General – FITree Learning

JOIN US: 2nd Annual Easter Family Picnic and Egg Hunt

FITree Learning — Mon, 25 Mar 2024 18:52:44 +0000

Join us on Saturday, March 30, 2024 for the 2nd Annual Easter Family Picnic and Egg Hunt, sponsored by FITREE LEARNING! This will be a day of celebration and fun in the true spirit of Easter! Activities include a GIGANTIC Easter Egg Hunt adventure, family picnic and food, fun games, and more! Come to the Syosset-Woodbury Community Park this Saturday, March 30, 12pm-5pm, for a day of fun and celebration for the whole family – all FREE!

Rice University President inaugurated on Oct. 22, 2022

FITree Learning — Fri, 04 Nov 2022 17:53:20 +0000

FITree Learning CEO Jeffrey Chen was pleased to celebrate, alongside members of the international academic community, the inauguration of Rice University’s eighth president, Reginald DesRoches.

It was a thrilling October day for both Rice University as a whole and for DesRoches himself, the Haiti-born and Queens, New York-raised civil engineer who previously served as chair of the School of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the Georgia Institute of Technology before being named Rice’s William and Stephanie Sick Dean of Engineering and, later, university provost.

President DesRoches’ speech at his investiture laid out the following top priorities for Rice University:

Reach a new level of distinction nationally and internationally for impactful research, award-winning scholarship and insightful creative work.
Build graduate programs that are of the same distinction as Rice’s top rated undergraduate programs.
Maintaining Rice’s commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion.

Rice University Ranking Highlights (2022-2023)

#15 of Best U.S. Universities (U.S. News)

Insight: Rice moved up from No. 17 in last year’s U.S. News rankings. Rice has routinely rated among the nation’s top 20 universities since first appearing on the list in 1988. Rice has highly respected schools of Architecture, Business, Engineering, Humanities, Music, Natural Sciences and Social Sciences and is home to the Baker Institute for Public Policy.

#6 of Best Value Schools (U.S. News)

Insight: Rice (#6) ranks right behind Harvard (#1), Princeton (#2), Yale (#3), Stanford (#4) and MIT (#5). The ranking takes into account a school’s academic quality and the net cost of attendance. The higher the quality of the college and the lower the cost, the better the overall value.

#3 of Best Undergraduate Teaching (U.S. News)

Insight: Rice is known within college circles for its commitment to teaching undergraduate students in a high-quality manner. With 4,240 undergraduates, Rice’s undergraduate student-to-faculty ratio is just under 6-to-1. Not surprisingly, U.S. college presidents, provosts and admissions deans who participated in the 2022 U.S. News peer assessment survey ranked Rice (#3) for Best Undergraduate Teaching, right behind Brown and Princeton.

Niche’s ratings recently ranked Rice #6 in the nation overall and #1 for students majoring in several subjects, including architecture. Rice also ranked #7 in the nation for best value and is #9 on the list of colleges with the best professors and #10 on the list of best campuses.

Rice is ranked #1 for lots of race/class interaction and #1 for quality of life by the Princeton Review.

Rice is also rated as a best value among private universities by Kiplinger’s Personal Finance.

Federal Student Debt Relief Online Application is Now LIVE

FITree Learning — Wed, 19 Oct 2022 18:12:07 +0000

Borrowers are encouraged to submit before mid-November 2022 before payments resume in January 2023. The application is a short online form and applicants don’t need to log in or provide any documents.

How Much Debt Relief You Can Get

Up to $20,000 in debt relief if you received a Federal Pell Grant in college and meet the income requirements
Up to $10,000 in debt relief if you didn’t receive a Federal Pell Grant in college and meet the income requirements

The debt relief applies only to loan balances you had before June 30, 2022. Any new loans disbursed on or after July 1, 2022, aren’t eligible for debt relief.

Debt Relief | Application | Federal Student Aid

What to expect after filing your application

Step 1: The U.S. Dept. of Education will review the application, determine eligibility for debt relief, and work with the assigned loan servicer to process student debt relief.

Insight: Unless you hear back from the U.S. Department of Education or your loan servicer, you don’t have to take any other action.

Step 2: The U.S. Dept. of Education will contact applicants if additional information is needed.

Insight: Additional documentation may be needed for the following:

· Income verification.

· If applicant was enrolled as a “dependent student” anytime between July 1, 2021 and June 30, 2022, information may be needed about parents’ income.

· Supporting documentation to match applicant information to loan records.

Step 3: The U.S. Dept. of Education will notify when an application has been approved and sent to assigned loan servicer to process debt relief.

Insight: Stay on top of communication from your loan servicer for additional important information, such as updates to outstanding loan balance and updated monthly payment amount.

Step 4: Beware of scams!

Insight: You might be contacted by a scam company saying they will help you get loan discharge, forgiveness, cancellation, or debt relief for a fee. You never have to pay for help with your federal student aid. Make sure you work only with the U.S. Department of Education and official loan servicers, and never reveal your personal information or account password to anyone.

Update on the Biden-Harris Administration’s Student Debt Relief Plan

FITree Learning — Fri, 07 Oct 2022 14:06:17 +0000

This article contains latest information about the Biden Administration’s plan to provide student debt relief to eligible borrowers. Find out important information about who’s eligible.

On Aug. 24, 2022, the Biden Administration announced a Student Debt Relief Plan that includes one-time student loan debt relief targeted to low- and middle-income families.

The U.S. Department of Education will provide up to $20,000 in debt relief to Federal Pell Grant recipients and up to $10,000 in debt relief to non-Pell Grant recipients. Borrowers with loans held by the U.S. Department of Education are eligible for this relief if their individual income is less than $125,000 (or $250,000 for households).

While the Student Debt Relief application has not been posted at the time of the writing of this update, we expect more details to be released over the coming days about the application process, which is expected to run from October 2022 through December 2023.

Who’s eligible

You are eligible if you have most federal loans (including Direct Loans and other loans held by the U.S. Department of Education) and your income for 2020 or 2021 is either:

Less than $125,000 for individuals
Less than $250,000 for households

If you are a dependent student, your eligibility is based on your parental income.

What you might be eligible for

Up to $20,000 in debt relief if you received a Pell Grant in college
Up to $10,000 in debt relief if you didn’t receive a Pell Grant

Insight #1: Your relief is capped at the amount of your outstanding debt. For example, if you are eligible for $20,000 in debt relief, but have a balance of $15,000 remaining, you will only receive $15,000 in relief.

How it’ll work

Sometimes in October, for borrowers whose income data it doesn’t have, the U.S. Department of Education will launch a short online application for student debt relief. You won’t need to upload any supporting documents or use your FSA ID to submit your application.

Insight #2: Nearly 8 million borrowers may be eligible to receive relief without applying—unless they choose to opt out—because relevant income data is already available to the U.S. Department of Education.

Once submitted, your application will be reviewed to determine your eligibility for debt relief by your loan servicer(s) to process your relief.

Insight #3: Borrowers are advised to apply by mid-November in order to receive relief before the payment pause expires on December 31, 2022. Most borrowers who apply can expect relief within six weeks.

Important Changes to the Student Loan System

The Student Debt Relief Plan also includes several rule changes to create a new income-driven repayment plan that is aimed at substantially reducing future monthly payments for eligible borrowers.

The changes would:

Require borrowers to pay no more than 5% of their discretionary income monthly on undergraduate loans.

Insight #4: This is down from the 10% available under the most recent income-driven repayment plan.

Raise the amount of income that is considered non-discretionary income and therefore is protected from repayment.

Insight #5: This rule change guarantees that no borrower earning under 225% of the federal poverty level—about the annual equivalent of a $15 minimum wage for a single borrower—will have to make a monthly payment.

Forgive loan balances after 10 years of payments.

Insight #6: This is lowered from the previous 20 years, but applies only for borrowers with loan balances of $12,000 or less.

Cover the borrower’s unpaid monthly interest.

Insight #7: This is a significant change because, unlike other existing income-driven repayment plans, no borrower’s loan balance will grow as long as they make their monthly payments—even when that monthly payment is $0 because their income is low.

Insight Into College Admissions : MIT

FITree Learning — Mon, 12 Sep 2022 18:40:13 +0000

MIT has placed 2nd among the best US colleges and universities, announced on Sept. 12 by U.S. News and World Report. What can we learn?

Let’s review select acceptance statistics from MIT‘s Class of 2026 and apply insights to what they mean for current and future college applicants.

MIT Acceptance Rates (by Category of Applicants), Class of 2026

Applicant Category	Total Applicants	Total Admits	Percentage Admitted

Early Action	14,781	697	4.7%
Regular Action	18,986	464	2.4%
Deferred Applicants	(incl. under Early Action)	176	1.9%
Waitlisted Applicants	(incl. under Regular Action)	0	0%
Total	33,767	1,337	4%

Source: MIT Admissions

Insight #1: A little over half (52%) of MIT’s Class of 2026 were admitted under Early Action decision.

What this means: MIT fills each year’s Class early and fast. To catch this wave at its highest point, apply under EA to MIT and put your best foot forward early on, ahead of the November 1 EA deadline.

Insight #2: Regular Action acceptance rate for MIT’s Class of 2026 was only 2.2%, compared with 4.7% for Early Action.

What this means: If MIT is one of your dream schools, apply under Early Action by. Nov. 1 (which still allows the flexibility to apply to another dream school under Early Decision), and take advantage of an acceptance rate that is more than double that of Regular Action.

Insight #3: MIT announced that it will reinstate SAT/ACT requirement for future admission cycles.

What this means: this announcement will weed out many students, thereby enhancing the admission prospects of applicants who can stay the course. At MIT, a high standardized test score keeps an applicant in the running – but it wouldn’t be the final determinant. A memorable personal statement, combined with well-crafted supplemental essays, weigh at a factor of 25% or higher in the admission process at a school like MIT. Knowledgeable and well-coached students are able to stand out by aligning with key admission priorities, thus greatly enhancing their prospects of beating the giant that is MIT’s acceptance rate.

Contact FITree Learning to find out how our College Admissions experts can help.