Word: aid
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Ramon Arias, executive director of Bay Area Legal Aid in Oakland, Calif., agrees, noting that he would "emphatically" welcome new associates with open arms. Still, Arias adds that his organization is so understaffed that an influx of young and eager associates could present an already overworked infrastructure with a host of logistical challenges. "A lot depends on our capacity to incorporate these lawyers in an effective way," he explains. "Who oversees employee benefits? What about health insurance? Bar dues? Nonpersonnel costs...
...Shorb, Skidmore College's fast-talking director of student aid and family finance, did more reading than usual this year. And not just because the 4,000 financial-aid applications that landed on his desk made up a record 62% of the applicant pool. Shorb, who has worked in financial aid for 30 years and is halfway through putting his three daughters through college, had also never seen so many personal appeals folded into the files. Setting aside his computer algorithms and thick-buttoned relic of a calculator, he absorbed every typewritten page. One family expected a 50% income drop...
Colleges of all stripes are taking a battering as endowments evaporate and the alumni-donation well dries up. But when it comes to actually getting its class in the door, Skidmore, which allowed TIME to observe scholarship discussions and review admissions and financial-aid applications less than two weeks before the school mailed its final decisions, typifies the unique dilemmas that face smallish private colleges. Schools with deep pockets are coping: seven of the eight Ivy League universities, for instance, notched application increases this spring, three of them in double-digit percentages. The same goes for state schools and community...
...arts colleges and many others down the food chain. Skidmore's projected $51,196-a-year price tag makes it one of the nation's 10 most expensive schools, but its $223 million endowment--down 23% from its high about a year ago--is too small to bankroll financial aid for all who need it. Founded in 1903 as a women's college, Skidmore was long known for teaching art to well-heeled young ladies, but in its modern permutation as a coeducational college, it is a relative newcomer to national prominence and the donations that come with...
...most years, the system would leave Skidmore and colleges like it with a pretty good idea of what to expect come May 1, when deposits are due. This time, though, money troubles are continually changing the outlook. In previous cycles, Shorb estimates, he could base 95% of the aid awards on the prior year's tax returns. But this time Shorb is also trying to project many applicant families' income for 2009, which, given the volatility of the economy, is anyone's guess. He's leaving his calendar open every day in April to deal with further appeals from students...