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With student loan debt at an all-time high, many college students and their parents are looking for solutions to repaying their student loans and lowering their monthly payments. This especially is crucial for recent graduates who have wrapped up their college education and are looking to land their first job. Many new grads find their college debt staggering and their monthly payments overwhelming.

The Federal Student Loan Consolidation Program was created for just this purpose: to help students repay their student loan debt under reasonable terms. According to NextStudent, the Phoenix-based premier education funding company, there is a little-known added benefit to federal student loan consolidation, or combining multiple student loans into one easy-to-manage package. Once original outstanding student loans are paid in full, oftentimes a borrower’s credit score improves.

This happens since the borrower’s record shows that several student loans were taken out and then paid off. When students make the wise decision to consolidate student loans their credit score improves as a direct result, this enables them to qualify for lower rates on their first home or even a new car.

Multiple Student Loan Consolidation Options

Another little-known fact is that after the final distribution of a Federal PLUS Loan, parents can consolidate PLUS loans anytime, even while their child still is in college. Borrowers may consolidate their student loans within the six-month grace period following graduation, during repayment, or even when the student loans are in deferment or forbearance. With up to 30 years to repay and at a fixed rate of 8.25 percent or lower, many borrowers find that their payments are reduced by up to 60 percent, which may allow them to financially get on their feet.

Easy, Hassle-Free Qualifying

NextStudent makes it easy to qualify for a federal student loan consolidation. Borrowers are required to have student loans totaling ,500 or more and must include at least two federal student loans like the Stafford Loan or PLUS Loan. No credit check or co-signer is required, and most applicants qualify over the phone in as little as five minutes. Optionally, borrowers may use NextStudent’s easy online e-application. When contacting NextStudent, all borrowers receive individual attention and get their student loan consolidation questions answered through their personally assigned Education Finance Advisor.

Since the federal government changes the mandated student loan consolidation rates for lenders each year in July, the only difference among lenders is the individual incentive packages that each one offers. Therefore, it is important that students and their parents carefully scrutinize not only the character and reputation of the company, but also the specific incentives, such as reduced rates and discounts.

Many Benefits with Incentive Packages

There are three packages offered by NextStudent, including the popular “Standard Locked” package. This option includes a LOCKED RATE reduction of 1 percent after 36 on-time payments, as well as a .25 percent discount when a borrower chooses repayment via Auto-Debit. In addition, borrowers may select either the “2%” package or the “Google” package. The “Google” package offers a .375 percent discount after only six months of on-time payments (not locked), a 1 percent discount after 36 on-time payments (not locked), as well as the standard .25 percent discount for Auto-Debit repayment. The “2%” package offers the same .25 percent Auto-Debit payment discount, in addition to a 2 percent rate reduction discount after 36 consecutive on-time payments (not locked).

Regardless of the package selected, borrowers can know that their college financial planning strategy is a sound one when selecting NextStudent. Not only will borrowers be able to more easily manage their student loans with a federal student loan consolidation , but such a student loan consolidation through NextStudent may put them on sound financial footing for their future.

NextStudent believes that getting an education is the best investment you can make, and it is dedicated to helping you pursue your education dreams by making college funding simple. Learn more about student loans and student loan consolidation at NextStudent.com.

Many already are familiar with federal PLUS student loans for parents of college students and have taken advantage of this excellent funding source, whether their kids attend a community college or a public or a private institution. As with any federal student loan, borrowers may utilize funds to cover all educational costs, including tuition, fees and other expenses. Since credit-based PLUS student loans are not contingent upon a family’s tax bracket or level of need, almost anyone is qualified to receive one. With interest rates as low as 8.5 percent, this little-known technique makes for a very appealing tool to manage a family’s educational finances.

According to NextStudent, the Phoenix-based premier education funding company, many students and their parents, while familiar with student loan consolidation, are not aware of a little-known benefit available to families with multiple students in college. This tool gives parents peace of mind when managing and repaying different student loans, whether students attend Portland State or Stanford, as long as the same parent took out the PLUS student loan for each student.

PLUS Student Loan Consolidation Offers Flexibility, Easy Management

If a family has two children in college, with PLUS student loans taken out under one parent’s Social Security number, the student loans most likely will qualify for student loan consolidation. Keep in mind that each student’s parent PLUS loans should be renewed each year. A “renewal” is truly not a “renewal,” but rather a brand new student loan.

Here’s a scenario that will best illustrate the flexibility of folding multiple PLUS student loans into one easy-to-manage package. A family has two children, one is a freshman with a single PLUS student loan and another child has three additional PLUS student loans covering the first three years of school. All four PLUS loans may be consolidated into one. Again, the only stipulation is that all PLUS student loans are taken out by one parent using the same Social Security number.

PLUS Student Loan Incentives Offered by NextStudent

While federal PLUS student loans are available through many lenders, borrowers receive many rebates and incentives with NextStudent:

.25% Interest Rate Reduction: for using the Auto-Debit repayment feature

2% Interest Rate Reduction: after 48 months of consecutive on-time payments

3% Cash Rebate At Repayment: on the remaining principal balance after the first 12 months of consecutive on-time payments.

The NextStudent Advantage

In addition, NextStudent offers many advantages to parents when seeking to qualify for PLUS student loans:

Simple Online Application Process: Fill out NextStudent’s online application and know in minutes if you qualify.

Credit Solutions Program: For those who are initially denied due to poor credit, NextStudent can help resolve credit issues.

Personal Contact and Service: With NextStudent, borrowers are assigned a personal Education Finance Advisor who guides borrowers through the student loan and student loan consolidation funding process.

With personalized service and a host of benefits and incentives, NextStudent makes it easy for parents to help fund their child’s college education.

NextStudent believes that getting an education is the best investment you can make, and it is dedicated to helping you pursue your education dreams by making college funding simple. Learn more about student loans at NextStudent.com.

How public libraries can overcome budget cuts through cultural, educational, and business partnerships

By Thomas Badgett

            In the current difficult economic times, libraries of all sizes and types face budget cuts, often quite severe. At the same time the need and demand for library services surges. In order to minimize cutbacks libraries need to play to their strengths and promote how much value they offer to anyone who chooses to use them. They need to inform the public that they are available and promote what they offer in the way of services and alternatives to paid entertainment. As the public becomes more aware of libraries and what they offer, they may come to their support and demand more funding from politicians and bureaucrats.

            During economic downturns, people cut back on unnecessary spending and seek value on what they do spend funds for. There is no better value than free. Public libraries provide services and materials to users that no competitor can beat because they are usually free. Families seek activities and places they can go to interact, be entertained, and spend quality time together. Libraries provide all this plus educational value, whether it be for self-help, school homework help, free choice learning for lifelong learners, or reference help. Also, libraries can preserve a community’s identity by recording oral histories, housing artifacts, and staging programs informing users of the history and culture of their community as it has evolved. Libraries should play to their strengths as educational and cultural institutions while also promoting their value as free and family friendly social centers.

            Ways in which libraries might promote themselves as family-friendly centers include advertising at other family gathering venues such as bowling alleys, movie theaters, ice ream shops, and dining establishments. Libraries could establish booths for self-promotion at special events such as sporting events (soccer and baseball games), festivals (wine, music, crafts), concerts (classical, country, jazz, rock), and baseball card and toy shows. Perhaps the IMLS or ALA would sponsor a NASCAR team? To get the attention of young readers a library could sponsor comic book shows at one of their meeting rooms or have a kiosk/booth at a comic book convention. Cooperation with local booksellers and comic book stores or newsstands would be another way to publicize library services. The library could advertise certain businesses in its lobby and perhaps have signage donated by other businesses (in a manner like sports stadiums are doing). Even bookstores and libraries could refer users to each other in a sense of cooperation since both have a vested interest in the printed word. Libraries could also build relationships with hobby and craft stores and sponsor craft fairs or model kit shows in their community. In addition, the library could build a dialogue with local community members who are craftspeople or model collectors or any other collector. Card games could be sponsored at the library – a cribbage tournament, for example – or a poker tournament (with no gambling). There are innumerable ways for libraries to build relationships and get their message out to the public in addition to the Internet.

Scheduling and management skills on the part of librarians are now more important than ever since less money for staff translates into fewer man-hours for service. Library hours of operation should be based on peak demand times in the library’s community and not traditional banking hours. This is especially critical if the library intends to promote itself as a family or social center. Libraries need to be open when families can use them, not necessarily when it is most convenient for staff to be there. There may be no faster way to render libraries defunct than to cling to traditional banker-style hours Monday through Friday as in the past – unless a library tax is created. Weekends may become a peak demand time in some communities and library staff will have to adapt or face career extinction. In the short-term, at least, certain non-traditional skills (like scheduling in order to meet demand) should gain importance. As libraries continue to evolve additional new skills and a blurring of departments may occur in public libraries. For instance, reference may play a smaller role and customer service skills will be much more in demand. Every library, now more than ever, must focus on what services and materials are needed to provide service to its users.

The IMLS, whose mission is to create strong libraries and museums that connect people to information and ideas, is dedicated to serving a nation of learners. In addition to the NLG program, an International Strategic Partnership Initiative is in place to connect educational and cultural institutions from all over the world. The NLG program fosters collaboration between educational and cultural institutions on various projects, especially digitalization projects, in order for them to reach a broader range of users and make access easier for these users. Collaborations are both short-term and long-term in length, ranging from rotating exhibits between institutions to the multi-state Colorado Digitalization Program. Cultural heritage and educational institutions like libraries, museums, archives, and historical societies are good fits for partnerships through IMLS grants. However, schools and private sector businesses are also potential partners as the cultural/educational network expands.

One major goal of the IMLS is to preserve culture, whether it is local, regional, national, or international in nature. Through digitalization and the spreading of information this goal may be realized. Partnerships between cultural and educational institutions may help to ensure their survival through this severe recession, the longest in post-war history. Not only should partnerships result in more users, they may eliminate duplication of positions and result in streamlining of staff in these institutions, thereby placing them in an advantageous position for growth when the economy recovers. Collaboration projects enable libraries and museums to explore common issues and challenges, build networks for collaboration, share information and best practices, and further develop their institutions.

Museums today are active partners with libraries, archives, historical societies, and others in building digital libraries in order to emphasize their role as educational institutions. Museums have had a long and productive relationship with academic and special libraries and are now collaborating more often with public libraries. Two important considerations for producing digital resources are good cataloging (library strength) and accurate, knowledgeable description according to appropriate standards (museum strength). A broader, more diverse audience may be reached through collaboration and digitalization because the institutions complement each other. Also, the wear and tear on parts of the museum collection may be reduced once digital reproductions are created for Web consumption. Library web-sites should be interactive and participatory, much like many museum web-sites are. This interactive/participatory model lends itself well to free choice learning, which represents half of all learning (after formal schooling and work). In free choice learning the individual is the entry point in the framework of learning. The individual user decides what participation method, learning style, learning venue, and content they wish to engage in.

Library-museum partnerships may also collaborate with educators. In Illinois, the Illinois Library Association (ILA) noticed that school visits to museums and libraries were on the rise once collaboration projects began. Home school educators use museum and library resources also. Ways educators and museum staff can work together is through professional development workshops and training sessions at museums. Also, students can create their own museums in schools. Museums and museum web-sites can be excellent resources for teachers to use for the curriculum. NC ECHO is creating online curriculum resources for K-12 educators in North Carolina.

In addition to educators, government can play a role in library-museum partnerships. The Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) is an agency within the Executive Branch charged with the mission of funding collaboration between cultural institutions like libraries and museums. Libraries were moved out of the Department of Education in the FY 1998 federal budget and placed under the umbrella of the IMLS. According to Diane Frankel, IMLS Director in 1997, museums are starting to understand that they need to serve a more diverse audience – while librarians have always realized that. Frankel describes libraries and museums as being “community anchors” and social places to spend time together, as well as educational institutions. These functions make these entities natural partners and the IMLS intends to facilitate more collaborations and partnerships through grant funding with the National Leadership Grant (NLG) program.

Dilevko criticizes some library-museum collaboration efforts, describing exhibits as “edutainment” since many museum exhibits shown at libraries have nothing to do with the library collection or community. Instead he recommends a library-museum hybrid that can be based on one of two models. The first model is the cabinet of curiosities – where books and objects are co-located to enhance investigation and learning. This model is often found in academic libraries. The second model is the popular collections model in

Are you working in your dreamed career field? If you are one of those who can’ made your dreamed career comes true, online education will be your best path to earn a career degree to enter a career field that was your career goal when you were at college. With the available of online education programs, going back to study is easier than ever, you can even do it without the need to quit your current job or affecting your family and social commitments.

With the growing trend of online education programs, you can find almost any career related online courses offered by accredited online schools. Many of these online education programs are designed for working adults who want to earn a certification or degree in their area of interest without having to stop life on its course. The key elements that make online education the best option for working individuals are flexible learning environment and remote log on to the online classes from any location have made easy for working adults to go for study in their favorite subjects while maintaining their current job and lifestyle.

Here are a few steps to find an online education program that meets your career goals:

1. Identify Education Requirements

Before you start searching for an online education program, you need to identify what are the education requirements in order for you to get the career you want. For example, if you want to become an accountant, you need to earn at least of bachelor or master’s degree in finance; and you may need to have a forensic accounting degree if you want to become a forensic accountant. Then, identify the level of degree you want to pursue, such as bachelor, master or PhD.

2. Search For Online Education Programs

Once you know what type of online education programs to look for, search for a list of online education programs offered by various accredited online schools that meet your goals. Usually, you will find many similar online education programs offered by different online schools. You may need to short list them with a few criteria such as the school reputation, program cost, and the courses of the online education programs that best fit your needs.

3. Request Information From Online Schools

The information about the online education programs found at the school’s website may not be detailed enough for you to make your decision. Hence, you should request the schools to send you the details information about the education programs so that you can review and compare them before you make any decision. Most online schools are providing free information packs on their education programs, what you need to do is fill up a simple form to let the schools know what type of online education programs you are interested in and where to send you those information.

4. Apply For Admission & Earn The Degree

Once your have decided an online education program to go for, admission application is simple and it can be done online. You need to fulfill all the admission requirements in order to be accepted by the online school. Then, you should work hard and smart to complete the program to earn the degree that is required to make a career switch.

Summary

Online education has made easy for working adults to go back for study without the need to give up their current job. You can get the career you want by earning a career related degree through online education program without give up your monthly pay check.

If you’re looking to start or develop your own enterprise in the field of continuing education, you would do well to consider Notting Hill College and the business openings this growing institution offers. Whether you’re a fledgling entrepreneur or established course provider, the College fosters an array of opportunities for mutual business development that should not be overlooked. Notting Hill College is a British based institution specialising in further education and vocational training. Since its inception in 2004 the College has rapidly expanded its global reach thanks in no small part to its unusually successful franchising network. In this and other areas the key to NHC’s remarkable rise seems to be its genuinely people-centred ethos, which enables it to embrace policies that are mutually beneficial for the mother organisation and its partners and franchisees. The College is more than just a business however, and its people-centred attitude is reflected in its programmes, methodology and materials. Joining the College’s network of Partners, Agents and Accredited Course Providers is therefore a truly cooperative venture. Perhaps the most promising of the openings that Notting Hill College offers is what it dubs its Unique Business Opportunity. Aimed at potential partner centres, this venture represents a short-cut into the higher echelons of three lucrative and intrinsically trans-national training fields: language training, teacher training and business and soft skills training. Partners are expected to deliver Notting Hill College courses from one or more of the above fields, using syllabi and course materials exclusive to the College. In addition to access to these core training resources, NHC Partners are also provided with substantial support in setting up and running their centres that goes far beyond the usual technical guides and corporate identity manuals. Rather, franchisees are assigned a dedicated Business Development Manager who is available to provide technical, marketing and other support in person when necessary. The whole process is made refreshingly easy thanks to the online systems Notting Hill College already has in place for the benefit of its network. These include a Learning Management System for students, an Online Operational System for the use of NHC Partner Centres and an Online Administration System for Master Franchisees. Collectively these online systems drastically reduce the resources required to manage training centres efficiently and effectively so that they meet the high standards of customer service that the College has already established for itself. It goes without saying that NHC Partners also benefit from association with the College as a market-leading training provider with a flawless reputation, growing stature and mounting accolades for innovation. This takes the form of direct promotion via links on the College’s main website – a virtual hub for potential learners worldwide – as well as the more subtle influence of branding and design. Another venture worth considering, especially for established training providers, is accrediting your courses for credit transfer into Notting Hill College’s Master of Arts in TEFL. Again this enables you to buy into the College’s global reach and internationally respected status. Moreover, it gives your students and potential students access to a cutting-edge higher education teacher training programme that fills what has until recently been a striking gap in the TEFL market. Notting Hill College is an organisation that is clearly going places and in the spirit of twenty first century global partnership, it’s not closing the door behind it but opening doors for others to follow. Perhaps the most compelling thing about the College, though, is that it has maintained the integrity of its aims and methodology whilst hosting such a broad range of training solutions under its umbrella. Students of business will agree that such strongly articulated aims are gold dust in respect of the limitless potential opportunities today’s global market affords.