September 12, 2009

Loan Forgiveness for Careers in SI-Types

The fact of the matter is that school is expensive, any way you slice it, and for those of us considering public service we may not have the allure of high salaries to pull us best and brightest away from the shiny lights and glamour of a career in waiting tables, cleaning highway rest stops, or steaming milk for cappuccinos. This can be a great deterrent for those of us hip on noble pursuits but feeling crunch of student loans, and in 2007 a few bills were passed that aim to remedy the pains of public servants.

So here's a little summary to get you started. I do not claim to be a financial aid expert or professional, so please use this as a jumping-off point for your own research. I'm not gonna lie-Legislativespeak confuses me sometimes.

The College Cost Reduction Act (For Direct Loans)
This Act contains a new Public Service Loan Forgiveness Program, which is pretty much just how it sounds: you go into public service and you may be able to have your loans forgiven. Yay! Librarians are included in eligible participants, but I encourage everyone looking into non-profit (that includes public universities and government organizations) work after graduation to take a peek at the act to see if they qualify.
Basically, you need to do two things:
-Work in public service for 10 or more years
-Pay your loans consistently and on time for 10 years (120 payments).
The years of service do not have to be consistent, but must equal full-time (can be combined from multiple positions, even at different institutions). For full forgiveness you wait until you're finished your ten years, otherwise, you can seek forgiveness after 120 loan payments and get 10% off for each year in public service. (I've gotten some murky information on this-which is why I urge you to seek additional advice when deciding on this program.)
See the ALA posting for details, and definitely check out the summary for details on program guidelines and restrictions. This being my main focus due to my large Direct Loans debt, I have spent a healthy chunk of time looking into this. Two things of which you should be aware:
1. Standard repayment plans-the ones you may gravitate toward because of the 10-year repayment and consequent low(est) interest amount-conflict with this plan, as they are set up to have you paid off in 10 years, which is when your forgiveness would occur. To have anything left to forgive, you must change your repayment plan to something longer than 10 years. Income-contingent plans are a good bet because they base your payments on your household size and income and forgive the remainder after 25 years. This leaves you with a very LARGE overall debt, but as you're off the hook after 10 years, you will most likely end up ahead, possibly by many thousands of dollars. The Finaid.com website has a great article on the plan, and a repayment calculator that will help you estimate your payments and total forgiveness based on estimated salary.
2. The amount that is forgiven at the end of the ten years is counted as "taxable income" that year by the IRS, meaning that if you make $50,000 a year when your forgiveness kicks in, and get $20,000 forgiven, that year you will pay taxes on $70,000 in income. Still, I am of the opinion that paying taxes on $20,000 is better than paying the actual $20,000, but it would be wise to plan ahead.

The Higher Education Act (for Perkins Loans)
This act extends the current Perkins Loan forgiveness guidelines to include a number of public servants, including librarians (with Masters degrees) working in elementary or secondary schools that qualify for Title I assistance, or public libraries serving Title I school districs, and also define librarianship in low-income areas as an "area of national need," qualifying these librarians for $2,000 a year in forgiveness for up to 5 years.

The LIBRARIAN Act (for Perkins Loans)
The Librarian Incentive to Boost Recruitment and Retention in Areas of Need (LIBRARIAN) Act is pretty similar to the Higher Education Act, but with a few differences. It covers school and public librarians, but applies to Perkins loans from graduate school (often a much lower amount than you may have taken in undergrad). Also, loan forgiveness does not occur in $2,000 increments, but as follows:
-15% for first and second years in eligible service
-20% for third and fourth years
-30% for fifth year

These are, of course, simple summaries based on my somewhat limited analysis and what ALA tells me. If you think any of these programs are right up your alley, check into it. Contact your school counselors or financial aid office to see what you have to do to qualify. This is one of those situations where being resourceful and proactive will prove greatly beneficial.

*!!! It's important to remember that these Acts affect certain KINDS of loans, and consolidation may affect your eligibility, so be sure to seek assistance when considering consolidation to make sure you are not disqualifying yourself from thousands of dollars in aid.

Posted by messelti at 09:16 AM | Comments (0)

August 28, 2009

George Atiyah Prize

Hey there, professionals of the future! We all know that the double-edged sword of conference attendance is that they are usually too expensive for a student to swing on his or her own, but especially useful as students can really use that networking opportunity, along with a chance to explore a variety of issues in the field.

Fortunately, sometimes a group of people with money to spare come along with a pile of cash they'd like to give to a promising new professional/student who'd like to attend a conference. One such pile of money is the George Atiyah Prize, for current library students interested in attending the annual meetings of the Middle East Librarians Association and the Middle East Studies Association of North America in Boston this November. The prize is limited to current students, but that's not to say there won't be another one next year. If you're interested in Middle-East studies, this would be a good opportunity to keep your eyes on for next year, too.

In general, SI staff and faculty often pass on information on scholarships and awards like this through the SI email listservs. Don't assume that because you're living on student loan money that you can't participate in professional development opportunities-you may just have to be a bit more resourceful in finding/attaining them.

Posted by messelti at 10:17 AM | Comments (0)

June 09, 2009

Kellogg/Spectrum Scholarship

Hello all,

I wanted to take a short break from the summer blog series to mention a scholarship opportunity that came down the inter-tubes in my email machine-the Spectrum/Kellogg Scholarship (not to be confused with the similarly awesome ALA Spectrum Scholarship).

The Spectrum/Kellogg Scholarship provides funding for students who "demonstrate strong engagement in and who have made significant contributions to lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender students and ally activism." Current and future LILA members-this means you! (I'd link to the LILA site, but at the time of this writing it seems to be broken. *sadface) This scholarship would also fall into the "eligible for funds-matching" category.

Anyhow, this year we're looking at five $2,000 scholarships for full-time undergraduate or graduate students at the UofM-Ann Arbor campus. All you have to do is demonstrate financial need, write a 1,000-word essay about how you have "engaged in and contributed to the climate for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer and ally-identified students at the University of Michigan." (Oh yeah, and if they want you to write a thank-you letter, you have to-standard procedure in the money-begging business). This means, of course, that new SI students who attended UofM for their undergrad or for another degree, or current SI students are eligible. New SI students may also want to keep this in mind for next year.

I posted the app to my web space, so you can download it here at least until the deadline (August 1st, 2009).

I'll be posting more about scholarships and funding throughout the summer, but in the meantime you can go to the University Financial Aid page or the Rackham Scholarships page to check out some other UofM-provided funding.

Posted by messelti at 10:36 AM | Comments (0)

February 04, 2008

A Pretty Sweet Deal

I guess I haven't mentioned this before, but my middle name is Slacker. My parents were prescient like that.

Anyhow, in the quest to fund your MSI you might find that though there are a number of jobs available to bright new SI students, none of them are going to help that much with the price of tuition. Without a scholarship to ease the pain, what is one to do?

Well, of course there are always loans...They're a necessary evil of graduate school (at least for Master's students) but it can't help to look for alternatives, can it?

A little known fact about the University of Michigan and the Graduate Employees Organization (read: union) that teaching or research assistantships are a great way to work and pay for school. They're hard to find (for MSI students, at least) but totally worth it. Depending on how much you work, you can get a full tuition waiver (for each semester you hold the position), health insurance, and a stipend. And yes, that tuition waiver covers out-of-staters, too!

Now, here's the rub. Normally, teaching assistantships go to Master's or Doctoral students in a department for assistance in undergraduate-level classes. And SI only has one of those. However, many other departments hire SI and other students (especially departments with a small graduate student population and very large, popular undergraduate courses). Information on this can be found at http://www.hr.umich.edu/acadhr/grads/postings.html, which gives a list of departments, links to their sites (where job postings and contact information can be found) and information on how often they hire outside of their own department.

As for research assistantships, these positions often go to Doctoral students, but occasionally an interested MSI student will take the leap and contact a faculty member in charge of an interesting project, and end up on the project. So check out active projects on http://www.si.umich.edu/research/default.htm and feel around. It can't hurt to try, right?

Alright, that's it for now. So much to do! Spring break approaches!

-Megan

Posted by messelti at 07:47 PM | Comments (0)