11/21/2006

WorldWideLearn.com Helps Students in Distance Learning Programs Avoid Debt
An article on WorldWideLearn.com reveals that students in online university programs now have access to a wider variety of financial aid options since federal legislation passed in February 2006. Since online students are vulnerable to the same financial risks as campus students, potential students need to understand their financial aid options, and many are turning to WorldWideLearn.com for help.

(PRWeb) - November 21, 2006--WorldWideLearn.com's recent article, "Down With the 50-percent Rule: Up with Online Education" explains that online universities may be more attractive to students now that new legislation allows distance learning students many of the same financial aid options as traditional university students have. However, today's students are acquiring debt at a shocking rate, and online students, like their campus counterparts, need to choose loans wisely in order to descrease their long-term risk.

According to Alan Collinge, who founded the Washington-based group Student Loan Justice, "College students are an extremely vulnerable segment of the population. They will sign virtually anything you put in front of them." Statistics confirm this. Over 65 percent of all four-year college students now have some kind of student loan and the number of students who graduate with over $25,000 in loans has tripled in the last ten years.

Even before this new legislation, distance learning programs and correspondence courses were financially attractive options because these programs include no room and board, no gas money or commute time, and no childcare costs. Now that all online students have access to a wider variety of financial aid, these distance learning programs are even more attractive. Students in online university programs have the following financial aid options:

• Scholarships
• Grants
• Education Loans which include:
• • Stafford Loans
  • Perkins Loans
  • PLUS Loans
  • Private Loans

Students are not required to repay educational scholarships and grants, but they are required to repay educational loans, and many students find themselves unable to make their loan payments after finishing their degree. (http://www.worldwidelearn.com/financial-aid/index.html)

In the past, students had the option of declaring bankruptcy, but recent changes in federal law make it nearly impossible to relieve any kind of student loan debt this way. Instead, students find themselves forced into unaffordable payment plans which often result in default and ruined credit ratings.

Students in distance learning programs or correspondence courses need to understand their financial options, and WorldWideLearn.com has the tools students need to meet their long term educational goals and understand their financial choices.

WorldWideLearn.com (http://www.worldwidelearn.com/index.html) is the world's premier directory of education, featuring informative resources, more than 2,500 online courses, over 1,600 online degree programs, 200 online universities, and 2,300 campus-based career college programs. WorldWideLearn.com receives thousands of visitors each day and has been featured on MSMoney.com.