Howard's Essential Library

Financial Aid is There; Help Students Find It

host@change.me (SuperUser Account) — Tue, 06 Dec 2011 21:22:49 GMT

High school guidance counselors and college financial aid officers hold the key to helping needy students find the money for college.
Benjamin Franklin once said, “Out of adversity lies opportunity.” Today, many opportunities have arisen to help needy students pay for college.

Reducing College Costs Starts From Within

host@change.me (SuperUser Account) — Tue, 06 Dec 2011 21:15:48 GMT

Commentary: Reducing College Costs Starts From Within
By Howard Freedman, August 19, 2011

Howard Freedman is a financial aid consultant and president of Financial Aid Consulting.

College costs have outpaced the rates of inflation for many reasons. One way to curb these costs is to find better and more cost-efficient ways to do things.
The paradox is that, as the economy has worsened, the cost of a college education has steadily increased, affecting those least able to afford one. At some point this bubble will burst especially because costs have consistently outpaced the annual rate of inflation. This is not a startling revelation. It is time to take action and follow the advice of Winston Churchill: “It is no use saying, ‘We are doing our best.’ You have got to succeed in doing what is necessary.”

Diverse Issues in Higher Education

host@change.me (SuperUser Account) — Tue, 06 Dec 2011 21:13:39 GMT

11/15/2011

Commentary: Parental Mistakes Can Be Costly
By Howard Freedman, August 19, 2011

Many families suffer from self imposed pressure and financial angst that often lead to costly mistakes and blown opportunities to send their child to college.

Transferring to a Four Year Program

hrfreed@comcast.net (Howard Freedman) — Tue, 18 Oct 2011 20:19:35 GMT

Transferring From a Two Year Program

Howard Freedman
President of Financial Aid Consulting
www.financialaidresults.com

Moving beyond a two-year program poses some new challenges and opportunities that may not have existed in recent years.

Two of the most important are redefining your career and educational goals and finding the college to complete your bachelors program.

Plan to Receive a Scholarship

hrfreed@comcast.net (Howard Freedman) — Tue, 18 Oct 2011 20:15:53 GMT

Plan to Receive a Scholarship

Howard Freedman
President of Financial Aid Consulting
www.financialaidresults.com

The best way to land a scholarship is not necessarily from a website, book or paying someone to find one for you. It takes a combination of many factors that are quite similar to those seeking jobs in a competitive job market.

Overcoming the Hurdles of Financial Aid

hrfreed@comcast.net (Howard Freedman) — Tue, 18 Oct 2011 19:43:51 GMT

Overcoming the Hurdles of Financial Aid

Howard Freedman
Financial Aid Consultant

Working with hundreds of students and their families has enabled me to better understand their varied needs and how to satisfy them. Despite the differences in their academic and financial needs, I have found common characteristics and challenges that besiege families that have gone through the financial aid process. That is why it I so important to understand what they are and what to do.

Financial Aid is There; Help Students Find It

hrfreed@comcast.net (Howard Freedman) — Tue, 18 Oct 2011 19:38:27 GMT

Lastword
Howard Freedman
Financial Aid is There; Help Students Find It

High school guidance counselors and college fi nancial aid offi ces hold the key to helping needy students fi nd the money for college.

Benjamin Franklin once said, “Out of adversity lies opportunity.” Today, many opportunities have arisen to help needy students pay for college.

Networking To College

hrfreed@comcast.net (Howard Freedman) — Thu, 13 Oct 2011 02:19:18 GMT

Networking To The Right College
Counselors Can Help Encourage Right Technology Use

Howard Freedman
President of Financial Aid Consulting
www.financialaidresults.com

Technology has provided tremendous opportunities for information management for college and scholarship searches. Beyond its convenience and power, it often overshadows the benefits of face to face networking and relationship building that occurs as students confront many of the challenges of finding the right college fit.

Working Effectively With Financial Aid Officers

hrfreed@comcast.net (Howard Freedman) — Fri, 08 Apr 2011 00:52:41 GMT

Financial aid officers and administrators are one of the most valuable and sometimes overlooked resources to help students and their families bridge the gap between college acceptance and how to pay for it. Learning what they need and how to effectively communicate with them is one of the most critical steps in ensuring that the cost of education is affordable. Here's how it's done!

Establishing Good Credit Is Just as Important as Your Degree

hrfreed@comcast.net (Howard Freedman) — Mon, 04 Apr 2011 00:49:54 GMT

Establishing Good Credit

By Howard Freedman,
President, Financial Aid Consulting

Though there is no doubt that a college education is one of the best investments money can buy, it is all too often unfortunate when poorly managed and delinquent bill payments adversely impact your credit score, future employment, cost of borrowing or just trying to get a positive start after graduation.

Best Ways To Choose a College Major

hrfreed@comcast.net (Howard Freedman) — Mon, 04 Apr 2011 00:46:52 GMT

Deciding on a college major is like trying to predict what a student will do for the rest of his or her life. It is difficult to make a decision that is based on their credentials influenced by the economy and technological changes. Unless they have a clear and unwavering passion, drive and intellect to make that decision, students should use the right resources and tools to choose the major that fits their skills, interests and employment opportunities when they graduate. Students should be honest with themselves and open minded about using some of my recommendations.

Ideas To Help Guidance Counselors

hrfreed@comcast.net (Howard Freedman) — Sun, 03 Apr 2011 00:57:54 GMT

It seems like ancient history when I worked with my high school guidance counselor whose invaluable advice and personal attention supported my quest to find my college of choice. Back then class sizes were smaller, education budgets were more generous and guidance counselors had more time to spend with each student. Today things are much different as guidance counselors need more resources and new ideas to make their jobs easier.

Campus Visits For The Home Schooled

hrfreed@comcast.net (Howard Freedman) — Sun, 03 Apr 2011 00:43:56 GMT

Making the Most of Your Campus Visit Howard Freedman The transition from a home school to college environment might be much easier if you take the right steps before, during and after your campus visit. A well-planned campus visit allows a student and their families to discover which colleges provide the best educational and social fit to satisfy your individual needs.

Adventures in Consulting

hrfreed@comcast.net (Howard Freedman) — Sat, 02 Apr 2011 20:20:37 GMT

The plane has reached cruising altitude and the drink cart is on its way: time to relax before my next consulting job begins. But it wasn't always this way. Flying to my first consulting assignment, I was wired. I didn't know what to expect after all, except that consulting isn't easy money. I knew that when businesses open their wallets they expect expertise and effectiveness, and they want it right now! So there I was sweating bullets, sick from stale air, the taste of salt and peanut oil lingering on my tongue; I had to ask myself, "Why have I sacrificed the comfort of my office for this?"
Fortunately, I can look back on that flight from this one and say the answer was easy: consulting is an adventure. There is never a dull moment because with each new client and each new job, you face different problems and apply your experience in different ways. All of which means you can't ever get too comfortable, except on the flight. On that note, I'll lean back and analyze consulting from high above the clouds.

The Power of Metrics

hrfreed@comcast.net (Howard Freedman) — Sat, 02 Apr 2011 20:17:16 GMT

Understanding statistics is no longer an option. It is a way of life. DR W. Edwards Deming, the inspirational leader of the quality control movement in America believed that business needed ongoing process improvements and control over processes to survive. According to Dr. Deming, employees also needed direction and leadership supported by systems that employee’s could operate and manage with the greatest efficiency. This required constant performance measurement so that acceptable tolerances were reached to minimize rejects and improve quality. In payroll, for example, the most competent person who can operate a computer is limited by the quality of the hardware, software, training and those individuals that they interface with. If, for example, payroll is not receiving paperwork or input from other areas processing efficiency will deteriorate. The challenge is to define the problem , monitor occurrences and taking further actions to fix it.

Overcoming Barriers for Affordable College Educations

hrfreed@comcast.net (Howard Freedman) — Sat, 02 Apr 2011 20:15:07 GMT

Payroll Check- Great Source for Financial Aid

hrfreed@comcast.net (Howard Freedman) — Sat, 02 Apr 2011 20:12:07 GMT

Have you ever realized how important payroll can be in helping families pay for a college education? It’s all in the paystub. The payroll check stub provides the critical data for the financial aid applications that can make college educations more affordable.
With college costs continuing to escalate, financial aid is as necessary to pay for college as a mortgage is to pay for a home. Families from all economic classes are realizing that financial aid is not charity but a necessary resource to fund a college education.

Where is The Missing Paperwork?

hrfreed@comcast.net (Howard Freedman) — Sat, 02 Apr 2011 20:09:22 GMT

Missing and late paperwork has been an all too common disease that has infected most payroll departments. Despite payroll's valiant efforts to obtain this information, more effective approaches are necessary to analyze what can be done to ease the congestion.

Is It Ethical

hrfreed@comcast.net (Howard Freedman) — Sat, 02 Apr 2011 20:06:50 GMT

If payroll were simply a matter of doing quantitative calculations, our jobs would be pretty straightforward. Not easy, but at least straightforward. Because we deal with complex, overlapping, and often inconsistent sets of federal, state, and local law and regulation, however, ambiguity is often more characteristic of our jobs than clarity. This ambiguity is compounded when we find the specific policies of our employers not always consistent with payroll law and regulation; for example, when the Internal Revenue Code says a benefit is taxable and your employer says don't tax it. The situation is still further complicated by the fact that the internal customers we serve (employees and management) will not welcome decisions we make that are not to their advantage — for example, when we tax that popular benefit.

Too Many Touch Points

hrfreed@comcast.net (Howard Freedman) — Sat, 02 Apr 2011 20:03:18 GMT

Too Many Touch Points
by Howard Freedman, CPP Director of Employee Services, Mentor Corporation
Payroll is a transaction-driven process, highly dependent on documentation and communication. The medium for both has traditionally been paper and, while pulp has served us well over the years, we've discovered other, more efficient means of providing, collecting, inspecting, and retaining necessary data, most often electronic — e-mail, voice mail, intranet, magnetic media. Nevertheless, a lot of what we do all day still involves touching paper, the "paperless" office being, if not a fantasy, at least a much harder goal to achieve than was originally thought.

Saving Money For Your Company

hrfreed@comcast.net (Howard Freedman) — Sat, 02 Apr 2011 19:59:47 GMT

Saving money in payroll should not be an option but a way of life. This is especially true during these turbulent economic times when organizations large and small struggle to exist. The payroll practitioner responsible for one of the largest expenses is and will continue to be a key contributor to creatively find ways of reducing expenses without sacrificing quality or established internal controls. Regardless of the size of your organization, here are ways that you can start your savings spree right now.

Are You Ready To Retire?

hrfreed@comcast.net (Howard Freedman) — Sat, 02 Apr 2011 19:55:36 GMT

Retiring form payroll, whether by choice or factors out of your control, can provide many challenges and opportunities. When the time comes, the commitment to being prepared to shape your future is just as important as the many years that you have satisfied the payroll needs of your employers.
The paradox of our current workforce is that companies continue to downsize and replace their workforce with younger less expensive and inexperienced workers. In turn, these workers may not fill the experience void left by the aging baby boomers who will be exiting the workforce. Consequently, the need for payroll and other expertise will still prevail but not necessarily in the same full time job structures or which you are accustomed

Systems Testing

hrfreed@comcast.net (Howard Freedman) — Sat, 02 Apr 2011 19:52:02 GMT

test

How To Avoid Costly Mistakes

hrfreed@comcast.net (Howard Freedman) — Sat, 02 Apr 2011 19:08:48 GMT

Payroll is and always will be a service provider striving to accommodate those in need of money and information. The attempt to achieve the ideal in this exercise, however, will always be blocked by such real-world obstacles as inadvertent omissions, inaccuracies, and missing paperwork, which combine to render even the most efficient check-generating system imperfect. While companies strive to manage costs and quality, producing manual checks is expensive and forces payroll departments to operate in a fire-fighting mode, cutting manual checks to correct errors, omissions, and unknown problems discovered after the payroll run.
Manual checks can never be eliminated altogether. They will always be necessary for on-the-spot terminations, for example, and for stop payments and emergency advances. The challenge, rather, is to reduce the number of manual checks that must be cut and the expense associated with this activity to the absolute minimum.

Earning Positive Recognition

hrfreed@comcast.net (Howard Freedman) — Sat, 02 Apr 2011 19:05:29 GMT

Do your ongoing services earn your department earn respect and recognition or are they taken for granted? If so, now is the time to do something about it. One sure way to attract positive recognition is to exceed expectations, and then do more. In other words, stop whining and start winning.

Gaining positive recognition can be a great motivator in terms of stimulating creative thinking and ideas to benefit the organization as a whole, improve employee morale and demonstrate potential beyond rigid job descriptions. Most importantly, it should not be an option but a requisite to bring new vitality and value to sustain your organization especially during these challenging economic times.