Latest news with #BethWalker
Yahoo
18-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Worried how to pay for college? Here's how to maximize your chances of getting the aid you need
Getting into college can be hard. But figuring out how to finance college so that neither parent nor child are left financially hard up? It's a new, highly annoying level of hard — at least if you hope to get an adequate financial aid package to supplement your and your child's college savings. For any parent with a child in the 8th, 9th or 10th grade, now is the time to strategize how to maximize your access to both merit-based and need-based financial aid. The cost of one year in college for one child — never mind two or more — is always eye-popping. For this academic year (2024-2025) the average annual sticker price for a private, four-year college including tuition, housing, food, supplies, transportation and the always mysterious 'other' is $62,990, according to the College Board. For a four-year program at a public state university, the average came to $29,910 for in-state students and $49,080 for out-of-staters. The good news: The 'net' price of a year of college can be much less, once you account for federal and school aid (both need-based and merit-based), coupled with scholarships and federally subsidized loans. But just how much less depends, among other things, on your family income, how well you've strategized withdrawing your savings for college, and — this is key, college experts say — whether your child's academic performance puts them in a school's top 25% of incoming freshmen. Another consideration may soon be what Congress will do. House Republicans are considering a proposal that would, among other things, end the subsidized loan program for undergraduates and change the rules for getting Pell grants. Whether the proposal makes it into law is anyone's guess. But if it does, it will change the calculus for how families fund a college education. That, coupled with confusion over the Trump administration's expressed desire to dismantle the Department of Education, has in some ways made Beth Walker's job a little easier. As the author of 'Buying College Better' who counsels families on how to financially plan for college years before a child applies anywhere, Walker said, 'It's never been as easy for me to advocate for taking back control of this purchase — and thinking about it with a consumer mindset.' There are several things you and your kids can do ahead of time to put you in the best position to pay for college. Get good grades and test scores: The better your children do scholastically, the more likely it is they will qualify for merit-based aid. A big key to unlocking merit aid is to get strong standardized test scores (e.g., on the SAT or ACT), said Mike McKinnon, executive director of the National Institute of Certified College Planners. He strongly advises students to study and take practice tests starting as early as middle school to improve their score before they take the official test in 11th or 12th grade. Earn college credits ahead of time: McKinnon also recommends that students try to earn college credits or advance placement in a subject while still in high school. Doing so may let them skip certain required college courses or even graduate early, thereby curbing the total cost for their degree. Among the ways to get that leg up is to take advance placement courses during the school year, college courses during the summer or college-level examination program (CLEP) tests. Check the colleges your child may be interested in attending to see what credits those schools will recognize. At the very least, convey to your kids the value of getting their degree sooner rather than later. Roughly 22% of those earning bachelor's degrees take longer than that to graduate, according to the Education Data Initiative. Be clear-eyed about your budget: When your child is in 8th or 9th grade, start projecting the financial resources you will have available to pay for college. Todd Fothergill, founder and CEO of Strategies for College, created a free college budgeting calculator called CostHero that lets you input a detailed list of income, savings, expenses and likely federal loans and tax credits to consider when assessing what your family can reasonably afford to pay. It then gives you two budgets based on your inputs — one in which the parents incur no debt and one in which they do. The results will help you frame your thinking about where you might need to save more or spend less. 'You can take the time when your student enters high school and get serious about planning for college. Or you can have the colleges and the government give you the plan they have and it's really expensive,' Fothergill said. Planning for more than one child in college at the same time: Say you have a 7th grader and a 9th grader. You will be dealing with college bills for six years, and doubly large ones during two of those years when both kids are in school simultaneously. So it pays to strategize especially carefully for those overlap years. You want to minimize your income in the 'base' years — which is two years ahead of when your child matriculates, Fothergill said. It is information from those two years that is included on the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) form, which is a key form schools consider when determining your aid package. So, for example, if you plan to sell stocks to help pay for tuition, don't sell them in that two-year window because it may artificially inflate your income during the base years and you may get less aid as a result. Know too that recent changes to FAFSA rules mean that families with two or more kids in school at once get less of a break than they used to, Fothergill noted. Also, not all schools make their aid decisions exclusively using FAFSA. Some use the CSS profile from the College Board to determine how much institutional aid to give. And the rules governing how much a family is expected to contribute using the CSS differ from FAFSA's. So, before applying anywhere, research what governs aid decisions at schools your child may want to attend. And get your child's Student Aid Index number, which is generated by the FAFSA form once completed. Start looking for scholarships: There is a wide variety of scholarships available at the national, state and local levels and also at individual schools. So do some research to see which ones might be a good fit for your child. The College Board has a free tool that can get you started. Apply to colleges most likely to give you what you need: There are now many comprehensive, online sites like and that let you research every major aspect of a college relevant to potential applicants — from academics and financial aid to school culture — and assess how your child compares to the average student at a chosen school. for instance, provides users with the 25th to 75th percentile range of standardized test scores among students who've been admitted. So if your child's score is above that range you'll know they would be in the top quartile. And Niche lets you see, based on GPA and test scores, how your child would rank, relative to accepted students. In addition, it offers a list of Best Value Colleges, which considers many factors, including net price for tuition room and board, student-faculty ratio, student reviews, return on investment for a degree and how likely the lowest-income students are to move up the economic ladder after graduation. By the end of this year, Fothergill is planning to make another tool he created called ListHero available to consumers. It is currently used by educational consultants to identify the top list of schools that offer the best fit and education for their clients at the most affordable price for them. While students may still want to apply to 'reach' schools, it's important for families to realize that if their children do get in, it may be a very expensive ride if a child's academic performance lags that of fellow classmates at the school, Fothergill said. 'Colleges don't invest [aid] money in the bottom quartile.' Sign in to access your portfolio
Yahoo
21-04-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
WV Supreme Court Justice Walker announces retirement
CHARLESTON, (WBOY) — West Virginia Supreme Court Justice Beth Walker announced Monday that she would be retiring from the position soon. According to a release from the Supreme Court of Appeals of West Virginia, Walker plans to retire on June 27 after serving as a justice for more than 8 years, the longest tenure of any other justice currently on the court. Walker served as Chief Justice in 2019 and 2023. 'I am grateful to the people of this state who elected me,' Justice Walker said. 'During my tenure, we have achieved significant success in their name. We have restored public trust in the judicial branch of government by increasing transparency, accountability, and impartiality while returning the focus of the judiciary to the rule of law. We have established a cooperative functioning relationship with both the legislative and executive branches, which I hope endures for years to come.' T-Pain to perform at West Virginia State Fair Justice Walker submitted her intent to retire notice to Chief Justice Wooton and Gov. Patrick Morrisey over the weekend. The Judicial Vacancy Advisory Commission will collect applications, conduct interviews and make recommendations to Gov. Morrisey, who will appoint a replacement. In 2028, the position will be placed on the primary election ballot. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Chicago Tribune
14-03-2025
- Business
- Chicago Tribune
Stores announced for this year's Boardwalk Shops program in Batavia
Shops focusing on international baked goods, tabletop games and African and Caribbean products are among the stores that will be part of this year's Boardwalk Shops program in Batavia. The Batavia MainStreet group recently announced the participants in this year's program, a business incubator initiative that is now in its sixth year. Over half a decade ago, small 12-foot by 12-foot shops were made available at 114 E. Wilson St. in Batavia as part of the program. The first year included eight businesses and has increased to 10 since then. The Batavia MainStreet group has seen many of the small, fledgling mom-and-pop business that have taken part in the Boardwalk Shops program move on to have brick-and-mortar sites of their own. Batavia MainStreet Executive Director Beth Walker said momentum in the program continues and that a total of over 20 businesses submitted proposals this year with 10 being selected to take part. 'We started taking applications in September of last year. We had over 20 apply and we had about 30 the year before but we still had good candidates,' she said. 'As far as applications dropping a bit, if you look at the cycle of a small business, it's usually four to five years that it lasts and coming out of COVID, we had a lot of people that started micro-businesses, and a lot of those had to make a decision about whether to go back into the regular work force.' Walker said this year's collection of shops are 'a great 10. I think it's unique.' 'As we get more retail in downtown Batavia, we're very mindful not to overlap with our existing businesses,' she said. 'This year, we're really happy. We have two that are returning with things that they continue to want to work on and grow their business before they go into a brick-and-mortar.' The returning businesses are Jodi Mac Sweets & Treats and Scout & Gem, which offers jewelry and home decor. 'We have some other interesting things including a pet food store and a couple that are coming in from Chicago with Guatemala roots that will be selling Guatemalan goods and graphic designs (Giron Guatemalan Apparel + Home), and a lady from Africa who will be having an African market,' Walker said of this year's shops. Other entries include Tabletop Game Shop, which is bringing its third location to Batavia, as well as A Rooted Home selling home goods and Jaclyn Sue Boutique featuring women's clothing. 'We also have a bakery (AHA Kapeh Traditional Bread) who will sell international baked goods, so that's exciting,' Walker said. 'We also have Stitched by Stephanie,' whose owner has 'an interesting story,' Walker said. 'She's a young woman who sells crocheted stuffed animals but she just turned 21 and has been doing this for four years and is looking to grow her business.' Walker said there have been pet supply purveyors before at the Boardwalk Shops but the new Pet Wants business offers 'wholesome food for your dog, snacks and some pet supply goods.' The new Kumba African Market is also unique, she said. Walker said the owner 'is a refugee from Africa and she had a store in Wheaton and is trying out a different market in Batavia.' Walker said while the Boardwalk Shops program is an incubator in nature, 'it serves two purposes.' 'It's a destination for downtown. We love that it continues to be a destination to draw people from outside Batavia and we hope they will continue to shop the other businesses,' she said. 'It fills in a lot of vacancies we have in downtown. It's really changed that and we're really happy for that.' Opening day for the Boardwalks Shops this year is May 9.
