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Great Lakes. With ScholarNet and CDS, your day-to-day private loan processing tasks are straightforward and simplified, so you’ll have more time to spend with students. The set-up process is quick and easy. Your dedicated Great Lakes representative will manage all the details, including ongoing, personalized support. Visit schools.mygreatlakes.org, or contact your Great Lakes representative.

The Trump administration's fiscal year (FY) 2018 budget is expected to reduce by half funding for college work-study programs, and end the Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) Program, according to The Washington Post. In documents obtained by the Post and described as "a near-final" version of the anticipated budget, Pell Grant funding would remain steady, but deep cuts would occur for most campus-based programs, including allowing the Perkins Loan Program to expire, $490 million cut to the Federal Work-Study Program, and a "first step" towards ending subsidized loans in the Direct Loan Program. The budget proposal would also roll five income-based repayment plans into a single plan. The full budget is expected to be delivered next Tuesday - stay tuned to Today's News for more information.

With only months to go before it expires, a bipartisan group of lawmakers on Wednesday introduced a bill to extend the Perkins Loan Program for two more years.

The total household debt for American families grew by nearly $150 billion, surpassing a previous peak during the Great Recession in 2008, according to a new report from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York (NY Fed).

Attendees at the 2017 NASFAA National Conference can choose among nine hotels ranging in price from $169 to $219 per night after they register. Most of the hotels are within a two- to 15-minute walk from the San Diego Conference Center. A new hotel in the Little Italy section of San Diego - Porto Vista Hotel and Suites - has recently been added, and features a shuttle to the conference center. After May 31, the convention hotel rate is not guaranteed and is subject to availability. Online registration for the conference ends May 31 - register today.

By making a determination of unaccompanied homeless youth status, a financial aid administrator is confirming a student meets the three-part definition of an unaccompanied homeless youth. Nine NASFAA member institutions have shared the checklists they use for such determinations. Take a look at their templates to get ideas for your own. Looking for more information and tools to assist homeless youth in applying for Federal Student Aid? SchoolHouse Connection is hosting a webinar Wednesday, June 28 at 1:00 pm where Department of Education presenters will discuss financial aid policies and practices for homeless youth.

If you are your institution's primary NASFAA contact, you should have received a direct email from us with a link to a 10-minute survey on the implementation of PPY. The data will be shared with NASFAA members this summer. We encourage all primary contacts to complete the survey as requested no later than this Friday, May 19. Data will be published in the aggregate, and individual institutions will not be identified. Again, please refer to your email for the link to the survey.

This request is to conduct a study designed to measure the effectiveness of an intervention that will provide financial aid information and reminders to college students who were initially interviewed as part of NPSAS:16.

"As for-profit Charlotte School of Law lobbies to have its access to federal student aid restored, several former government officials and law school watchdogs say the institution is gaming by the system by blocking students from applying to have their federal loans forgiven," Inside Higher Ed reports.

"SoFi was founded on the business of helping high-earning graduates refinance their student loans. But perhaps ironically, CEO Michael Cagney thinks today’s record amount of student loan debt is a bad thing," TechCrunch reports.

"High school graduates from Flint could qualify for college scholarships under legislation that would make the city eligible for a Promise Zone," The Associated Press reports.

"Texas legislators are seeking to deny work-study aid to immigrants attending public college under a temporary residency permit, a move that starkly contrasts with a policy enacted 16 years ago that positioned the state as the nation's most welcoming place for foreign-born students," NBC Washington reports.

"May is always an important month in the college calendar. Many high-school seniors across the nation make the decision where to attend college; millions of college students graduate and enter the workforce," Anne-Marie Slaughter, president of the New America Foundation, writes in an opinion piece for The Atlantic.

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