Subaqua Sternal Rubs

Click on more below regarding some legislation that's about to be introduced into Congress and that would be a major help to med students everywhere. AMA-MSS/AMSA have worked directly with Dodd's office to draft this bill, and though it's focused towards grad students, it'll help us as well. Getting child care expenses included in financial aid is something we've all wanted for a while, and making scholarships more tax-exempt would be nice for the NHSC, military, and MD/PhD students out there.

Please make a call to the Capitol Switchboard (202-224-3121) and ask your Senators to support this bill!

GETTING RESULTS FOR ADVANCED DEGREES (GRAD)
Senator Christopher J. Dodd

Purpose
• To encourage students to pursue graduate education and to assist them in affording it.

Findings
• From 1976 to 2000, graduate enrollment increased 39%. In the fall of 2000, there were 1,850,000 graduate students enrolled in the United States.

• In 2001, 83% of graduate students were US citizens or resident aliens, and 17% were temporary residents (foreign or international students).

• In a 2002 borrower’s survey, the average debt reported by graduate students was $45,900.

• In 1999–2000, 60 % of all graduate and first-professional students and 82 % of those enrolled full time, full year received some type of financial aid, including grants, loans, assistantships or work study. The average amount of aid received by aided full-time, full-year students per year was about $19,500.

• Annual aid in the form of grants to full-time, full-year recipients was awarded to doctoral students in larger average amounts ($13,400) than to either master’s ($7,600) or first-professional ($6,900) students. First-professional students took out larger loans overall, on average ($20,100), than did their counterparts at the master’s ($14,800) and doctoral ($14,100) levels.

• Median annual earnings in 2000 increased with educational attainment. There was a substantial earnings differential from the highest to the lowest levels of attainment: the median earnings of workers who had a professional degree were more than 3½ times those of high school dropouts.

What GRAD Does

• Increases appropriations for the Graduate Assistance in Areas of National Need (GAANN) program to $50 million and the Jacob Javits Fellowship Program to $35 million.

• Eliminates Title IV needs analysis for Javits and GAANN.

• Clarifies the Javits and GAANN stipend link to National Science Foundation fellowships.

• Creates the Patsy T. Mink Fellowship Program to office assistance to underrepresented minorities pursuing a doctoral degree.

• Revises the needs analysis formula for students by increasing the current income promotion allowance for independents without dependents to $13,000 and independents with dependents other than a spouse to $18,000.

• Revises the cost of attendance calculation for students with dependents to reflect the true cost of living expenses for themselves and their dependents. The allowance is based on the number and age of such dependents and includes dependents’, care, room and board, and health insurance.

• Raises the unsubsidized Stafford loan limits for graduate and professional students to $12,500.

• Eliminates taxation of some student aid.

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