Welcome!

 

The financial doom that looms toward the country is the “number one issue” according to CNN and our diminishing bank accounts.

 

Faulty lending practices to people unable to pay back unrealistic mortgages led to millions of foreclosures across the country. The crisis swept upwards when banks couldn’t pay back lenders who couldn’t pay back investors and the whole situation spiraled out of control. Thus we have the infamous credit crunch, when people stopped lending. Lucky taxpayers will likely land up with a $700 billion price tag to fix the problem. People blame the government for this problem because of deregulation; others blame investors and bankers for crumbling the foundation of our economy.

 

(Note: Of course, this is just a snippet of the crisis. For any type of disaster of this magnitude, the situation is much more complicated and much more involved, but it would require a whole separate blog and a mind like Ben Bernanke just to explain thoroughly what happened!)

 

Now, as a University of Washington student, following this crisis felt like real-time Economics 201. But, the more I follow the story the more concern I have as a student and as an individual who will have to enter this economy in two years.  

 

So, I want to do a little research on the behalf of UW students and find out, how difficult is it to get a loan to pay for tuition? What are some tips on how to save money around campus? Are there any extra scholarships available with the increasing cost of attending the UW? How can students make ends meet during this financial crisis?

 

I will add in links to useful information and articles that will help explain the situation so that you can also easily be updated on the newest developments. I always appreciate tips from readers and will look into questions you have.

 

The information I find will hopefully be useful and give a little bit more of a personal spin to the crisis we are in the midst of.

 

Thank you.

 

Don’t run from the job market!

I thought it would be interesting to follow up last week’s blog with some tips on how to be a smart job applicant.

Patrick Chidsey from the Career Center gave me some great help, via e-mail, which I want to share with you.

I want to start with a fascinating point Chidsey made. He wrote, “It’s unfortunate that in a down-economy like this, employers who conduct on-campus interviews, often see their interviewing schedules unfilled, as for some odd reason, students ‘assume’ employers aren’t hiring, thus, students don’t apply for consideration.”

Well, there is something to consider. Just because the economy is down doesn’t mean companies don’t need fresh faces and ideas.  So if you show up to these interviews, you may be one of few, and that will definitely make you stand out!

Chidsey mentioned some of the obvious tips, like don’t be a passive applicant and expect employers to come running to you. Write a focused resume and cover letter.

For some much needed encouragement he wrote, “There are plenty of great…internship opportunities out there, students just need to be proactive and market themselves well in resumes, cover letters and via interviews.”

I have to agree with Chidsey in emphasizing how important networking is. If employers can connect a face to a resume, it personalizes you as an applicant. Internships are a fabulous way to gain work experience and network directly with people you may want to work for.

Go to careers.washington.edu for more help on where to look for jobs and how to be a good job applicant.

Finding a job…if possible!

Finding a job is like people’s dwindling 401k right now. The number of jobs is slipping through the cracks. According to the Labor Department, we have hit a 6.5 percent unemployment rate. Unemployment in Washington is also rising.

For all of us students living in the middle of this financial crisis, I wanted to find out what careers are the hardest to break into for graduating UW students.

I talked to Patrick Chidsey from the UW Career Center. His vote landed for careers in finance. According to Chidsey, students are running into a lot of competition to find jobs and internships in areas like “investment banking, securities, [and] entry level roles.”

Chidsey comments on how a lot of economics and business majors who want a job in finance are “now also expanding their searches beyond the big name firms and going after consulting jobs, and financial analyst positions with employers like Microsoft, T-Mobile, Boeing.”

In the middle of this financial crisis, being flexible seems key to landing a job. The landscape of our economy and the job market is changing (arguably for the worse) and people have to adapt to it in order to survive.

Looking at the larger picture, Chidsey says, “The global and national economic conditions are hurting many industries (financial services, auto industry, real estate, pharmaceuticals, etc.) and budgets (State of Washington, King County, City of Seattle), so some employers are reducing their workforces and many people are out of work.”

In King County alone, there is a $93.4 million budget gap that officials are trying to bridge and a projected $3.2 billion budget gap for the state of Washington over the next two-years.

A lot of these budget cuts are being remedied by cutting jobs and as recently mentioned in the news, slashing money for public health services.

However, Chidsey makes an important comment to keep in mind that “markets rebound and college hiring persists.”

It’s a rough time to find a job. This means students seeking employment will have to be that much more innovative, resourceful and focused.

Make sure to check out the UW Career Center:

careers.washington.edu

Also, take advantage of HuskyJobs, an online internship and job database. You can find this database through the UW Career Center website.

What the students say

This week, I went straight to my audience and asked two UW students their tricks on how to make ends meet.

 

They are good friends of mine who live off-campus and have found great ways to cut costs.

 

And the budget trick of the week is watching your food!

 

Vicky Yan, the Development Editor at The Daily says, “Learn to cook at home, as meals will be healthier and cheaper than eating out.”

 

Big chunks of money obviously go to tuition and rent, but Yan says she can plan ahead for these costs because they are fixed amounts. Food is a cost that is a little easier to cut back on; you just have to control yourself!

 

Caitlane Gangstad, a psychology major at the UW, gave a great list of tips for all sorts of ways to save a penny.

 

Here they are (I bolded the ones I particularly like):

• Eat at home.
• Get an easy part time job.
• Get furniture from friends.
• Shop (only) for foods on sale-you’d be surprised how much you can save by browsing rather than going with recipe in hand.
• Buy books online-you can usually save around 75 percent by buying old and international editions!
• Make sure your classes are actually going to use the books before you buy them.
• Return your Upass if you don’t need it.
• Online banking is AWESOME. I track all my purchases on it!
• Start early on house hunting!

Gangstad worked seven days week over the summer to pay this year’s rent, which is a great way to utilize some time off.

 

I hope these tips help and let me know if you have any to add.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Should I invest?

Everyone seems to be tucking their tail between their legs and booking it the other way from Wall Street.

Stock prices are plummeting as the Dow Jones goes on a heart-wrenching roller-coaster.

But if the stocks are down shouldn’t we take advantage of that?

My first instinct is to say “NO WAY” why would I get my self involved in this mess now.

But after e-mailing Lewis Mandell, a visiting UW professor of finance and business economics, my thoughts changed.

He says, “there is very good evidence to indicate that young people, who have at least 20 years to retirement, should be investing whenever they have money to put aside.”

Mandell frames his answer around the idea that investing for the future is always a good idea.

The first thing I picked up in his comment is young investors should have money put aside. This has to be difficult for students with our bills increasing every quarter. This might be why we don’t really see millionaire college students!

He continues to say, “Over periods of 30 or 40 years, a relatively small investment in stocks (or low-cost stock index fund) will make you pretty rich. This is due to compounding as well as the fact that over a long period of time, stocks have always outperformed anything else.”

Right now, people just have to wait it out until the market jumps back up to see their profits jump up as well. This wait is okay for students and younger folks, because we will be working for a while to come. But for people close to retirement, they don’t have the time to wait.

So, if you are young, and have the money and patience, invest now. I would say take advantage of these low prices and you will see the benefits; it just might take a while.

Where are the scholarships?

We all noticed the spike in tuition. So, does that mean we should also notice a spike in scholarships to help pay the difference?

            In the New York Times article, “In an Economic Downturn, College Puts a Strain on the Family Budget”, associate dean of financial assistance at Hanover College, Jon Riester, said they are trying to asses their own financial situation and see what ways they can help students make ends meet.

 Well, Hanover is conscience of this problem, so what is the University of Washington doing? I e-mailed Jodene Davis, an outreach and advising coordinator at the Mary Gates Endowment for Students. This is a program that offers undergraduate students research, honor, leadership and venture based scholarships. She said, “We are not planning to increase the number of merit scholarships offered and funded by the Mary Gates Endowment for Students.  I cannot speak for merit-or need-based scholarships offered by other programs or departments.” She also said, “We have increased our outreach TO students so it is difficult to know if they are responding to our outreach efforts or to the current global financial crisis.”  

This is not exactly what students want to hear. Unfortunately, it makes some sense.  Tuition is going up, the economy is spiraling downwards, and lending is frozen, so where would the extra money come from? Like it was mentioned in the New York Times article, this means that students will have to work even harder to make sure they get themselves through college. It’s just another thing to add to our laundry list of responsibilities.

      But, according to Davis, the Mary Gates Endowment is still accepting applications for scholarships so go ahead and take a look; see if you can find anything that may help!

 

http://www.washington.edu/uaa/mge/

 

Here is the full New York Times article as well.

 

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/17/business/17student.html?em

 

 

Student Loans

I had tuition on my mind, especially with the number $2318 staring at me every time I opened up MYUW.

The fear is that getting a loan during this financial crisis will be hard. Haideh Salehi-Esfahani, from the University of Washington’s Economics department, only reinforced this fear. She says, “It will surely be harder for students to get educational loans since the banks that are in trouble due to bad (mortgage) loans will not have the money to lend out to students.”

That’s never good news. The credit crunch is particularly worrisome because that hurts lending. Credit runs our economy and with lending severed, well, the DOW enjoys showing us everyday what those effects are.

Nick Perry from The Seattle Times gives a little more hope in his article “Graduates drowning in debt from high cost of college” when he says, “For now, at traditional four-year colleges, most students still are able to access large loans.”

 But, if you have any hope of something bad righting it self with the bailout plan you better let it go soon. This “economy saving” $700 billion bailout plan may actually benefit some student-loan companies, according to Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, says Perry. That sounds nice, but is deceiving, because one line later you read critics say those benefits may “reward companies that have profited from writing risky loans to students.”

            Right now as a consumer, I look at this situation as kind of a game to see who looses and then make friends with the few who make it out on top. In this case, one of those companies may be Wells Fargo. Wells Fargo doesn’t seem to be struggling in the student loans department during this time. In fact the number of student loans they are giving is increasing because so many other banking businesses are shutting down, according to a Student Loans Representative from Wells Fargo. Wells Fargo is a contender to buyout Wachovia, yet another bank that is going under. 

 

For more information, here is the link to the full article from The Seattle Times. It is a great article with some interesting anecdotes. Check it out:

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2008228780_loansmain05m1.html

 

Note: The Student Loans Representative wouldn’t give me her full name becuase of company policy, and being a student herself she didn’t know the impact of the bailout plan on student loans but could comment on the trends within the student loans department at the company.

 

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