Students and Parents pay attention to this story. . . Susan Hanshaw is an author, keynote speaker, and certificated minister. But Susan first began her work life in corporate America. She spent 20 years building a very successful career in the Direct Marketing industry culminating in a position as second in command of her firm with the title of Vice President.

Included in this rise to corporate stardom, was a high 6 figure salary, a stress level in line with the pressure an air traffic controller experiences, and the type of corporate “burn out” that plagues at least 50% of American workers according to Forbes: unhappy lives due to their jobs or the lack of purpose the job is missing.

As a St. Patty’s Day reminder, the luck of the Irish can happen anywhere anytime. The year 1977, the USF Don’s mens basketball team. The Dons were ranked #1 in the country and riding high with future NBA star center Bill Cartwright and first round draft picks Winford Boynes and James “Trouble” Hardy.

The Dons were 29-0 with Bob Gaillard at the helm. But as luck would have it, Irish luck that is, the Dons walked into a hornets nest of an atmosphere. A mysterious hotel glitch with no heat in rooms, horrible food, and a bus ride that was interrupted by a breakdown adds to the “Red” Auerbach like “accidents” that helped contribute to the Don’s downfall.

“You don’t get to choose how you’re going to die or when. You only get to chose how you’re going to live” Joan Baez

Maintaining a positive attitude can only take place if students, parents are you listening too, are aware of the choices that life has to offer. Feeling stuck, feeling trapped, or feeling that you are unable to make progress derive from past experiences. By relying upon past experiences to make your choices, you are often applying information that does not work in the present situation.

If you take your time and examine the simple choices presented here you will take the first step necessary to changing for the better:

You Always Have Choices

According to Susan Hanshaw, author of the new book “Inner Architect: How To Build The Life You Were Designed to Live”, one of the most difficult ideas for people to understand and comprehend in order to take action is the idea of choice. For choice is the precursor to change, and as we can attest, sometimes change can be difficult even painful. If you are feeling stuck, if you are feeling lost, or if you are feeling your career has lost meaning, it is time too focus on the answer:

The First 3 Choices of Change:

1. Option #1: Keep everything Status Quo. Take no action and feel no differently

2. Option #2: Make an adjustment somewhere in an effort to influence positive change

3. Option #3: Let go of your job and find something that fits you better

Susan Hanshaw’s video, #2 in the series “Becoming an inner architect”, supports the idea of choice and the options of choice you now face. These concepts and steps were derived from Chapter 1 “Cultivating Your Mind To Consider Change.”

For details on Susan Hanshaw’s book “Inner Architect: How To Build The Life You Were Designed To Live”, instructions on how to receive a free copy of Chapter 1 “Cultivation Your Mind To Consider Change”, and details about “The Apprentice Contest” reference “Inner Architect’s “How To Build The Life You Were Designed To Live”: New Video Series, Contest, Book.

Author and Founder of inner architect, Susan Hanshaw, is producing a how-to video series: “Becoming an inner architect” as chronicled in her article “New Book, New Video Series, New You: inner architect’s 3 Value Propositions.” The series will support her new book “inner architect: How to Build The Life You Were Designed to Live.” In addition, inner architect is providing the following value propositions:

1. Weekly Video Series: Susan will provide steps, tools, tips, and strategies to help you learn how to acknowledge your career dissatisfaction through awareness, identify your passions, and change your life with purposeful intended results.
2. Free Copy of Chapter 1 : “Cultivating your Mind to Consider Change” of her upcoming book “inner architect: How to Build The Life You Were Designed to Live.”

3. Be An inner architect “Apprentice Contest”: Now you have the chance to voice your opinion, share your stories of change, and inspire others. Participate by ordering your free copy of Chapter 1 and write to us describing your experience(s).

The three best critiques or stories of change that “Cultivating Your Mind to Consider Change” inspires will receive a free copy of “inner architect: How to Build The Life You Were Designed to Live” and a $50 Nordstrom gift certificate!

Take advantage and participate in the fun by emailing your free request for Chapter 1 “Cultivating Your Mind to Consider Change” to dean@innerarchitect.com

Bay College Planners provides the most unique and powerful method of paying for a college education available to families and students today. By repositioning your family assets, BCP helps families to qualify for the millions of dollars of financial aid that goes unclaimed every year.

A major part of this service is to set up a process, action plan, and procedures in order to help students identify the best university for them.

The following are the first 5 Action Plan steps provided by Bay College Planners:

1. Personalized Student Interview: This interview is private and outlines the students choices of major and careers, college selections, and admissions and career tips. This service often goes beyond what a student’s Guidance Counselor should be providing.

2. “Best Fit” College Search: again utilizing the information of general interests provided by each student, BCP will provide a list of colleges that fit the student’s criteria.

3. Career Search: Bay College Planners perform a career search including education requirements for a particular career, description of the career path, and starting salary estimates. Career search information is based on the students interests; access to research information is provided online through the Discover program housing this information.

4. College Admissions Application Boot Camp: this allows students access to discussions of admissions requirements, admissions essay writing, selecting the “right” college, how to fill out the different types of admissions applications correctly the first time, and a action plan on “what students should be doing now” to get ready for college.

5. College Planning Checklist: this is a easy to follow organizer containing essential deadlines, up-coming events, and timelines describing what Bay College Planners will be doing for you the parent and the student and when each step will take place.

For a free consultation please contact Dan Evertsz at Bay College Planners 510. 686.7979 or bayareacollegeplanner@yahoo.com

If you are a parent of a college bound student or a student trying to finance your education on your own, you owe it to yourself to throughly investigate Andrew Cuomo’s campaign to expose and indict the student lending industry. This information could save you thousands of dollars and millions of headaches!

In June of 2008, Attorney General Andrew Cuomo of New York outlined and implemented a Code of Conduct plan for the 6 largest student loan lenders. Cuomo’s characterization of Student Loan lending institutions as purveyors of “predatory lending” practices is the most accurate and hard hitting characterizations of the industry by a politician yet.

Cuomo’s plan includes the following 7 provisions:

1. Ban on Financial Ties. Lenders are prohibited from giving anything of value to any college in exchange for any advantage sought by the lender. This severs any inappropriate financial arrangements between lenders and schools and specifically prohibits “revenue sharing” arrangements.

2. Ban on Payments for Preferred Lender Status. Lenders may not pay or give colleges any financial benefits whatsoever to get on a college’s preferred lender list.

3. Gift and Trip Prohibition. Lenders are prohibited from giving college employees anything of more than nominal value. This includes a prohibition on trips for financial aid officers and other college officials paid for by lenders.

4. Advisory Board Rules. Lenders are prohibited from paying college employees anything of value for serving on the advisory boards of the lenders.

5. Call-Center and Staffing Prohibition. Lenders must ensure that employees of lenders never identify themselves to students as employees of colleges. No employee of a lender may ever work in or providing staffing assistance to a college financial aid office.

6. Disclosure of Range of Rates and Defaults. Lenders must disclose to any requesting school the range of rates they charge to students at the school, the number of borrowers at each rate at the school, and the lender’s historic default rate at the school. This will ensure that schools will have the information they need to select preferred lenders who are best for students and their families.

7. Loan Resale Disclosure. Lenders shall fully and prominently disclose to students and their parents any agreements they have to sell loans to any other lender.

Look at these provisions carefully. Would you want to collaborate or become a customer of an organization that is being reprimanded for provisions 2 and 3. Essentially these are rules against kickbacks. Does it not make sense to search for an alternative to the stratospheric, exorbitant costs of college tuition loans?

What would you rather have as your plan to finance a student’s education:

High interest rate and long term loans that create financial unrest for your family for years or a financial plan that allows you to take advantage of the millions of dollars of government financial aid that goes untapped every year?

The newest form of financing is not financing at all. If this statement does not intrigue you then you are ignoring what could be the best strategy to fund the college education from the university of your choice. Bay College Planners has strategies to help families “reposition” their wealth-income in order for them to qualify for vast scholarship monies available every year.

This is not financing a loan from a high interest rate, disreputable banking source. This is not placing you the student in hock up to your ears for years to come.

The video report features one of our affiliates in San Diego. But the message is the same: we can help you attain scholarship monies without going into debt for years to come.

For questions please contact Bay College Planners’ Dan Evertsz or Gerna Benz.

In today’s world of financing for a college education, the awesome and frightening reality for many students and parents are the lack of solid tuition financing alternatives. The main method of paying for an education., outside full athletic scholarships or parents who can afford to pay without discomfort, are student loans through finance companies bent on creating an interest rate windfall–to your detriment.

In step with the high interest rates and never ending loan pay off dates is the fact that college tuitions are simply a rip off. There is very little competition or what analysts call downward pressure on college tuition pricing.

In a good example of this problem, Paul Streitz’s article “The Great American College Tuition Rip Off” outlines how parents and students push for higher education at the best colleges. This demand is manipulated by those colleges that receive the highest rankings from the US News and World Reports. US News and World Reports rankings have long been a respected measuring stick to parents and students helping them identify the best institutions.

Streitz posits that without tuition price competition from equally rated universities, and with demand escalating, universities will continue to raise tuitions.

These cost increases are not caused by spiraling administration costs, professor salaries, or any cost of doing business factors. Instead the true explanation is simple: universities can and do raise tuition fee because students and parents are willing to pay the costs without question.

How do students receive academic scholarships when their parents economic standing disqualifies them from aid? And how do parents whose main assets are in property and whose income is just enough to keep their household afloat help pay for their student’s educations? Is it possible to “requalify” these families in such a way as to make them eligible for financial aid after all? The answer to the last question is a resounding YES!

Right now is the right time to look for alternatives to the traditional loan rip offs. Now is the time to investigate and engage with a new method to pay for college. Now is the time to contact College Planning Specialists.

College Planning Specialists provides a number of valuable services which in whole bring a new alternative to the traditional problem of qualifying for financial aid. The professionals at CPS Dan Evertsz and Gerna Benz provide expert analysis and an action plan that helps non qualifying (financial aid) families qualify under aid guidelines.

CPS’s Service Checklist is comprised of 24 action steps when implemented have a positive effect on qualifying a family for the millions of dollars, that go unused each year, of financial aid available. The first step is to outline a complete financial overview and analysis of a family’s assets as they relate to college as well as their budget. Analysis of the family budget, taxes, retirement and other areas of financial management gives a clear picture as to the best steps to take.

During this analysis, CPS will calculate the family’s Estimated Family Contribution (EFC). This form is a way to calculate how much a family must pay outside of the financial aid package that they qualify to receive. It is CPS job to help families understand this process, do the calculations for the family, and most valuable-provide a plan/and or recommendations to reduce the Estimated Family Contribution.

Why worry about the EFC when most families do not qualify for financial aid due to their economic standing? In many many cases Dan and Gerna have been able to find avenues for families to qualify for financial aid. Almost all of these families never thought they would qualify, never knew where to go to investigate these alternatives, and have nothing to lose by going through the College Planning Specialists consultations.

For more information please contact this blog or stay tuned for the Part 2 in my series: Stop Servitude to Banks. . .