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3. About What We Do
The Blog is Dead. Long Live the Blog.
This blog is officially closed and will now only exist as an archive of past posts. Please visit the new blog at  http://daniel.mitblogs.com. Read More

posted Thursday, June 30, 2005 7:22 PM by barkowitz (Comments Off)

Self Help Redux and an Update
Hey all! Sorry for the long delay in posting but life has been crazy for me...  Since we last spoke: I've traveled to Philadelphia for a 568 group meeting. We've started discussing proposed changes and refinements to the methodology we use to determine Read More

posted Wednesday, June 22, 2005 10:32 AM by barkowitz (Comments Off)

Waive and Cosign (or is it Wave and Cosine)?
Hey all!  Several items of update. First off, I am back in Cambridge, having arrived during an eventful Wednesday evening thunderstorm.  It was great to be in Aspen, but it is even greater to be home.  The presentation in Aspen was a great success, Read More

posted Friday, June 10, 2005 12:07 PM by barkowitz (Comments Off)

Rising Sophomores, Juniors and Seniors -- Your Award Letters are in the Mail
Well as one year ends, another begins... Today we are sending out nearly 1200 upperclass student award letters.  This is the first round of award letters for upperclass domestic students for 2005-2006 (we started sending international upperclass student Read More

posted Friday, June 03, 2005 4:27 PM by barkowitz (Comments Off)

Update on the Federal Budget process for Financial Aid
Here is an update to where things stand on the Federal Budget end.  This also updates you all as to the status of the Perkins Loan action which I know many of you participated in previously (and I thank you for your help there). This note comes to you Read More

posted Thursday, May 26, 2005 1:02 PM by barkowitz (Comments Off)

Another call to action... Be a STAR supporter!
As you undoubtedly know, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology is a Direct Lending institution, allowing you to borrow your student loans directly from the federal government, without the complicated involvement of banks and other lenders.  Congress Read More

posted Thursday, May 26, 2005 12:40 PM by barkowitz (Comments Off)

Reading anything good these days?
Hey all. Just a brief update since I am in the middle of reading.  But reading is actually what this post is about. What are we up to in the Financial Aid area?  Reading. Reading.  And more reading.  All of us are reading upperclass student application Read More

posted Monday, May 23, 2005 11:58 AM by barkowitz (Comments Off)

Whose education is it anyway?
Several updates before I begin the main thread of today's post. First:  Today I created two mailing lists.  The first is moneyman (or moneyman(at)mit(dot)edu) and the second is barkowitz (or barkowitz(at)mit(dot)edu).  Don't know why it took me so long Read More

posted Friday, May 13, 2005 3:04 PM by barkowitz (Comments Off)

And sometimes the changes you make can have great meaning...
I just finished dinner with the kids, and am getting ready to watch the last regular episode of Survivor, but before I do, I thought I needed to post a little more on the subject of corrections. This is me on my soapbox, so if you don't want the preaching, Read More

posted Thursday, May 12, 2005 8:14 PM by barkowitz (Comments Off)

Sometimes change is meaningless...
If you are an incoming Freshman student, this message is for you! No grandiose ideas in the title.  I know that change is meaningful and that you will be undertaking major changes soon as you close the book on your high school life and prepare to enter Read More

posted Thursday, May 12, 2005 11:38 AM by barkowitz (Comments Off)

TOOOOOOOOOO much information...
Today, I set up my facebook profile.  I hope to have many friends (and eventually to upload a picture).  There were some questions on the set up of my profile I simply didn't feel like sharing the answers to, though.  Hmmm... wonder if there ever comes Read More

posted Thursday, May 05, 2005 7:11 PM by barkowitz (Comments Off)

The Right Hand DOES know what the Left Hand is Doing...
A couple of other items of interest: For International Freshmen, we are providing copies of your finalized award letters to the ISO directly so that we can produce your I-20.  We are working closely together with the staff of the ISO to make sure this Read More

posted Wednesday, May 04, 2005 11:16 AM by barkowitz (Comments Off)

Update on what we're up to...
It's May 3rd and hopefully all of you who are planning on attending (new Freshmen, that is) have sent your reply form in.  As my friends in Admissions close out their books on the class of 2009, we over here in Student Financial Services are still going Read More

posted Tuesday, May 03, 2005 2:20 PM by barkowitz (Comments Off)

Clearing the Decks (or the Desk) -- The Return of the Return of More Questions Answered.
Sorry all, between dealing with emails (over 200 a day), phone calls (don't even ask), questions from my staff, and just trying to spend a little time with my family, the last two weeks have been INSANE!!!  So, I haven't been blogging... Bad me! But, Read More

posted Friday, April 22, 2005 9:01 PM by barkowitz (Comments Off)

Presenting my CPW Presentation
Hi there. Probably many of you regular blog readers are on your way here to MIT by now, either winging your way in the friendly skies, catching the Greyhound, or riding the rails.  For those of you who want a head start on CPW (or for the many of you Read More

posted Tuesday, April 05, 2005 2:04 PM by barkowitz (Comments Off)

When it feels like another logic puzzle... How to afford your EFC?
Hi all. First off, let me say that I am really enjoying the feedback on the previous post.  My one logic puzzle has turned into a thread of logic puzzles with a really hard one which Michael posted (Jane and her dad just answered it -- I think), and Read More

posted Thursday, March 31, 2005 9:17 PM by barkowitz (Comments Off)

More News IS Good News... And a Logic Problem to boot... (updated 03/30/05 - 5:00 PM)
First the news: Autumn was down over the weekend. It appears to be back up now! We mailed 100 awards today, bringing us to files that completed as of last Friday.  We still have many of you we would like to award.  GET YOUR FORMS IN!!! We will Read More

posted Tuesday, March 29, 2005 5:09 PM by barkowitz (Comments Off)

Satisfying Your Self Help Supplications (you try finding an "S" word that means questions).
So sorry for the sibilant subject line, but down to business. Many of you have had questions about how to satisfy your self help.  I invite your questions here as comments to this post, and would also urge current students reading this post to offer Read More

posted Monday, March 28, 2005 11:09 AM by barkowitz (Comments Off)

When Your Dream Still Seems Out of Reach
OK, so your financial aid award has arrived (by the way, we sent 60 more decisions today), and you are somewhat (or extremely) disappointed with the result.   What do you do? Well, first, breathe... Take a deep breath in, and exhale.  Then, take a look Read More

posted Thursday, March 24, 2005 4:18 PM by barkowitz (Comments Off)

More awards in the mail. More to come on Thursday.
Sorry I have been an absent partner... We have been VERY busy trying to keep up with the submission of new documents for people who have not yet received their financial aid award. So, some quick news: We are now mailing financial aid award letters Read More

posted Wednesday, March 23, 2005 5:28 PM by barkowitz (Comments Off)

How We Determined Your Award
In order to answer some of the questions that I am sure will be coming, I thought I would describe the process by which we award students (or put together financial aid packages for students).  Much of this information is printed in the guidebook to the Read More

posted Saturday, March 19, 2005 12:24 PM by barkowitz (Comments Off)

My quote for inspiration.
This sign sits on my desk to remind me that I always have something toward which to aspire.  Hopefully we've done our job well. It reads “To give away money is an easy matter...and in any man's [sic] power.  But to decide to whom to give it, and how Read More

posted Friday, March 18, 2005 11:45 PM by barkowitz (Comments Off)

The Letters are Coming, the Letters are Coming
I guess in honor of Paul Revere (and by extension, in honor of Evacuation Day), I was put in mind of his hallmark expression during his midnight ride. My usage in this blog post's title, though, refers to a much more mundane topic:  WE MAIL TOMORROW! Read More

posted Thursday, March 17, 2005 10:53 PM by barkowitz (Comments Off)

Decisions Mailed, Tuition Announced, The Return of More Questions Answered, and Opening and Closing Doors
So, it has been incredibly busy in my office.  As you now know, decisions will be mailed by the Admissions office on March 11.  We hope to have financial aid decisions in those envelopes for those of you (EAs, RDs, Internationals) who have provided us Read More

posted Tuesday, March 08, 2005 12:26 PM by barkowitz (Comments Off)

Verification Rap
All of you who apply for aid will go through a process called verification.  In this process, we confirm the information you provided to us against all of the other information we have from you (your tax returns, your W-2 forms, your 1099 forms, etc., Read More

posted Thursday, March 03, 2005 9:23 PM by barkowitz (Comments Off)

We're not Big Brother (we're more like a friendly cousin).
Jason Hernandez recently posted on one of my previous blog entries that: “I recently called into the MIT Financial Aid office about the status of my aid application because the documents I submitted were not acknowledged online or in the letters from Read More

posted Friday, February 25, 2005 9:40 AM by barkowitz (Comments Off)

Mitra's Blog and an interesting question
In her blog, Mitra addressed a question from Changelingpiper about the dilemma in whether to choose a full ride offer from another school over acceptance to MIT.  Changelingpiper asked Mitra to share her perspective, and Mitra in fact went farther and Read More

posted Thursday, February 24, 2005 1:29 AM by barkowitz (Comments Off)

Who Are You? (who who who who) I really want to know. Who Are You?
So, it does occur to me that you haven't met some of the other folks who work in the financial aid area at MIT and maybe it is time for a formal introduction.  So, here we go! The following photo pictures those staff who have assigned alphabetical caseloads Read More

posted Wednesday, February 23, 2005 12:49 PM by barkowitz (Comments Off)

Reading, Reading and more Reading
While my colleagues in the Admissions office continue their Selection process, we in the Financial Aid area have begun our annual reading process.  We technically started reading applications on Friday the 11th, but since I have been so busy updating Read More

posted Tuesday, February 22, 2005 2:31 PM by barkowitz (Comments Off)

Early Admits? There's a letter in the mail to you... And some more of your questions answered.
Hi all.  Some of you may be hitting this blog for the first time due to a caption on a letter that just got sent to you.  On Friday we dropped in the email and regular mail our first communication to early admits, informing you what forms we have received Read More

posted Saturday, January 29, 2005 7:05 PM by barkowitz (Comments Off)

"While visions of algorithms dance in their heads..."
So, many people have been asking me how I am going to be spending my time off during winter break.  My answer, what time off?  Other than the two Friday holidays, my plan is to be here throughout.  In fact, this is one of our busiest times of the year, Read More

posted Tuesday, December 21, 2004 12:02 PM by barkowitz (Comments Off)

Answering some questions... Commenting on comments... Questioning some answers...
So a bit of long overdue answers to your questions. Chetan's question was the following:  “I recently came across a scholarship offered at nsa.gov where, if accepted, nsa would cover my full tuition in exchange for working over the summer and for 1.5*# Read More

posted Friday, December 10, 2004 4:32 PM by barkowitz (Comments Off)

Data, more Data, and even more Brent Spiner
So, I just finished watching a commercial for the next episode of Star Trek: Enterprise.  Yes, I’ll admit I am a “Trekkie” (or is that a “Techie”) and that I love and fully relish in the Science Fiction possibilities encompassed by the Star Trek saga. Read More

posted Wednesday, October 27, 2004 3:26 PM by barkowitz (Comments Off)

Can you really go to college for free?
Can anyone go to college for free?  Is such a thing even possible?  We’ve all heard the story of students who have gotten a “free ride” at X, Y or Z college or university, but is that really the case?  Can you get a free ride anywhere?  Are there free Read More

posted Tuesday, October 26, 2004 7:19 PM by barkowitz (Comments Off)