Federal Updates

Reauthorization: Grant programs
In today's article, we review HEOA provisions that affect Pell Grants, Academic Competitiveness Grants (ACG), National Science and Mathematics Access to Retain Talent Grants (SMART), and Teacher Education Assistance for College and Higher Education Grants (TEACH).

New ED Web site provides reauthorization information
Last week, ED unveiled a new Web page designed to provide information and updates to the financial aid community on the Higher Education Opportunity Act (HEOA), the reauthorization bill recently signed into law.

Guidance on loan purchase commitment program
On August 22, ED released the latest in a series of Electronic Announcements (E-ANN) providing guidance on the implementation of the loan purchase programs authorized by the Ensuring Continued Access to Student Loans Act (ECASLA).

ED provides Q&As on loan purchase programs
ED posted two Q&A documents to its Ensuring Continued Access to Student Loans Act (ECASLA) Web page. The documents address both the loan participation purchase program and the loan purchase commitment program. ED has also added an "Ask a Question" feature that allows readers to submit questions on the two programs directly to ED.

TG Updates

Teach your borrowers credit score basics with Adventures In Education's "Understanding Credit Scores" Web page
Credit scores are a vital part of determining a borrower’s creditworthiness, yet relatively few borrowers know what these numbers represent or even what their own score may be. To help students, TG’s Adventures In Education (AIE™) Web site offers information defining credit scores and explaining scoring criteria for one of the most widely-used credit scores — the FICO® score.

Meet Jennifer Evrard, TG's lead for the business integration team
At work, Jennifer leads one of TG’s customer-facing teams responsible for integrating, or fitting together, systems between TG and school and lender customers. Outside TG, Jennifer is a mother of two and a recently-certified SCUBA diver.

Trends and Issues

Question of the week
What is the first payment due date for each type of FFELP loan?

This, That, and the Other...

The Chronicle of Higher Education just released its annual Almanac on U.S. colleges and universities. The Almanac offers an array of information including college enrollment trends, demographics, faculty pay, tuition and fees, and much more. For anyone who needs quick statistics on higher education or even opinion-related information, the Almanac is an essential reference. Questions about the average salary for college administrators? Curious about why freshmen choose the colleges they do? Want to know average SAT scores by race and gender? You'll find the answers online through the Chronicle's Almanac available at http://chronicle.com/weekly/almanac/2008/nation/nation.htm.

Note that The Chronicle of Higher Education requires a paid subscription to review some content.