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BUSINESS Friday 3 May 2019
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Accepted! How to decipher your college aid

By ANNA HELHOSKI student can access, re-
Associated Press gardless of financial need.
With college acceptances They're different from sub-
in hand, now comes the sidized loans, which don't
hard part: understanding accrue interest while the
your financial aid offers. student is in school. Sub-
These letters are notorious sidized loans ease costs
for being laden with jargon for students, which is why
that differs from offer to of- they're given to those who
fer, making comparison demonstrate need.
difficult. But you can learn But among 455 college aid
how to interpret award let- award letters, there were
ters to understand the costs 136 different names used
and choose an affordable to describe the federal un-
option. subsidized loan, accord-
WHAT TO EXPECT FROM AID ing to a 2018 study by New
OFFERS America, a nonpartisan
Financial aid offers should think tank , and uAspire, a
include all of the federal, Boston-based college af-
state and school aid you fordability nonprofit .
can access. That could "How can we expect fami-
mean free aid, such as lies and students to navi-
grants, scholarships and In this March 14, 2019, file photo, people walk on the Stanford University campus in Santa Clara, gate this process if even
work-study opportunities, Calif. the aid that everyone qual-
that doesn't need to be re- Associated Press ifies for is called something
paid, and unsubsidized and different?" says Rachel Fish-
subsidized federal loans, And unlike typical student fees, housing and food. Schools use different names man, deputy director for
which do. If these aid types loans, only parents can The cost of attendance is to refer to the same type of research with the educa-
are grouped together with- take them on, and they re- usually an average, says loan. tion policy program at New
out explanation, they can quire credit history to qual- Brenda Hicks, director of fi- For instance, one college's America.
be hard to distinguish. ify. nancial aid at Southwestern aid offer might list a "Fed- There are two main ob-
Your offer also might in- Schools also must provide College in Winfield, Kansas. eral Unsub Stafford Loan," stacles for colleges in stan-
clude a parent PLUS loan the cost of attendance, Things like room and board and another school's might dardizing offers, according
as part of the award, but but that's not the amount could be pricier if you opt say "DL Unsubsidized Loan." to Fishman: There's no legal
avoid using it if possible. you owe. It bundles indirect for a more expensive pack- But they're the same thing. standard for language in
These loans have higher costs like books, supplies age, like a single room. Unsubsidized federal stu- award letters, and schools
interest rates than loans and transportation, with WHY OFFERS ARE DIFFICULT dent loans are the only use different software to
made directly to students. direct costs such as tuition, FOR STUDENTS TO READ type of federal loan every manage aid.q

US productivity grows at solid 3.6% rate in first quarter

By MARTIN CRUTSINGER of achieving sustained eco- the slowdown in productiv- and growth in productivity. tained GDP gains of 3% or
Associated Press nomic growth above 3%. ity since the Great Reces- The overall economy, as better over the next de-
WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. Productivity, the amount sion as one of the country's measured by the gross do- cade, well above the 2.2%
productivity grew at a solid of output per hour of work, biggest challenges. How- mestic product, expanded average GDP gains seen
3.6% rate in the first three is a key factor determining ever, recent signs have in- at a surprisingly robust 3.2% since the current expansion
months of this year, the an economy's growth po- dicated that may be turn- annual rate in the first three began in June 2009.q
strongest quarterly gain in tential.
more than four years and With the strong gain in the
a hopeful sign that a long first quarter, productiv-
stretch of weak productiv- ity over the past year has
ity gains may be coming to grown by 2.4%, the best
an end. four-quarter gain since a
The first quarter increase 2.7% rise in 2010.
in productivity was more Productivity gains over the
than double the 1.3% rate past decade have for the
of gain in the fourth quar- most part been lackluster,
ter, the Labor Department averaging annual gains of
reported Thursday. Labor just 1.3% from 2007 through
costs actually fell in the first 2018. That was less than
quarter, dropping at an an- half the 2.7% gains seen
nual rate of 0.9%, indicat- from 2000 to 2007, a period
ing that tight labor markets when the economy was In this Jan. 28, 2019, file photo a container ship is unloaded at
the Port of Oakland in Oakland, Calif.
are not creating unwanted benefiting from technology Associated Press
wage and inflation pres- improvements in comput-
sures. ers and the internet.
If it continues, an uptick From 1947 through 2018, ing around. The economy's months of this year. For all
in productivity would be annual productivity gains potential to grow is gov- of 2018, GDP growth was
good news for President averaged 2.1%. erned by two major factors, 2.9%. The Trump adminis-
Donald Trump and his goal Economists have labeled growth of the labor force tration has projected sus-