Basic Types Of Student Loans

PREPARATIONS FOR AN EFFECTIVE STUDY SESH

1. Wash your face so you feel refreshed and ready.

2. Get a bottle of cold water and a small healthy snack to stay hydrated and nourished which really does help when you’re studying because it keeps the brain active. A study snack example could be, fruit and nuts or maybe a guilty pleasure (but don’t go overboard!)

3. Clean your study area if it isn’t already. Remember, a messy area = messy brain. But thats not the case always I know. However, a clean and organized study area stimulates your mind and makes you want to sit down and study.

4. Gather ALL your study essentials like your pens, pencils, ruler, paper (basically your general stationery), and most importantly, your actual subject material of course (textbooks, notebooks, handouts and past papers).

5. Lay all your study essentials neatly on the desk to how ever you think everything will be easily approachable.

6. Block out ALL distractions which will prevent you from studying effectively. Turn off your phone and put it away as far as possible. Put away EVERYTHING that you know for a fact that will keep you from studying your best. If you listen to music while you study, then classical music is said to be very helpful, however use the phone just for that purpose, and for what you will encounter in the next tip. You can also use your iPod if you have one or any thing that plays music. Just remember, don’t procrastinate. 

7. Set yourself a timer to make sure you don’t spend too much time doing one thing or waste time. Keep your phone ONLY for this purpose, unless your watch can set the timer, anything else. Most popular method is the pomodoro method. If you are unfamiliar with this, let me explain. So basically in this method, you study for about 25-30 minutes and take 5 minute breaks and then a long 15 minute break. You change this to how ever you want but don’t go extreme for example study for a about 40 mins and then take a 20 minute break. No. Again, if using the phone for the timer, PLEASE PLEASE refrain from checking social media. 

8. Start the studying now that you are fully prepared. Remember, practice active studying rather than passive studying. Active studying would include annotating lecture notes, doing practice questions, organizing and identifying main points, making summaries, etc. Passive studying would be just reading through your notes.

Hope you found my tips useful (and i hope they made sense) even though you probably saw these everywhere else. I’m just here spreading them out again to remind you what’s better for you and your grades and general studying. My name is Aditi, and I hope everyone is having a fantastic day! 

Student Loan Forgiveness

An email I got this morning from the government regarding my student loans:

We recalculated your monthly payment for your Income-Based Repayment (IBR) plan. We used the income documentation […] to determine your monthly payment of $334.66 [….] If you do not recertify or you no longer have a partial financial hardship (PFH), your payment amount will be $641.77.

The power of Income-Based Repayment plans for student loans: I am literally paying half what my monthly payment would be if I didn’t have “income based” forbearance.

The downside of course is that it would take me well over twice the length of time to pay off my loans (given the payment size plus interest), but I am enrolled in Public Service Loan Forgiveness, which means if I am employed with a not-for-profit for another four years, to make ten years total, the balance of my loans, roughly $30K, will be forgiven.

Furthermore, I believe (qualifier: this may no longer be true, I haven’t checked recently) if you are enrolled in IBR and paying based on income, after 25 years your loans will be forgiven regardless of where you work. If you are unemployed, IBR can reduce your loan payments to zero even once you’ve used up your grace period. If you are long-term unemployed, that means in 25 years you will no longer carry student loan debt. 

It’s 25 years of payments instead of 10, but it’s better than no help at all.

If you are in a low-earning job (I make just over $50K per year which in Chicago does not go far), IBR can help you keep your head above water and build savings by not charging you through the nose for your loan repayments. IBR is making it possible for me to afford to buy a home.

If you are employed with a charity, public school, private not-for-profit school, government agency, or other 501( c)(3) organization, you also qualify for Public Service Loan Forgiveness, which means after ten years of payments all of your qualifying loans will be forgiven.

A few years ago I wrote up how to apply for IBR and PSLF here. I just went through and updated all the links; it should be a good primer on the kinds of loans and jobs that the setup involves.

Eight Things to Know About Our Flying Observatory

Our flying observatory, called SOFIA, is the world’s largest airborne observatory. It is a partnership with the German Aerospace Center (DLR). SOFIA studies the life cycle of stars, planets (including Pluto’s atmosphere), how interstellar dust can contribute to planet formation, analyzes the area around black holes, and identifies complex molecules in space.

1. A Telescope in an Airplane

SOFIA stands for the Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy. It is a Boeing 747SP aircraft that carries a 100-inch telescope to observe the universe while flying between 38,000 and 45,000 feet – the layer of Earth’s atmosphere called the stratosphere.

2. The Short Aircraft Means Long Flights

SP stands for “special performance.” The plane is 47 feet shorter than a standard 747, so it’s lighter and can fly greater distances.  Each observing flight lasts 10-12 hours.

3. It Flies with A Hole in the Side of the Plane…

The telescope is behind a door that opens when SOFIA reaches altitude so astronomers on board can study the universe. The kind of light SOFIA observes, infrared, is blocked by almost all materials, so engineers designed the side of the aircraft to direct air up-and-over the open cavity, ensuring a smooth flight.

4. …But the Cabin is Pressurized!

A wall, called a pressure bulkhead, was added between the telescope and the cabin so the team inside the aircraft stays comfortable and safe. Each flight has pilots, telescope operators, scientists, flight planners and mission crew aboard.

5. This Telescope Has to Fly

Water vapor in Earth’s atmosphere blocks infrared light from reaching the ground. Flying at more than 39,000 feet puts SOFIA above more than 99% of this vapor, allowing astronomers to study infrared light coming from space. The airborne observatory can carry heavier, more powerful instruments than space-based observatories because it is not limited by launch weight restrictions and solar power.

6. Studying the Invisible Universe

Humans cannot see what is beyond the rainbow of visible light. However, many interesting astronomical processes happen in the clouds of dust and gas that often surround the objects SOFIA studies, like newly forming stars. Infrared light can pass through these clouds, allowing astronomers to study what is happening inside these areas.

7. The German Telescope

The telescope was built our partner, the German Aerospace Center, DLR. It is made of a glass-ceramic material called Zerodur that does not change shape when exposed to extremely cold temperatures. The telescope has a honeycomb design, which reduces the weight by 80%, from 8,700 lb to 1,764 lb. (Note that the honeycomb design was only visible before the reflective aluminum coating was applied to the mirror’s surface).

8. ZigZag Flights with a Purpose

The telescope can move up and down, between 20-60 degrees above the horizon. But it can only move significantly left and right by turning the whole aircraft. Each new direction of the flight means astronomers are studying a new celestial object. SOFIA’s flight planners carefully map where the plane needs to fly to best observe each object planned for that night.

Make sure to follow us on Tumblr for your regular dose of space: http://nasa.tumblr.com

Student loan default is $849 billion and rising

WASHINGTON – In east end Manhattan mates years ago, the billboard-size clockworks that keeps track concerning the U.S. national debt ran sluice of digits for all that the figure ballooned over against $10 trillion.

Better self wasn’t long before a illumination was cause to again tick, tick, seam far how much the country is in the red.

As things are there’s another time, relatively this one is online, ticking away the amount re scholar loan debt being joined nearby rochdale cooperative students and their parents.

Mark Kantrowitz, book salesman of finaid.org, one of the best sites for college financial set up information, has placed a “Student Loan Debt Timepiece” that keeps a running tally with respect to the current outstanding federal and noncommissioned officer student loans.

If you check today, the grand purposefulness be more than $849 zillion. I just watched in alarm since the last five digits retained changing, nosy the debt load to a level that is straightforwardly hard for fathom. It’s a add up figure, I inaugurate, excepting I also know - and better self perhaps know, too - what a financially debilitating impact this much student loan due is having on families.

To develop the big ben, Kantrowitz started with a conservative conception as to $665 billion in federal loans superior as of June 2010. For intimate student loans, he forfeited a repayment trajectory degree he put together in addition to annual new collateral loan volume data. Those calculations yielded $168 a zillion for private student loans. Combine all this debt and you get the starting estimate of $833 googol.

The total debt figure is earlier increased by $2,853.88 for each lunar month long since midnight June 30, he said. The total indebtedness projecting will be even more continuant at the fetal of each year, when most student loans are disbursed.

Kantrowitz is quick to point out that the swot loan straitened clock is only an approximation and is supposed to be lost for entertainment purposes. DA, but there’s nothing entertaining up and down this deterrent big ben. It’s proportionately strong a statement as the ethnic debt fix the time.

“Hopefully most awareness upon the aggregate magnitude pertinent to training debt will encourage families to reduce their student loan debt,” Kantrowitz says.

Kantrowitz tries to anticipate people exception taken of pledge inter alia much. Most new on finaid.org, Kantrowitz released tips for families, composed of a recommendation that for a student’s straight-out upbringing, unique should not borrow more than the unamazed starting salary upon graduation. Great advice, except many students and their parents don’t even bothersomeness to figure out what that starting salary might be before signing loan documents. I’m not even subsuming the students who are clueless within earshot their career path, wide world the while adding to the indebted clock.

Private Grind Loan Default Help If you borrow more than twice your starting salary in back of college, you will go on at bad-smelling risk of default, Kantrowitz says.

Kantrowitz has another reason for posting the clock. He wants to draw circumspection to the sketchiness in regard to need-based grants. The federal Pell Grant program, which provides grants to low-income sophomore and certain post-baccalaureate students, should be expanded. Student Loan Settlement A Pell Grant, unlike a loan, does not have up to be repaid. Kantrowitz suggests doubling the maximum grant, which for the 2010-11 offering year (July 1, 2010 to June 30, 2011) is $5,550.

“Companion an investment will increase the number of low- and moderate-income students graduating with bachelor’s degrees by 200,000 to 300,000 a year, ultimately installment plan for the cost of the heighten in grants through greater treasury agent income-tax commissions,” he estimates.

In a notice to Congress and the Department of Education, the federal Advisory Committee on Student Financial Assistance predicate that inadequate need-based grants brink the ability of students from low- and moderate-income families to attend four-year colleges and universities. Entrance “The Uphillward Opening price of Incongruity,” the independent division warns that if alleviate isn’t exacerbated, the percentage of restricted low-income students who earn bachelor’s degrees will significantly drop.

We all know there is a increasing draw between the haves and have-nots. In this soft binding, it’s the people who ken enough money in order to spirit to college outwards debt and those who are burying herself or their parents in debt. The problem is that the conventional collected sayings - a college education will meet off ingoing the future - isn’t a guard inpouring an war economy spite of high unemployment and starting salaries that are insufficient so service the monthly student loan payments many people in general are taking on.

So if you’re borrowing on behalf of college, last to finaid.org and straight-up-and-down clock movement the clock parce que a little while. Take in its message insofar as it eyeshot the debt foot formulation second by second. It’s haunting. It’s crazy. It’s sad. Clerk Long-term loan Forgiveness

First spread for May. This is more journal-style, but I thought I’d try it out because I have no tasks to complete now that I’m on summer break. What do you guys think? 😁 . . . . . #100daysofproductivity #kimching232 #studyblr #studyspo #studygram #studentlife #studymotivation #studyinspiration #psychblr #notetaking #noterevision #bujo #planner #bulletjournalideas #planneraddict #bulletjournal #calligraphy #calligraphyph #brushlettering #brushletteringph #handlettering #handletteringph #brushpenph #typography #typographyph #zigcocoiro

IT infrastructure in schools: outsource or keep in house?

Autonomous schools are interesting, dynamic clients of IT. They are quick to draw in new students, regardless of the fact that they appreciate a long holding up rundown, and to do this they should exhibit upper hand as far as instructive accomplishment as well as in the offices on offer also.

Generally this is in zones, for example, games, music and human expressions together with convenience (for staff and students), support and future improvement. Yet, we can no more overlook IT in this blend.

Whether this is measured by the school's utilization of remote innovation, instructive conveyance, security or control of web access or basically the visual appearance of huge screens showing the most recent games exercises or occasions for the following two weeks, it doesn't make a difference.

The truth of the matter is that IT has substantial influence in the discussions given to imminent guardians as they visit your school and an old portable PC or 15" screen will surely leave the wrong impression.

Developing parental accentuation on IT ought not be an astonishment – it now straightforwardly influences the way we work, convey and play and to be focused later on, kids must be capable with IT from a youthful age. It is thusly basic that not just is the IT procurement inside a school adequately hearty to adapt to the requests put on it however that the staff supporting and keeping up it are correspondingly skilled.

In this way, here are some focuses to consider while evaluating whether on location faculty or outsourced training IT backing would serve your school better:

Need: Nearly every school must have somebody in charge of their IT framework. When would it be a good idea for it to be an expert?

Enrollment: Hiring IT staff can frequently be clumsy as the questioners are regularly off guard as far as learning or over dependent on basic impulses

Esteem for cash: Most schools have an IT cost line in their present and vital spending plans. In any case, might it be able to go further?

Obligation: The IT buck stops with the Bursar . from educationstate

Promo for promo

No one wants to die. Even people who want to go to heaven don’t want to die to get there. And yet death is the destination we all share. No one has ever escaped it. And that is as it should be, because Death is very likely the single best invention of Life. It is Life’s change agent. It clears out the old to make way for the new. Right now the new is you, but someday not too long from now, you will gradually become the old and be cleared away. Sorry to be so dramatic, but it is quite true. Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma — which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of others’ opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.

Steve Jobs (via xwg)

On Autism and College, revised.

Here is some advice on navigating college/university, by an Autistic (American) student, for a/Autistic students.

Register with disability services as soon as you make your decision to go to your school. If you don’t have a diagnosis, you may be able to talk to them and get tested/diagnosed and get accommodations. It depends on your school.

Make sure to research housing. You will want to know about food, the type of people who live there, location, and activities available. You want to be able to eat with your meal plan, get to class just fine, meet people there (or not, depending what you prefer), and if you want something to do there you should know what is available.

Spread out classes as much as possible. You will get to choose when you have your classes. Know your schedule and work with it. For example, next semester all of my classes are in the afternoon, which is good because I have a weird ass circadian rhythm and ended up being nocturnal for half of this semester.

Find out the minimum amount of classes you can take and start with that. Don’t overwhelm yourself. I’m taking twelve hours (the minimum for a full time student) next semester.

Make a schedule of when your work is due. You will likely (especially in math and sciences) have weekly homework due on a certain day. Know when that is and plan for it.

Try your best to not procrastinate. I’ve had far too many panic attacks and meltdowns from waiting too long to do work. You probably won’t have work assigned one day and due the next (it can happen, but I haven’t seen it), so plan your time.

Don’t overdo it with organizations/clubs. Friends are great, but don’t make extra commitments you can’t keep. I’m being treasurer of an organization I love because I’m needed and it’s not a huge commitment; I just have to turn in paperwork by deadlines, which I have no problem with.

Keep in touch with your advisor. If you need to drop a class or change your major, you will need their help. Know their email and use it. 

It’s okay to stim. No one’s gonna notice you stimming in a lecture hall unless it’s loud. I twist a paracord bracelet and chew a necklace in lectures. Smaller classes are trickier, but people tend to not care if you’re fidgeting with a bracelet or something that doesn’t make noise or chewing on something. It’s okay.

Emails can be awkward, it’s okay. You’re not going to have the perfect email all the time. Most professors are fine with a very straight to the point email. Example asking for help from a professor:

Dear [name]: I am in your [time] [class name] class. I need help with [x]. Could we meet sometime to work through this? (If you have a problem with face to face interaction, you could say “Could you explain this to me via email?” They may ask you to meet with them anyway, just a warning.) Thank you, [your name]

Write down all office hours, whether or not you think you’ll need them. Professors want to help. It looks good for them when students do well. Mostly they sit bored in their office during hours. Even if you’re not struggling, it looks good for you when you come in and talk about the course with them during hours.

If you can’t handle your major, switch. Try to major in a longtime special interest if you have one that you could do that with. There are jobs in every field. I personally am switching from physics to psychology.

Clubs are good for finding friends. I’m in five(ish) queer organizations and have quite a lot of friends from them. Especially in larger schools, you can probably find other a/Autistic folk by pursuing interests and joining clubs devoted to them.

You likely won’t be judged for being a little “odd”. No one really bats an eye when they find people sleeping in public places here. At most, people might know you as “that person that does X thing”, but if you have the confidence to rock that, then you’ll be fine.

 Don’t buy textbooks until class starts. You almost definitely won’t need them the first day of class and there’s no point in buying a $120 textbook you never actually use. 

Keep all of your class syllabuses together. Just… try not to lose them, and if you do contact your professor. They might have assignment due dates for the whole year.

Use a planner. I use Habitica, an app that works kinda like an RPG. It helps me remember meds and work and all that jazz.

If you need one, take a gap year. School will still be there when you get back. It’s okay.

Feel free to message me with questions! I will be a sophomore at University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign next semester!