on Friday, March. 8 2013, in New York. A very wet snow is causing slippery road conditions in the metropolitan area and several inches have fallen on eastern Long Island and Westchester, Rockland and Putnam counties.(AP Photo/Peter Morgan)

People walk through driving snow near courthouses in lower Manhattan during a storm on Friday, March. 8 2013, in New York. A very wet snow is causing slippery road conditions in the metropolitan area and several inches have fallen on eastern Long Island and Westchester, Rockland and Putnam counties.(AP Photo/Peter Morgan)

WHITMAN, Mass. (AP) ? The late-winter storm that buried parts of the country was forecast to be little more than a nuisance for most of New England. Try telling that to Connecticut and Massachusetts residents who spent two days shoveling as much as 2 feet snow.

"The forecast was 4 to 6 inches and I think I'm looking at about 12 to 14 inches," West Roxbury resident Mark Spillane said as snow continued to fall Friday. "I did not expect to have to bring out the snow blower."

The storm was centered far out in the Atlantic Ocean, and by the time it reached New England, forecasters were focused on the potential for coastal flooding and not snow, which in many places was predicted to reach a maximum of 6 or 8 inches.

The coastline was battered by three high tides during the duration of the storm, the worst Friday morning, when some roads in coastal towns were flooded with up to 3 feet of water. A vacant house on Plum Island, off the northeast coast of Massachusetts, was ripped from its foundation and collapsed into the sea. Other homes there were badly damaged.

But in most places, it was the persistent snow that threw people for a loop.

The National Weather Service reported nearly 13 inches of snow at Boston's Logan International Airport as of 1 p.m., with more than 2 feet in a few Massachusetts towns and nearly that much in many others. Some parts of Connecticut and New Hampshire also saw more than a foot.

With spring less than two weeks away, Lisa Parisella, of Beverly, Mass., had been ready to dig out her sandals. Instead, she found herself donning her winter boots for a trip to the grocery store to make sure she had enough food for her kids, whose classes were canceled Friday.

"This was unexpected," said Parisella, 47, an office manager. Forecasts had called for between 1 and 8 inches. Instead, her town had well over a foot by noon, and snow continued to fall. "I was ready to start decorating for spring. I was thinking, March, ready to take out the sandals, and I'm taking out the boots again."

Tim Wicker, a self-employed 32-year-old resident of Norwich, Conn., said the latest storm wasn't too bad, but he was also longing for spring.

"The other day I was out in a T-shirt," Wicker said. "Now we're dealing with this again. It's going to be 54 on Sunday. It's just New England."

Charley Foley, a meteorologist at the National Weather Service in Taunton, said the higher snowfalls were caused by winds swirling around the storm that subtly changed course from the northeast to a more northerly direction. That allowed the storm to tap colder air from Canada, pick up moisture from the warmer ocean and dump snow on New England.

"We did get somewhat surprised by higher snow amounts," Foley said.

The storm had been giving forecasters fits for days. After pummeling the Midwest earlier in the week, it dumped nearly two feet of snow in some part of the mid-Atlantic but largely spared the nation's capital, despite warnings that as much as 10 inches could fall on Washington.

Some school districts, including Boston, were criticized for holding classes Friday despite icy sidewalks and poorly plowed roads.

Boston public schools spokesman Lee McGuire said schools were kept open because the weather forecast was so fluid. Thursday night's forecast called for just a few inches of snow.

"We made the best decision we could with the information we had at the time," McGuire said.

The district said students whose parents kept them home Friday would be considered "constructively present" and their absences would be excused.

Boston resident Vera Miller was angry about the decision. She kept her grandchildren home after taking a look outside Friday morning.

"I said, 'Oh no, you kids are staying home today,'" Miller said. "I just felt that school should have been canceled."

The snow made for a slippery Friday morning commute as far south as Pennsylvania and New York.

In Scituate, Mass., a shoreline town about 20 miles south of Boston, police Chief Brian Stewart breathed a sigh of relief Friday morning after high tide. The town got some coastal flooding ? it almost always does during major storms ? and eight roads were closed under 2 to 3 feet of water.

"It's coming over the usual spots," he said. "I would say we were fortunate because at this point we have no reports of injuries or major damage."

In Whitman, which had nearly a foot of snow by 10 a.m., Maureen Chittick's house was among those that lost electricity for a while. Grandchildren Nicole Clark, 15, and Gary Clark, 13, came inside for an old-fashioned game with marbles after shoveling the snow out of her driveway.

"I was shoveling and I saw purple flowers underneath," Nicole Clark said. "I thought to myself, 'Summer is never going to come.' I just want summer. Bring on the hot, the beach!"

___

Jay Lindsay in Beverly, Mass.; Bridget Murphy in Boston; Rodrique Ngowi in West Roxbury, Mass.; and John Christoffersen in New Haven, Conn., contributed to this report.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/3d281c11a96b4ad082fe88aa0db04305/Article_2013-03-08-US-Winter-Storm/id-24e036cfd98d48818581012bf37ab2db

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Weiner says increased penalties are '2014 issue'

FILE - In this Nov. 28, 2012 file photo, baseball union head Michael Weiner speaks during a news conference in New York. Weiner says, Monday Feb. 25, 2013, there's active discussion about increasing the penalties for violating baseball's drug testing program. Weiner says players have very little patience for seeing their peers try to cheat the system. (AP Photo/Frank Franklin II, File)

FILE - In this Nov. 28, 2012 file photo, baseball union head Michael Weiner speaks during a news conference in New York. Weiner says, Monday Feb. 25, 2013, there's active discussion about increasing the penalties for violating baseball's drug testing program. Weiner says players have very little patience for seeing their peers try to cheat the system. (AP Photo/Frank Franklin II, File)

SARASOTA, Fla. (AP) ? Baseball players' union head Michael Weiner says toughening penalties for drug violations will have to wait until the 2014 season.

"There are going to be talks. I don't what the result is going to be," he said Sunday after meeting with the Baltimore Orioles as part of his tour of the 30 spring training camps.

The current sanctions have been in place since the 2006 season: 50 games for a first offense, 100 for a second and a lifetime ban for a third. Selig held a news conference Saturday and said he wanted increased penalties as soon as possible.

"Starting this offseason, we had substantial discussion among player leadership about whether the penalty structure we have is right ? whether there should be increases ? whether there should be a differential penalty for intentional or unintentional users," Weiner said.

"That dialogue is continuing. We had some dialogue even with the commissioner's office in the offseason that didn't lead to any changes, and I suspect that we'll have those discussions over the course of the year," he said. "But it's going to be a 2014 issue. We're not going to change the rules of the game in the middle of the season. In a sense, the drug-testing season started with spring training."

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/347875155d53465d95cec892aeb06419/Article_2013-03-03-BBO-Weiner-Drug-Testing/id-538c47fdeba54b05b25ce540731a3d2d

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Engadget Expand speakers, Round Eight: Nine big reasons to join us March 16th and 17th

If you've been following along with our speaker announcements for Expand, you know we've already got a lineup chock full of some of the most interesting technologists at the forefront of innovation. You'll also appreciate that this last batch is a bit of a doozy -- consider this the big reveal before the Big Reveal of the full agenda, coming very soon:

• Nate Mitchell: Vice President of Product, Oculus Rift
• Jason Parrish: Director, Lenovo ThinkPad Strategy & Planning
• Hod Lipson: Professor of Engineering, Cornell University
• Tamar Yehoshua: Director of Product Management, Google
• Ujesh Desai: Vice President of Product Marketing, NVIDIA
• Bob Heddle: Director, Kinect for Windows at Microsoft
• John Wilson: Vice President, Systems Product Group, Razer
• Corinna Proctor: Senior Research Manager, Lenovo User Research Center
• Jim Denney: Vice President of Product Marketing, TiVo

Here's why else you need to be at Expand...

Filed under: Announcements, Meta, Microsoft, Google, Lenovo, NVIDIA

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Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/03/04/engadget-expand-speakers-round-eight/

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Allan Calhamer, creator of game 'Diplomacy,' dies

CHICAGO (AP) ? As a kid rooting around in the attic of his boyhood home, Allan Calhamer stumbled across an old book of maps and became entranced by faraway places that no longer existed, such as the Ottoman and Austro-Hungarian empires.

That discovery and a brewing fascination with world politics and international affairs were the genesis of "Diplomacy," the board game he would create years later as a history student at Harvard University in the 1950s. After its commercial release in 1959, the game earned a loyal legion of fans in the U.S. and elsewhere that reportedly included President John F. Kennedy, Henry Kissinger and Walter Cronkite, among others.

Calhamer died Monday at a hospital in the western Chicago suburbs where he grew up, his daughter Selenne Calhamer-Boling said. He was 81.

"He was brilliant and iconoclastic and designed this game that's played around the world, and he's adored by nerds throughout the world," his daughter said by phone Saturday. "But at the end of the day he was a great dad. He was at all the T-ball games and all the screechy, horrible orchestra concerts and all the klutzy ballet recitals. I guess that's how I'll remember him."

Calhamer tested early versions of the game out on Harvard classmates before perfecting it. After its commercial release, Avalon Hill bought the rights and helped make it an international hit. The game is still for sale, and was re-released in 1999 with a colorful new map and metal pieces.

Players represent seven European powers at the beginning of the 20th century and vie for dominance by strategically forging and breaking alliances. Unlike "Risk," there are no dice, and a player's success is largely based on his or her negotiating skills.

Inspiration for the game was also supplied by a Harvard professor who taught a class in 19th-century Europe and wrote a book called "Origins of the World War."

Calhamer said in a 2009 interview with Chicago magazine that reading the book recalled for him the atlas in his parents' attic.

"That brought everything together," Calhamer told the magazine. "I thought, 'What a board game that would make.'"

After graduating in 1953, Calhamer followed a fanciful path, living for a time on Walden Pond because he was fan of Henry David Thoreau's famous work and later working as a park ranger at the Statue of Liberty.

In his late 30s, he met his wife, Hilda, in New York. At her insistence they settled in his hometown of La Grange Park, Ill. Calhamer-Boling said her father then shed his "dilettante" ways and picked up a steady job as a postman, which allowed him pursue hobbies and his art. He tried developing other games, as well, but they never caught on, she said.

Since his death, emails have been pouring in to the family from "Diplomacy" fans around the world who wanted to convey how much the game meant to them, Calhamer-Boling said.

The moving messages were not what she expected.

"I always think of it as such an intellectual game because it's so strategic," she said. "But what I'm seeing over and over again in these emails is that the recurring theme is: 'I was a really really nerdy awkward kid who had trouble relating to people, but because 'Diplomacy' required interpersonal skills and required you to get people to do what you wanted them to do that's how I built my social skills.'"

Calhamer is survived by his wife and two daughters.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/386c25518f464186bf7a2ac026580ce7/Article_2013-03-02-Obit-Allan%20Calhamer/id-6f204f06a18c457dac63462133bbaec9

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Hyper-Productivity Could Be Holding You Back - Business Insider

"I believe this is a very special moment in history, a kind of perfect storm. There is a growing recognition ? to borrow language from AA ? that our world has become unmanageable." Those words have been reverberating in my head ever since Arianna Huffington, founder of the Huffington Post, said them over the weekend during the?Wisdom 2.0?conference in San Francisco. She was?introducing?an iPhone app called "GPS for the Soul," which is designed to measure heart rate variability as a window into your stress level at any given moment during the day.

It seemed fitting to me that Arianna described the challenges so many of us face in our work ? and in our lives more broadly ? by using the language of addiction. Her words rang especially true because I happen in the midst of reading a book by Bryan Robinson titled "Chained to the Desk: A Guidebook for Workaholics."

The addiction of our times is digital connection, instant gratification, and the cheap adrenalin high of constant busyness. The heartening news is that more and more leaders in big companies are beginning to recognize the insidious costs of moving so relentlessly and at such high speeds.

Wisdom 2.0 focused on technology ? a primary driver of the increasing unmanageability of our lives. The conference was launched three years ago as a meeting between people from the meditation community and the tech world in Silicon Valley to discuss how to use technology more wisely.

Paradoxically, the most important solution I heard is to use technology less frequently, and more intentionally. Or, as?Sherry Turkle, a professor at MIT, put it in her talk: "There need to be places in our lives and in our organizations that are device-free zones."

Just below the surface of our shared compulsion to do ever more, ever faster, is a deep hunger to do less, more slowly. I saw proof of that a couple of weeks ago, when I wrote an article for?The New York Times?titled "Relax! You'll Be More Productive." It focused on the growing scientific evidence that when we build in more time for sleep, naps, breaks, and vacations, we become not just healthier and happier, but also more productive. The piece prompted an avalanche of response, much of it poignantly describing the sense of overwhelm people are feeling at work.

The search to find ways to deal with these issues was evident at Wisdom 2.0.?Padmasree Warrior, the chief technology and strategy officer at Cisco, described in compelling detail the behaviors she's built into her life to take her out of rapid-fire analytical, "doing" mode. She meditates for 20 minutes every day. On the weekends, she paints and takes photographs. Even when she?tweets, she often does so in haikus ? as a way to put herself in a more creative mode.

Jeff Weiner, the CEO of LinkedIn,?talked about how compassion has become a centerpiece of his management style. More specifically, he described how compassion requires slowing down and taking the time to truly listen to others. It means understanding where they're coming from, caring about the struggles they're facing, and the baggage they're carrying.

Bill Ford, the executive chairman of Ford Motor Company, talked about the harrowing experience he went through when Ford nearly declared bankruptcy several years ago. Taking time to meditate each day was critical. "The practice of mindfulness kept me going during the darkest days," he said. He also took time each morning to "set an intention" to deal with whatever arose that day with a sense of compassion and kindness.

In my own life, I've found that both my productivity and my sense of well-being depend more than ever on building more time into the day to renew, reflect, and connect with others. Two such experiences at Wisdom 2.0 had to do with taking time to get away from the activity of the conference itself. The first was wandering over to a chill out room sponsored by Google, lying down on a mat next to several others doing the same thing, and taking a nap. When I got up 45 minutes later, I felt refreshed and able to fully reengage in the conference.

My second revelatory experience was a lunch I shared with two new friends who were also attending the conference. We ended up spending more than two hours together, free of digital interruptions, just talking, reflecting, laughing, and hanging out. How often do most of us take the time to truly connect with work colleagues ? much less friends ? and how much richer are we for it when we do return to our work?

Speed, distraction, and instant gratification are the enemies of nearly everything that matters most in our lives. Creating long-term value ? for ourselves and for others ? requires more authentic connection, reflection, and the courage to delay immediate gratification. That's wisdom in action.

Reprinted?from?HBR.org?

Source: http://www.businessinsider.com/hyper-productivity-could-be-holding-you-back-2013-2

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