Last month, we signed a “private label” service agreement where People Capital will provide our technology platform to ATM to originate and service the private student loans transacted through their services. Through this relationship, we will provide our loan origination technology to ATM, who will use it to offer new private loan options to credit unions and community banks with a focus on college students. Together, this partnership brings together both the students AND the committed funding partners.  People Capital will focus on the technology and operations while ATM will leverage their business development and relationship skills. The platform will go live very shortly.

ATM will also leverage our proprietary Human Capital Score™, an alternative credit risk metric for students and young adults developed and launched in 2009 by People Capital. Built on rigorous academic research by leading labor economists, the Human Capital Score helps lenders assess student loan risk by using academic merit data such as GPA, standardized test scores, college and major, along with traditional demographics data and metrics, to provide insight into their future earnings potential and ability to repay a loan.

I am excited that we have been able to develop a technology solution that can be fitted for a variety of private label needs. This agreement will enable ATM to offer a full suite of loan origination options to financial institutions, while allowing us to explore new private label options in other market sectors.

We have a lot of work ahead of us in developing and growing this channel but I am confident that our relationship with ATM will allow us both to address the funding needs of a whole generation of students.

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Learn more about our private label solutions

Tom Shelton, CEO & Founder, People Capital

Read the full interview: People Capital Launches Peer Lending Platform for Qualified Education Loans

Straighterline provides students with a new option for required college courses built on the expertise of seasoned, respected and proven educators and partners. Josef shared some suggestions about dealing with the rising costs of college education:

Freshman Year for $1000 or Less?

With annual college costs soaring past $50,000, you probably think it’s impossible to pay for your first year of college for $1,000 or less.

But if you think it’s impossible, think again. More students are slashing their college costs dramatically by applying some or all of these strategies:

• Strategy one: Get college credit for life experiences. Speak with admissions representatives of colleges you are considering to see whether you can get college credit for experiences you have had in professional life.

• Strategy two: Turn your specialized knowledge into credit hours. Did you grow up speaking a second language? Did you excel in an advanced placement test in high school – but one that never granted you college-level credits? The solution can be to take a standardized test that’s administered by Educational Testing Service (the same company that offers the SAT, GMAT and other standardized tests). Called the CLEP (College Credit for Life Experience) Test, this exam is offered in more than 30 subject areas that include languages, history, mathematics and science. The cost is currently $72 per test. (A whole lot less than the cost of most college courses.) So be sure to ask the colleges where you are applying if you can utilize the CLEP to earn credits.

• Strategy three: Don’t overlook Veterans benefits. If you are a vet or a current member of the military, be sure to investigate the sources of funding available to you. The Post-911 GI Bill is designed to help pay educational costs – even the cost of housing and textbooks  – for soldiers, veterans, and reservists. To learn more, visit The Department of Veterans Affairs GI Bill Website or call 1-888-GIBILL-1 (1-888-442-4551).

• Strategy four: Take reasonably priced courses online to front-load your college process. Straighterline.com, one provider of online college courses that are transferable for college credit, allows you to fulfill your required curricular courses for a very attractive price indeed – as little as $39 per course in one of their plans. To learn more, visit Straighterline online.

And one more strategy . . .

Buy and read the book Free $ for College for Dummies. It offers great suggestions on funding sources that many people overlook. One example? Get your employer to help pay your college costs. It used to happen more often than it does today. But if you will be learning skills that can apply on your job, why not ask?

Related:
College for $99 a Month

Online College Algebra Course

English Composition Online Course

Macroeconomics Online Course

Online Accounting Course

This tax credit expands and renames the Hope Credit, which helps parents and students pay for post-secondary education, and can be claimed for qualified tuition and related expenses that was paid for higher education in 2009 and 2010.

The tax credit is equal to 100 percent of the first $2000.00 and 25 percent of the next $2000.00 spent per student each year. That means any eligible taxpayer who paid at least $4000.00 in qualifying expenses for an eligible student can receive the full $2500.00 credit.

Forty percent of the credit is refundable, which means even those taxpayers who owe no taxes can get up to $1,000.00 of the credit as cash back for each eligible student.

For those who earn less than $80,000.00 annually or $160,000.00 for married couples filing a joint return, the full credit is available. Those earning more than the cap will be eligible for a reduced tax credit. For more information, visit the official IRS website at www.irs.gov/recovery .

Of course, we recommend that you consult with your tax advisor for additional information and guidance regarding the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009.

As millions of students labor over college applications this month, they and their parents are pondering just how big a tuition bill they want to pay.

For parents who want to refine the cost-to-income analysis, a new tool is available that predicts how much money a student is likely to make after graduating. The online calculator, HumanCapitalScore.com, will generate a 10-year range of students’ likely postgraduation income based on their test scores, high school and college attended, grades and major.

Developed by People Capital, New York, a peer-lending concern, as a tool to predict students’ creditworthiness, the calculator can also be used to compare the likely outcome of various possible choices of colleges and majors. It makes projections based on data sets from more than a half-dozen government and private-sector sources, encompassing hundreds of thousands of actual grads. Prices start at $19.95 to compare two scenarios.

I tested the calculator by entering information on six actual college graduates who voluntarily shared their data, and comparing the HumanCapitalScore.com projections to the grads’ actual earnings. The grads’ pay fell within the range projected by the calculator in five of six cases. The exception was a young entrepreneur who chalked up a mediocre record at a little-known college but blossomed later, when working for himself. The projections are based on what “an individual with certain attributes can reasonably expect to earn,” says Alan Samuels, People Capital’s chief product officer. “Clearly, some will do better than expected, while others will do worse;” the projections are likely to be accurate about 80% of the time, he says.

HumanCapitalScore.com’s projections can also help a student figure out how much money to borrow for college. Many experts say total student loans shouldn’t exceed a grad’s first-year income after graduation.

Full article

We invite you to use the link below to register on the site and start the process to obtain a private student loan for your education. During the beta launch period we will be waiving the registration fee for the first 50 registrants.

Register now!

• Public colleges will continue to be hurt by the recession.
• University of California schools raise fees.
• A financial aid expert answers questions about college costs.
• Colleges look to increase out of state enrollment to ensure a greater portion of the student body will be paying maximum tuition.
• A closer look at student loans and interest rates.
• The many benefits of a college education.

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(Read the article: How large are returns to schooling? Hint: Money isn’t everything.)

… That’s $26,000 for a single year at a University of California campus, not the four usually needed to graduate. The UC Board of Regents voted today to increase basic education fees for undergraduates by 32% to more than $10,000 for the 20010-11 academic year. Throw in the roughly $16,000 per year required for room, board and books, and the UC system fees approach $30,000 per year — and feel a lot like the cost of an Ivy League education with few of the perks. (None of this is to say, mind you, that the regents won’t be forced to raise fees again in 2010, with the state facing a massive budget deficit of $21 billion over the next year and a half.)

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