Posts Tagged ‘College Note Sharing’

And the good news keeps rolling in…

Thursday, September 10th, 2009

Thanks to Wall Street Journal for informing telling us what everyone on sharenotes.com already knows… College students are borrowing more and more these days. The study is pretty numbers driven, but I’ll bottom line it for you; when we graduate, we’re going to owe a lot. It’s just about that simple.

About 10 years ago students average debt was about 13K, its now about 23K and the economy is a whole lot worse than it was back then. So we have a lot less jobs to look forward to and a more debt to burden us. One of the biggest findings of the study was that because of all this, students are having to re-think how and what they can afford in their lives post graduation. Buying a home, that new car or just plain being able to afford Top Ramen is all very much in question. Especially when you consider that it’s very likely it could take 10 years or more to pay off the debts we rack up while in school.

I know, I know, this isn’t anything that we don’t already know. We’re in the thick of it. I know I’m not the only one on sharenotes.com that’s got literally thousands racked up in debt. At the very least we are able to deffer payments while in school and with any luck, the economy will right itself in time for many of us to get that killer job once we’re done. Let’s hope so.

Have thoughts on the topic? Please leave your comments below and join the discussion with your fellow students!

Fraud Bulletin: Please Read.

Sunday, August 30th, 2009

I’m hoping that all the users of sharenotes.com read this bulletin because although most of you are not involved in defrauding the site, unfortunately it will eventually effect us all

Its recently come to the attention of the site’s administrators that some people have been fraudulently acquiring points. The specific manner that this is occurring is not the point of this post but rather, the fact that it is happening at all.

This site was initially set up to be a benefit to every student who participates, both in the sense that it allows us (myself included) a means to bolster our own study materials as well as a forum share our own. The benefits of having access to our contemporaries lecture notes has been covered ad nauseum on this blog. Suffice it to say from the feedback we receive daily, this site is an important utility to a great many students out there.

As a means of saying thanks for your participation sharenotes.com has added incentives with it’s points structure, which includes the Ipod giveaways that many of you have enjoyed. Sadly these kinds of special perks may have to go away shortly if the fraud is not mitigated.

The bad news doesn’t stop there the negative effects of fraudulent accounts can and will effect this site to the point where it may no longer exist. If you’re on here and you’re reading this, there’s a good chance you don’t want that to happen any more than I do.

So put plainly, fraud is happening, we know about it and were working on it. Some things might change around here and that is unfortunate. If you don’t want this site to go away and perhaps you have any information regarding the fraud itself, you can contact and give us a heads up. We’ll keep any info we get anonymous. sharenotes.com has been very generous with our giveaways and we would certainly thank anyone who is willing to share info with us.

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Swine Flu Buddies.

Thursday, August 27th, 2009

Apparently this Swine Flu thing is not going anywhere so everyone on sharenotes.com had better get prepped for an onslaught of advice from your schools administration. In fact, many colleges are gearing up for cases to increase on campus as students return to school and Fall / Winter draws near.

The government is urging not only schools but students themselves to prepare for possible outbreaks. This means that students are encourages to stay away from other in the event that they should feel ill by using “flu buddies”. Yes that’s the term they used. This means that should you fall ill you should sequester yourself in your room (by yourself preferably) and have your “buddy” run your notes and correspondence to and from your professors / classes.

The hope of all this is just that if anyone should happen to get ill, hopefully it won’t spread further. Knowing how colleges work it doesn’t take much to convince some students to stay home from class. But will all the precautions work? That remains to be seen.

As a personal aside, I have a friend who ended up contracting the Swine Flu presumably from the San Diego Comic-con (which I blogged about previously). Aside from staying in his room for about a week and symptoms that mimic a mild flu, he was just fine.

The lessons? Well you’re going to be hearing a lot about swine flu at school this semester. I would say it’s a good idea to follow your schools measures and if you get sick, get checked out and keep yourself out of public while you’re contageous. Yes use a Swine Flu Buddy… maybe just don’t call it that? Anyone on sharenotes.com have some other Swine Flu related comments? Please feel free to leave them!

3 tips to getting more Aid

Tuesday, August 18th, 2009

I was reading an article recently that was focusing on improving your ability to get more / better financial aid. I thought that other people on sharenotes.com would find some of this information useful so I’m going to paraphrase some of the information I learned.

the First tip has to do with the family contributions that can reduce the amount of aid a student can receive. Basically aid packages are reduced based upon how much money the school (or gov) believe that the family can contribute to the education. If you are mindful of this fact (especially going into the freshmen college year) you can maximize aid. Delaying a bonus until after the new year for instance can reduce the amount of income on the books.

The Second tip was an eye opener for me. We always assume that you can get to school cheaper by going to a state school, when in fact most Ivy league schools and top privates have pledged to meet a great deal if not all aid needs with grants. Private schools can in many cases be far more generous with their aid packages then a state run school can. the caveat of course can be difficulty of entry, however given the generosity of aid, the effort to get in, just may be worth it.

The Third is simple and cut and dry. Apply early. Aid is doled out first come first served. Period. And when the allotted funds run dry, they are out. So Apply early and apply accurately. Pretty simple.

These small tips may not make or break your budget but certainly taking a little advice to help get you the most money cannot hurt. I can speak for most of us on sharenotes.com and say that if it were not for aid, I would not be in school.

Some Good News For Financial Aid

Tuesday, August 18th, 2009

Well, the news is not all bad these days. At least for some students. I’m sure I’m not the only one on sharenotes.com that has taken out student loans. I think most of us have. But with the recession in full swing, one bright spot is that educational facilities / Federal gov have pledged to offer up more money in their aid packages much of it in the form of Grants.

Grants as most of us know do NOT have to be repayed. That’s a beautiful thing. Remember schools are also businesses and if a business doesn’t have any clients (us) then they can run the risk of going out of business. The choice is to kick up the aid, particularly the grants, or to have fewer students in attendance.

In the 07-08 school the average student received nearly 9,000 in aid from federal programs, roughly half of which was in the form of grants.

Will this infusion of money be enough to keep educations a top priority in the lives of young Americans? That remains to be seen, but I know I’m not the only one of sharenotes.com that could use a few more grants and a few less loans! Have a comment? Please feel free to leave your thoughts and add your voice to the discussion.




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