Straighterline - Financial Aid Survey

[Toastmaster]

I don't know what Straighterline has up it's sleeve, but I got a survey today via email asking me if I was interested in using Financial Aid for their courses.  Interesting!

Also, when you fill out the survey, it gives a promo code SPECIALTHANKS for $25 off of any course.

[sanantone]

I received the same email and completed the survey. I know the Obama administration had a program going piloting financial aid for alternative sources of credit. I don't know if that will continue under the current administration.

[Thorne]

I received the same email and completed the survey. I know the Obama administration had a program going piloting financial aid for alternative sources of credit. I don't know if that will continue under the current administration.

Didn't know that was a thing. Of course, I didn't know alternative credit was a thing until my last day at CC...

[teacher2]

Got this email as well. I am not crazy about them going to Financial Aid. For one thing, it is one of the few online college credit sources where you do not have to fill out all these forms and wait for FA to kick in or reimburse or etc. Also, (perhaps I am being pessimistic) I feel that when Colleges go by Financial Aid they assume everyone can get it and apply toward their schools when not everyone can. Part of me wonders if SL would end up raising their prices even more but then again, affordability is their selling point. I am still hesitant and think dabbling in Financial Aid will complicate things a little bit.

The reasoning for it would be if you had say the Pell grant you could easily pay for a good bit of your degree with it without shelling out some money.

Any other thoughts about it?

[sanantone]

Got this email as well. I am not crazy about them going to Financial Aid. For one thing, it is one of the few online college credit sources where you do not have to fill out all these forms and wait for FA to kick in or reimburse or etc. Also, (perhaps I am being pessimistic) I feel that when Colleges go by Financial Aid they assume everyone can get it and apply toward their schools when not everyone can. Part of me wonders if SL would end up raising their prices even more but then again, affordability is their selling point. I am still hesitant and think dabbling in Financial Aid will complicate things a little bit.

The reasoning for it would be if you had say the Pell grant you could easily pay for a good bit of your degree with it without shelling out some money.

Any other thoughts about it?

The way it'll probably work is that you'll receive financial aid through the school, and SL will have a consortium agreement. As with anything, you can always opt to pay out of pocket.

[cookderosa]

Can't get the song out of my head..... Students all over the world -join hands. Start a debt train, debt train..... oh wait, maybe those aren't the right words.

[sanantone]

The intention would be to reduce student loan debt by paying for cheaper courses and to stretch grant money further. Otherwise, people with no cash will opt to only take traditional courses because they're covered by financial aid. Most of the money I used to pay for alternative sources of credit came from leftover financial aid. I didn't have the cash to pay for anything when earning my first BA.

[a2jc4life]

The intention would be to reduce student loan debt by paying for cheaper courses and to stretch grant money further. Otherwise, people with no cash will opt to only take traditional courses because they're covered by financial aid. Most of the money I used to pay for alternative sources of credit came from leftover financial aid. I didn't have the cash to pay for anything when earning my first BA.

Same.  It's really frustrating to me that I can get financial aid for expensive, time-consuming courses, but if I want to be more efficient with my time and money, I'm on my own.