2014-2015 Student Verification Form - Student Financial Aid: Fill & Download for Free

Q. How much is the 3 year tuition at Stanford Law?Cost of Attendance | Stanford Law SchoolTuition Top Law SchoolsPriciest Public Law SchoolsStanford Law School Financial Aid7 Ways to Figure If Going to Law School Is Worth It (Bankrate)Is Going to Law School Worth It? Depends on Where (Investopedia) - Bureau of Labor Statistics in 2015 had the top 10% of lawyers earning more than $187,200. All told, it is not uncommon for a law school graduate to enter the working world with a net worth of negative $250,000. Ideally, recent graduates should earn yearly salaries equal to or greater than their total student debt. This level of pay usually allows for paying off student loans within 10 years without materially affecting a person's lifestyle.Cost of Attendance | Stanford Law SchoolTuitionTuition for 2016-17 totals $56,079. Tuition is due in October, January, and April.Cost of LivingFor single students, room and board in university residences costs approximately $23,205 for the 2016-17school year. Required books, if purchased new, cost about $1,530 a year. Local costs for transportation, clothing, recreation, and the like tend to vary. Most single students find they need to budget a total of at least $88,169 for the school year.Laptop ComputersStudents are required to have laptop computers and are advised to have a printer and modem, as well. In addition to using the laptop to write papers and create spreadsheets, students will have the opportunity to take examinations on laptops and will receive administrative notices only via electronic mail. Students may purchase a laptop from the Stanford Bookstore through a special program with the law school. Students who must purchase a laptop to meet this requirement are eligible to have their financial aid budgets increased by as much as $3,300. Only specific computers meet the needs of the law school’s computing systems.Do the math!JD Financial Support | Stanford Law SchoolFinancial Aid Yellow Ribbon Program FormsLoan Repayment Assistance Program (LRAP)CSS Profile ApplicationFree Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA)Financial AidStanford Law offers financial aid is to assist students who would otherwise be unable to pursue a legal education at SLS. Approximately 78 percent of the student body receives a tuition fellowship or loan assistance, with the average fellowship portion per recipient totaling about $23,000 annually. Aid is awarded on the basis of demonstrated need and is provided through a combination of tuition fellowships, government guaranteed loans and private loans.To apply for financial aid, please complete the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) and the CSS Profile application. The FAFSA should be completed as soon as possible after January 1. A service of the U.S. Department of Education, FAFSA is free to all applicants. Please note that the Title IV School Code for Stanford Law School is E00341 and our CSS Profile code is 7832. To receive an aid package prior to the May 1 admissions response deadline, you must complete both applications by March 15, 2017.In general, the financial award system operates as follows:Each year the school determines a standard budget to cover basic costs (tuition plus living expenses).Each student’s need is calculated by subtracting reported resources from the standard budget. These resources include one–third of reported assets; 57% of summer gross earnings over $6,000; assumed earnings of spouse (if married); and an imputed parental contribution (based on the CSS Profile analysis) if the student is dependent.Each student is then expected to borrow or otherwise raise a portion of this need, with the remainder being an outright grant, subject to a limit of full tuition.Financial aid is evaluated annually. Therefore, one cannot be guaranteed the same level of aid over three years of attendance.Stanford Law School uses an age-based test to determine the dependency percentage from your parent contribution. Unless you are 29 years of age as of September 1, financial resource information from your parents must be submitted on the CSS Profile application. Parental information is never required on the FAFSAfor graduate students.Under our policy guidelines, the following rules apply:If you are 25 or younger as of September 1, we will take into consideration the full extent of our calculated parental contribution when determining your eligibility for our need-based scholarship assistance.If you are 26 as of September 1, we will protect 25% of your calculated parental contribution and use only 75% of that contribution when determining your eligibility for our need-based scholarship assistance.If you are 27 as of September 1, we will protect 50% of your calculated parental contribution and use only 50% of that contribution when determining your eligibility for our need-based scholarship assistance.If you are 28 as of September 1, we will protect 75% of your calculated parental contribution and use only 25% of that contribution when determining your eligibility for our need-based scholarship assistance.If you are 29 as of September 1, no parental resources are considered when determining your eligibility for our need-based scholarship assistance. Therefore, you need not submit any parental financial information to CSS Profile.Loans available to law students come primarily from three governmental programs: Federal Perkins Loans, Federal Direct Unsubsidized Stafford Loans, and Federal Direct Graduate Plus Loans. All graduate and professional students are independent for purposes of determining federal loan eligibility.Additional financial aid information is provided in the School’s Financial Aid Handbook.2016-17 FINANCIAL AID HANDBOOKYellow Ribbon ProgramThe Post-9/11 GI Bill, also known as Chapter 33, is the most commonly used VA educational benefits program at Stanford. This program provides funding for tuition, required fees, books, and housing. The level of a qualifying veteran’s Chapter 33 benefits is determined by the length of military service since 9/11/2001. For the 2016-17 academic year, the base benefit for tuition and fees is capped at $21,970.If you qualify for Chapter 33 benefits at the 100% level, you will receive additional funding through the Yellow Ribbon Program. Under this program, Stanford Law provides an annual contribution to supplement the Chapter 33 base tuition benefit. The VA matches Stanford’s Yellow Ribbon contribution. For the 2016-17 academic year, Stanford Law’s annual Yellow Ribbon contribution for students will be 50% of the remaining tuition and fees with the VA providing the other 50% — together covering the full costs of tuition and fees.Most VA educational benefit programs pay benefits directly to students on a monthly basis. However, under the Post-9/11 GI Bill (Chapter 33), the VA sends tuition and fees benefits to Stanford, where the Central Financial Aid Office is responsible for applying the funds to the student account (university bill). Chapter 33 books and housing benefits are sent directly to students monthly. You may need to apply your housing benefits to the university bill to pay for on-campus room and board.FormsThe following forms will be provided by the Office of Financial Aid as necessary but are available here if additional copies are needed:Continuing Student Financial Aid Supplement Form 2016-17Loan Memo 2016-2017Loan Comparison Chart 2016-2017Loan Request Form 2016-2017Expense Budget 2016-17Due to the nature of federal, state, and institutional guidelines, this information is subject to change without notice.Loan Repayment Assistance Program (LRAP)For graduates who take low-paying public interest jobs and have substantial educational debt, Stanford Law School offers the Miles and Nancy Rubin Loan Repayment Assistance Program — the most generous loan relief program in the country — along with a variety of other fellowships. Stanford Law was one of the first law schools in the country to launch such a program, setting the standard for schools that have followed our lead. Stanford Law makes loans to eligible applicants to help meet education loan payments. Loans made by Stanford through this program will be forgiven (up to 100 percent) depending on verification of participant income using federal tax returns. Visit the LRAP section of this site for additional information.7 Ways to Figure If Going to Law School Is Worth ItYour school's reputation"For the group of very select law schools at the top, the employment prospects are terrific," says Steven Harper, a former attorney and author of "The Lawyer Bubble: A Profession in Crisis." "Life can look awfully good, and it will be awfully good for the vast, vast majority of those people, but that's maybe 10 percent out of 200 law schools."There's a sharp discrepancy in job prospects between first- and lower-tier schools. When comparing U.S. News and World Report's top 20 law schools with institutions that landed in the 126-to-146 ranking range, students attending upper-echelon institutions were nearly twice as likely to hold full-time, long-term law jobs as their lower-tier counterparts. Students attending lower-tier schools were also about 2.5 times more likely to be underemployed.The Ivy League isn't the only ticket to a post-graduate job, says Kyle McEntee, executive director of Law School Transparency, an organization that helps students with the decision to attend law school, and provides employment and underemployment data on law institutions nationwide. Schools with a solid local reputation and strong ties to the community can be just as effective at finding work in that area.Your rankRegardless where you attend, your performance will be a factor for future employers. A study published last year in the Journal of Empirical Legal Studies shows that grades are "the most important predictor of career success," even more so than your school's reputation. The study, authored by law professors at UCLA and the University of Arizona, states that "... it is well known that judges care greatly about grades in choosing their clerks, professors care about grades in choosing their research assistants, and many employers insist on good grades in choosing new hires."Harper says that students who can stay above the bottom 25th percentile in GPA have the best shot at landing a job that pays enough to repay student loans."You have to be really honest and realistic with yourself about 'how well am I going to stack up against my peers?'" he says. "You have a very hard time convincing anybody, I think, who's entering law school that they'll ever wind up below the median, much less below the 25th percentile in anything, whether it's practicing law or something else, but guess what? That's just mathematics. There's an honest self-reflection that has to happen."Your specialtySome legal fields are hotter than others, which may explain why schools like New York University are changing their curricula to focus more on specializations. A study by Robert Half Legal of 200 attorneys in hiring positions revealed that litigation, business, commercial and health care law are expected to offer the greatest number of jobs.Leslie Levin, associate dean for academic affairs at the University of Connecticut School of Law, says that students can increase their marketability by having a clear idea of the law field they'd like to practice and by taking relevant courses and pursuing externship opportunities."Focusing on an area in which the student would like to practice and then positioning him or herself as somebody (who) is knowledgeable in that area will increase their employability," she says. "So, for example, if somebody gets a tax certificate, they are going to be more appealing if they want to go to a firm or the government and practice tax than somebody else."Summer associate gigs help, too. More than 90 percent of law students who held summer associate positions in 2012 were offered entry-level positions after graduation, reports the National Association for Law Placement.Your expectations"(Students) should think foremost on why they want to be a lawyer," says Andrew J. McClurg, author of "1L of a Ride: A Well-Traveled Professor's Roadmap to Success in the First Year of Law School." "If their only reason was to make a whole lot of money, that was never a good reason, even when the economy was great."Many students have unrealistic expectations about post-law school life and few have a clear picture of the daily lives of practicing attorneys, says Levin. Some don't know that they may not use their J.D. A survey by the NALP shows that 1 in 5 2012 graduates worked in a nonlegal profession or held jobs where a degree might have been an advantage or requirement, but passage of the bar was not required.The best way to understand what attorneys do is by observing them first-hand, she says."Even in college, people often will get part-time jobs in law firms. They can volunteer for organizations where lawyers are working and doing public interest work. They should talk to lawyers; if they know lawyers, they can shadow lawyers," she says. "The one thing they shouldn't do is assume that what they are seeing is the entire range of what lawyers do."Your connectionsGetting into a good school and acing your classes is only half the battle. The law grads who are getting jobs are the ones who have spent time hobnobbing with future employers, says McClurg."Joining student organizations and going to bar functions and putting yourself out there and making connections, other than your academic record, that's really one of the only things you can do" to increase your marketability, he says.That also means remembering that you may not be able to get a job in your first choice of legal field, says Blair Gould, a third-year law student at Wayne State University who's primarily interested in corporate and real estate law but is also gaining litigation experience."People need to continuously be diversifying their legal skill set," he says. "Take advantage of any kind of connections you can make and join any civic or social organization you can because all of those things will come into play eventually. You never know what's going to happen in the future."Your financial prospectsNearly 9 out of 10 third-year law students advise those considering law school to consider an institution's financial aid package before enrolling, reports Kaplan. That's because how much you borrow will largely determine where you work after graduation.Median starting salaries at law firms clock in at $90,000 per year -- a 28 percent drop since 2008 -- but not every lawyer is bringing home the big bucks. Median salaries at public interest organizations hovered at $44,600 annually, while judicial clerks and government employees earned $52,000. That's barely enough to cover the $558 monthly student loan payments public law students face if they borrow the average $76,000 in loans at an 8 percent interest rate over a 30-year period. On the flip side, the median salary at large firms is $160,000.The good news is that more than 100 law schools offer loan assistance and forgiveness incentives, reports Equal Justice Works, and public interest workers may be eligible for accelerated federal loan forgiveness. Scholarships also abound, but read the fine print, warns McEntee."Oftentimes scholarships come with stipulations, and stipulations are difficulties," he says.Your goalsIf working in the legal profession is what you want to do for all the right reasons, debt and employability statistics shouldn't derail you, but they should be a consideration, says Levin. To keep financial figures in check, Levin recommends that students consider lower-cost state schools or attend law school part time. They should also do some serious research to ensure they understand what attorneys do, the variety of contexts in which they work and whether they would be a good match for the legal profession."If (being an attorney) is really what makes you happy, it may take longer to pay off the debt, but that doesn't mean it's not worth it," she says. "(Whether law school pays off) really depends on what you hope to get out of your law degree and what you want to do with your life."Read more: http://www.bankrate.com/finance/college-finance/going-to-law-school-worth-it-1.aspx#ixzz4XVp2B6s2Follow us: @Bankrate on Twitter | Bankrate on FacebookIs Going to Law School Worth It? Depends on WhereBy Greg DePersio | Updated January 26, 2017 — 6:00 AM ESTA 2015 study by the Access Group Center for Research and Policy Analysis found that only one in five people who graduated from law school between 2010 and 2015 strongly agreed that obtaining a law degree was worth the cost. Perhaps more troubling, only 38% of law school graduates, down from 56% between 2000 and 2009, described themselves as having a good job after graduation.With four out of five recent law school graduates at least somewhat regretting their decision to attend – and six out of 10 failing to find a good job after graduating – it makes sense to examine whether going to law school is still worth it in 2017. Keeping in mind the high tuition costs, interest rates and potential salaries, another good metric to consider would be its ROI (return on investment), calculated as its salary-to-debt ratio in a new study by online lender SoFi.Law School CostsGoing to law school full-time requires a three-year commitment, and the average tuition and fees for just one of those years at an American Bar Association-accredited institution often exceeds $40,000. This cost does not include rent, food, transportation and other living expenses. As the law school workload does not permit most students to hold jobs, student loans represent the most common method of paying these costs. Consequently, the average law school graduate in 2015 took on over $140,000 in student debt to obtain his or her degree.For many students, student loan debt accumulates on top of debt they already carry from undergraduate school. Members of the class of 2016 graduated college with over $37,000 in student debt on average. While most lenders allow the deferment of undergraduate loan payments while attending law school, any unsubsidized portion of such debt continues to accrue interest. All told, it is not uncommon for a law school graduate to enter the working world with a net worth of negative $250,000.Expected SalaryTaking on such debt might be a smart investment if a law degree provided reasonable assurance of a high-paying job. Ideally, recent graduates should earn yearly salaries equal to or greater than their total student debt. This level of pay usually allows for paying off student loans within 10 years without materially affecting a person's lifestyle.Stories abound, however, of law school graduates struggling to find any sort of legal job, much less one that enables the repayment of student debt in a timely manner. The New York Times revealed in 2015 that more than 20% of graduates from the class of 2010 held jobs that did not require law degrees. Only 40% worked in law firms, compared to 60% from the class of 2000. The remainder operated solo practices, with varying degrees of success, or performed contract work.The SoFi study, which incorporates data from student-loan refinancing applications between Jan. 2014 and Dec. 2016, shows that some schools do better than others when it comes to both job placements and salaries. Looking at students three years out of law school, Cornell University, Columbia University and New York University take the top three spots in the SoFi study with average salary paid in excess of $177,000. Consider that the Bureau of Labor Statistics in 2015 had the top 10% of lawyers earning more than $187,200.For the Class of 2015, Columbia University saw 401 out of its 413 graduates find full time jobs; at New York University the numbers were 474 of 485. In some cases, of course, students may choose to put off those high-money jobs for prestigious public service spots: In 2015, 99 of 199 Yale Law School graduates were employed in clerkships, which paid a median salary of $69,000 (Yale ranks 8th on the SoFi list for salaries).Graduates of second-tier programs often settle for work outside of top law firms, where the pay is much lower. The 2015 median pay for law school graduates across the board was only $64,800. Idealistic young attorneys who choose public service fare even worse financially. Entry-level district attorneys earn a median pay of $37,000; public defenders do slightly better at $40,000.Schools with the Best Salary-to-Debt RatioEven new lawyers who land good jobs rarely receive paychecks commensurate with their debt levels. The SoFi analysis also ranks law schools based on which offer the best value defined by their salary-to-debt ratio. That figure is an indication of how much more your potential salary could exceed your potential debt and help make a more informed decision about whether law school is worth it.Brigham Young University takes the number-one spot: With students expecting an average salary of $108,000 and holding an average debt just below $65,000, the school has an impressive 1.7x salary-to-debt ratio, making it a a good value-for-money bet. University of Texas at Austin, comes in second with the ratio at 1.4x on the back of lower debt burden thanks to its relatively cheaper tuition. Yale Law School ranks third – not just because of higher salaries graduates get compared to the top two on this list ($177,771; BYU is $64,873 and UT, $147,44), but also because of its generosity with financial aid.Opting for schools that fare poorly on this metric could cost you. Take for example, Florida Coastal School of Law, which ranked lowest on the SoFi ROI list, with a salary-to-debt ratio of 0.5x. Let's break down the numbers: The school's tuition, $44,000, is at par with some of the top schools in the country. Students graduate with $158,427 in debt (considerably higher than the $123,793 Yale grads have), but the average annual salary for graduates is only $84,664.Other ConsiderationsThe numbers do not consider the financial risk of being a law school dropout. The first-year law school attrition rate nationwide is nearly 7%. A handful of law schools lost over 30% of their first-year students in 2015. Enrolling in law school but failing to finish offers no greater marketability than a bachelor's degree. It does, however, substantially add to a person's debt load.All told, the decision to attend law school is one that should be approached with great consideration. Indeed, 1% of attorneys have successful, high-paying careers. Supply and demand dynamics, however, have changed considerably since the 1980s, with fewer high-paying, entry-level jobs and many more law school graduates chasing those jobs. Pile on tuition costs – which, for decades, have risen at three times the inflation rate – and going to law school is not the financial no-brainer that it once was. For more on the choice, see Career Advice: Accounting vs. Law and Career Advice: Investment Banking vs. Law.Read more: Is Going to Law School Worth It Anymore? | Investopedia http://www.investopedia.com/articles/personal-finance/082416/going-law-school-worth-it-anymore.asp#ixzz4XVq64gcoFollow us: Investopedia on Facebook

The education landscape around the world has changed more dramatically in the last several years than at any time in history. Those who wish to keep up need to monitor trends and issues that will affect students, families, secondary schools and colleges and universities. If what I have just written sounds like hyperbole, it isn’t. The data published over the last year supports my contention. In this paper I will focus on one of the major shifts--the huge increase in students from India going abroad for education-- and talk about a few of the thorny issues professionals need to address as a result.When statistics were released last year detailing the number of international students, by country, that had chosen to apply and then enroll in colleges and universities in the US, some leaders in education did not believe them:For the first time since the council’s reports began, in 2004, first-time enrollment by Chinese students in graduate programs at American universities actually dropped this year.The writing has been on the wall for more than a year. In April 2013, the council reported that Chinese applications to American graduate schools fell 5 percent after seven consecutive years of double-digit growth. The drop was so unexpected that the council’s president at the time, Debra W. Stewart, didn’t believe it at first. The possibility that the dip was an aberration was proved unlikely this year, when the council reported that applications from China fell again.Enrollment followed suit, declining by 1 percent, according to the latest report. So what’s behind the multiyear trend? “China has been spending big to improve its own research universities, a move that could persuade promising doctoral students to stay at home,” wrote The Chronicle’s Karin Fischer in April, citing one possible factor. ”American universities, meanwhile, have had to absorb cuts in research funding.”Overall international enrollment increased 8 percent this year, according to the new report. That’s largely because of Indian students, whose enrollment has boomed over the past two years. It was up 40 percent last year, and grew by 27 percent this year. But concluding that India has replaced China as the new driver of international enrollment might be premature. Indian growth has been much more erratic and unpredictable, and it’s unclear whether the double-digit spikes will persist in coming years.While the shifts mean a lot to graduate schools, which count on surging international enrollment, they haven’t yet been observed at the undergraduate level. If undergraduate enrollment from China begins to mimic what graduate schools are seeing, that could spell much larger trouble.For those of us who have been closely following education in China, the drop in graduate applications that started a few ago and therefore the drop in enrollment this year did not come as a surprise. The Chinese government has pledged a trillion dollars toward education. Universities are opening up state of the art labs, getting research funding and hiring top PhDs to teach who have received their degrees from top universities in the West. Rather than send students abroad, they are now trying to keep them at home. The government is also making it more difficult for students to prepare for studying in the West by clamping down on certain programs in national secondary schools that offer Western style classes. The move toward greater nationalism also applies to the most important test in the country, the Gaokao. There will be less emphasis on English and this will make the students less likely to be fully fluent should they apply to English speaking countries. Finally, the inability of the US government to increase the number of work visas for international students has led to many families deciding it is not worth the money or the risk to spend years getting an education if no jobs or work experience /internships are open to them.As a result, colleges and universities have wisely decided to diversify their market and India is and should be the place to go. The 67% application growth rate of students over the last two years demonstrates that India may serve to help fill in for China should the numbers there continue to drop. India now makes up 12% of the total international student cohort studying in the US, still far behind China at 32%, but ahead of all other countries (Korea is next at 8% and that percentage is dropping too.) To put this in concrete terms in the 2014/15 academic year, 132,888 students from India were studying in the United States, a 12% increase from the previous year.There are several reasons for this growth which, I believe, predict that the upward trend will continue, at least in the short term. In the last decade, millions in India have moved up into the middle class and above. Families are in a position to send their children to good primary and secondary schools to prepare them for higher education both at home and abroad. The future dreams those families have for their children often center on getting the best education. As with most places around the world, the way “the best education” is defined often comes in the form of rankings. While the US News rankings dominate what people look at for schools in the US, the rankings that generate interest in India are those compiled by Phil Baty who oversees the Times Higher Education rankings. What is of particular note is that India has yet to crack the top 100 of world universities:None of the Indian universities could make it to the list of top 100 most prestigious global universities in the latest 'world reputation ranking' by Times Higher Education.The rankings for 2015 based on invitation-only survey of senior academic opinion, placed Harvard at the top, followed by University of Cambridge and University of Oxford in the second and third place respectively.The latest results come even as the government has initiated a series of measures to place its institutes among the top globally.For those in India looking for top universities these rankings will encourage them to look abroad. Rankings, as has been the case for many years in the US and other places around the globe, drive applications and serve as a kind of feedback loop. The universities near the top will see increasing interest from around the world and in this case, especially from India. I would predict, therefore, that applications from students from India to schools in mostly English speaking countries will continue to go up. I would say this is particularly true of graduate students. With the recent Brexit vote it may be that more students will look to the US.The reason for the higher interest from graduate students is that The Times rankings uses rubrics to measure schools that reward factors like faculty publications and high level research --things which affect graduate students more than undergraduates. In addition, there are universities in India that are held in high esteem not just there but anywhere. These, of course, are the IITs. Getting in to one of these universities is among the toughest educational challenges in the world. The joke that circulates among some students in India is that MIT is a back for an IIT. But this joke applies to those looking for an undergraduate education. Nevertheless, India is a bit like China, only it is following their lead from a generation ago. Graduate students were the first to go outside China for their education and only after a period of time, when the economy improved, and families could pay the fees, did the boom in undergraduate education begin. Whether there will be a huge boom in students in India going abroad for undergraduate education is difficult to gage but there will be at least some increase given the perception of how good the schools outside India are and how tough the competition is to get into top schools in India. This growth will also depend on how quickly the Indian Government can revamp education throughout the country. Recently plans were announced to examine how to do this:For the first time in more than two decades, the government of India is drafting a new education policy which will include reforms on the internationalisation in higher education, digitisation of education and skills development.The government has released 33 discussion themes– 13 for secondary, 20 for post-secondary– to the public for consultation, a process which the government expects could take up to a year.If these changes are substantive, then the boom of students going abroad may change, but given that it will take one year just to begin to focus on how to do this the changes will not happen in the short term.Up to this point, I hope I have provided enough information to convince educators that they need to either improve or begin their efforts to recruit more students from India. There are thousands of wonderful students who are hoping to study at universities around the world. What I hope to do now is to give some data on who these students are and what they are looking for.The data I am going to cite comes from a survey conducted by Chegg last year.Almost all who filled out the survey are looking to study abroad. The information contained in the whole survey will be valuable for those looking to learn what are the most important facets these students look for in terms of major, location, funding etc. In this white paper I wish to focus on just a small part of the research, since discussing this will help colleges and universities prepare to recruit students, but also to learn about issues that they need to approach with an ethical and informed background.Of the students who completed the survey, 23% said they used the help of an agent. While this figure may not seem high (A person I trust to know the facts in China says about 90% use agents), the raw number of students using agents will still be in the tens of thousands. As more students look abroad, more students will use agents, and if the agents are perceived by others in the coming yeas to help student gain admission to top schools, this percentage will increase quickly. No matter what, however, agents play a significant role now and what they do for students and how they do it will be my focus.Even if the percentage of students using agents may not be high, the overall number of students leaving India for study in other countries still means that the actual aggregate number is large. It might be useful, however, to define what an agent is as the term has several meanings.On the one hand, there are agents that have been contracted by colleges and universities to recruit students. These agents work in country and their job is to provide information about schools. In some cases, these agents receive a per student fee for each one who enrolls at a contracted school. Over the last several years there has been a great deal of debate about whether NACAC should permit schools to use agents like this. After much controversy, however, NACAC, while not endorsing their use, has said they will not take action against schools that use them. While these agents are essential to some universities and colleges, especially those who need students to fill their enrollment goals, they are not typically what the students and families refer to as agents.The agents that students themselves use are ones that are not (or at least not in the majority) contracted by individual schools. Instead, these agents are what some in other parts of the world call independent counselors. They provide services to help students get admitted to schools. Depending on the agent, these services can cost a huge amount of money. What the students get from them varies, but most help develop a list of possible schools to apply to, provide help in making sure all forms and information are submitted in a timely fashion, and in some cases, provide things like test prep, essay editing, and resume and interview help. Some also strategize on the best ways to get financial aid, be it need-based or merit based.What I have just described summarizes what ethical agents do to help students. There are thousands of people like this who work tirelessly to help students and families through the process. I am lucky to know a large number who fit in this category and I know how invaluable they have been to changing lives and providing opportunities. I know of some like this who work in India.Just how important are these kinds of agents? This is a question that is difficult to answer. I say this based on the responses I received from a question I asked a while ago on Quora.com,The question I asked focused on the number of students who use agents and whether they are necessary. Here are a few of the responses.*****************************************************************This is a tough question to answer. Especially because I'm not one of the person who went to an agent to study outside India. It's really tough to say even the approximate percentage. Same goes for other countries.****************************************************************Although agents can be of great help in the tedious process, very few students have agents helping them. The major reasons for this are:1) Lack of awareness- A large number of applicants don't even know thatagents exist.2) Financial in-capabilities- Many students can't afford an agent.3) Exceptionally talented students/ Achievers- Students from India who get admitted into top schools abroad are mostly Olympiad medalists or they have been in prestigious competitions, most of these students have enough achievements to get in with all the flaws.*****************************************************************For Masters & Phd, I haven't come across anyone using the agent. As long as your undergrad background is good with decent score in GRE & Gmat, you should be fine without an agentI can't put an exact number but with so many online forums, I don't think agents would do any better.****************************************************************Well in the case of Undergrad, you will surely need one.It may depend on you in case of PG, if you have already decided which college to go and can write a decent SoP and arrange with all the financial requirements. You may not need an agent.However getting an agent is recommended because you may encounter several challenges in the process, and an experienced agent may help you. If you know someone who has already gone through the process, he will be a great help. And moreover agencies have tie ups with various colleges so they are helpful there. Yes, they will be a great help if you need financial assistance.I will recommend you to get an agent, they usually charge nearly ₹20K. I think you can manage with that too, if you are ready to pay heavy amounts abroad.*****************************************************************What is the significance of these answers? For me, the range of responses tells me that there is no simple way of determining how important agents are to individuals. For some, agents provide necessary services and for others they are not useful at all. And that is about how it is in all parts of the world. Most students, except for China, do not use agents. But depending on the ability of the student and the expertise of the agent the usefulness will vary.The Chegg survey demonstrates this in a somewhat different way. Of the approximately 23% of the students who said they used agents about 75% rated the services received as good. In other words, within this percentage there are students who feel they received valuable help getting information about schools, about the admission process, about funding and testing; on the other hand, there are some who feel they were not helped much at all. Agents, then, vary greatly and my advice for families and students who wish to use them is to do a lot of research first.It is true that very few students volunteer to peers that they are using an agent. And reputable agents should never ever reveal the identities of clients to others. Nevertheless, there is still word of mouth that gets around about some agents who have been exceptionally helpful. In addition to this, I would advise any families or students to investigate the agent. One way of doing this is through LinkedIn. Students should learn to set up a profile anyway, as this site is useful for outreach to professionals in all fields. I have quite a few contacts on my account and I have many from India who are agents. In reading over their profiles I can learn a great deal. Their educational backgrounds, training in the field, the services they cover are often highlighted. If there are errors in the profile, if there are de facto promises about placement or if there are other things that raise questions then I would advise families and students to look somewhere else. Students may also use social media to find out more about a particular agent. There are many people who will respond to questions on various forms (such as Quora). Whether each respondent can be trusted is another issue. Free advice from strangers is not always a great resource to trust. Perhaps the bet thing a student can do is to meet with the agent before signing a contract. Many agents do not charge for the first meeting; finding out if there is good chemistry between the student and the agent can make the subsequent experience useful and enjoyable.To sum up, for schools, families and students finding an ethical agent who is professionally trained can be a useful way of not only finding out about different schools and the ways to fill out an application, but also a way of finding the best sources for funding. The number of agents in India is hard to gage but I would say there are thousands and the number is growing by the day. The range of services and the expertise these agents offer varies widely. Some of them work with hundreds of students and others with just a few. Some have a track record of success and others do not. Some keep a low profile because they know that the reputation of agents around the world is, problematic. Some in admission do like the fact that people with economic means get extra help when applying to university. It increases the gap between the have and have-nots in terms of getting into highly selective colleges and universitiesIf anyone wishes to get a sense of how agents are often perceived in the media simply Google "agents and China." Over the past several years, virtually every media outlet has written a story about how agents in China help students cheat their way into schools. I authored an article on this topic for NACAC’s Journal of Admission last year, but let me simply say here that the default mode among educators is that many agents are not ethical. And in China this may well be true. The question is whether this is also true in India. My answer is that India is, like the rest of the world, in that there are ranges of agents. I cannot begin to speculate on the percentage of them who do things the right way, but there are certainly some who do things to that are against the standards of NACAC and other professional organizations.What sort of things do they do? In some cases they will provide forged documents—transcripts, letters of recommendation being the top two. In some cases they write the essays for the students and create a resume of activities and experiences that is largely fictional. These unscrupulous agents have hurt the reputation of all agents and that is unfortunate. Many school officials think that virtually all agents are not to be trusted.Because of the fraud and cheating issues that have received so much press, colleges and universities, or at least many of them, especially the selective schools, are doing a great deal of work to verify documents and other submissions. There are many workshops that provide training to people to detect forged documents. In addition, some schools outsource the verification to organizations like the World Education Services. Schools do need, however, to devote more resources to make sure fraud is not rewarded with offers of admission. If the word is out that cheating works, then this will only increase the problem and hurt the schools and students in the long run.In addition, I encourage schools to spend far more time on the ground in India. They need to visit schools find out more about them but also they need to begin to talk to some of the agents who do the right things. By forging trust among all the stakeholders—families, students, schools and agents the amount of fraud will decrease. While it may be true that this will cost money at the front end, having students who were admitted with fraudulent documents may cost more. If these students cannot do the work they will drop out and this will hurt the reputation of the school as graduation rates and placement are now at the forefront of evaluating schools.It is important to note that students who are enrolled in universities in the US who are subsequently found to have submitted false documents are suspended and their transcripts are frozen. In other words, a student may have completed 3 years of work but if fraud is detected in the admission application, all the work and all the money have been wasted. More schools need to underscore the penalties for cheating to students.I would also advise schools to do more training of staff to learn about the range and scope of credentials in India. The way grades are reported, the exams that are given, and even the tests students take range from region to region and sometimes from school to school. For example a significant change in testing options was announced last year:“For the first time in its history, the Graduate Management Admission Council has acquired a rival entrance exam used in India for an undisclosed sum. The exam, taken by roughly 45,000 test takers annually, was purchased outright from the Narsee Monjee Institute of Management Studies (NMIMS).At about $35 a test, the NMAT exam costs just a fraction of the $250 GMAC charges test takers to sit for the GMAT. But the deal, announced today (March 11), gives GMAC greater market share in one of the fastest growing markets for management education in the world. The acquisition nearly triples the number of test takers in India for GMAC since only 25,268 GMAT tests were taken in India last year.Both students and the schools themselves need to keep up with the many changes ahead.As India becomes a more important country for schools to recruit from there will no doubt be more pressure for students to do whatever it takes to get into schools. Those in education can be proactive to make sure that their active presence in country making trusted connections is needed. Admission in some ways drives the behavior of those trying to get in and having a strong stance against fraud and having the resources to detect it will make sure that everyone who is ethical benefits. India will be, no matter what, a great resource for schools looking to recruit students; whether some of the problems that are going on in China now will follow is largely up to the schools and educational professionals. The schools can help with education reform and with making sure students feel compelled to submit accurate documents that will be scrutinized. Schools should also reach out to those agents they are sure will help students in ethical ways.

The traditional financial services have globally undergone a radical transformation that has been brought about by technology and innovation. In 2015, more than 12,000 start-ups sprouted in the Fintech space across the world with a massive investment of USD 19 billion. By definition, Fintech comprises of technology–based businesses that are competing against, enabling or collaborating with existing financial institutions. These companies also collaborate with universities and research institutions, government associations and industry bodies.The industry is likely to continue its current growth trajectory, with the global Fintech software and services sector predicted to touch USD 45 billion by 2020 at a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 7.1%.At this juncture, India has created an ecosystem that provides start-ups an opportunity to exponentially grow into big businesses. Right from delving into a range of unexplored segments to engaging with foreign markets, Fintech start-ups are delivering innovation that was previously difficult to achieve. The Indian Fintech software market is poised to touch USD 2.4 billion by 2020 from the current USD 1.2 billion in the Financial Year (FY) 2016.In the last few years, the Indian economy, which is significantly cash-driven, has taken advantage of the Fintech opportunity. With a range of options, including e-wallets, lending and insurance, the variety of services provided in this sector are immense and have changed the way consumers carry out their daily transactions. Fintech in India is especially advantageous, since the country boasts of an unrivalled youth demographic which is rapidly growing. Furthermore, smartphone penetration is likely to witness an upsurge - from 53% in 2014 to 64% by 2018. The financial services market in India is primarily untapped, with 40% of the population having no association with any bank and more than 80% of the transactions carried out through cash. This represents an opportunity for Fintech start-ups to massively spread their wings in different segments.RELEVANT STAKEHOLDERSSince the Fintech ecosystem is based on the principle of integration and collaboration with other agencies, this is where the exchange of ideas and strategies, building of networks and conversion of opportunities plays a significant role.Below are the key stakeholders that define the success of this industry:Start-ups: Contrary to popular perception, the start-up Fintech space is not just limited to mobile wallets. Presently, India boasts of over 600 start-ups in Fintech that belong to various segments and the number is predicted to rise, especially with the introduction of initiatives such as a focused accelerator program by local and state governments and banks. Additionally, support through funding is provided by leading corporates and venture capital. At this point, the start-ups are undergoing a makeover - from disrupters to enablers of change.Universities and Research Institutions: Academic bodies play a significant role in shaping the mindset of prospective entrepreneurs. Lately, leading institutions in India are playing a proactive role by organising events and competitions as well as offering technical courses. For instance, IIT Roorkee, one of the premier institutions of our country, organised the Global Entrepreneur Conclave to enhance entrepreneurial skills and recognised those students who displayed exemplary skills in technology-related fields.Government and Regulators: The Government, along with regulators such as the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) and Securities Exchange Board of India (SEBI), are extending all the support to Fintech companies, in order to realise the country’s vision to become a cashless economy. Through the ‘Startup India’ initiative that was launched in 2016, the government envisages to build a strong ecosystem for start-ups in the country, promote innovation, drive sustainable economic growth and generate large-scale employment opportunities. To further aid start-ups, the government has launched a range of tax and surcharge reliefs, including income tax exemption for start-ups for the first three years, a credit guarantee mechanism through debt funding for start-ups as well as other exemptions.Financial Institutions: With the rapid emergence of the Fintech sector, various BFSIs are collaborating with Fintech start-ups on a variety of platforms such as wallets and online client acquisition, among others. They are proactively mentoring, supporting, and investing in innovative start-ups. For example, Bank of India offers a wallet in collaboration with Paynimo that is powered by TechProcess.Incubators and Accelerators: This is a critical component of the Fintech ecosystem. The role of incubators and accelerators is not just limited to funding, but also to strengthen the financial industry and enhance soft skills. Financial institutions play a significant role to discover talent and develop platforms and solutions. A case in point is the Kotak Fintech mobility hackathon that partnered with NASSCOMM 10,000 start-ups to identify founders developing apps that revolve around innovation in banking. Secondly, non-financial institutions focus more on incubation than acceleration. Some of the most significant initiatives include PayPal Incubator and Yes Fintech.Users: The users, comprising of customers in the form of both individuals and organizations, have shown impressive receptivity to the transition of India’s economy being technology-driven. The routine transactions made by cash have given way to cashless transactions and mobile banking.GROWTH LEVERSA range of factors have contributed towards the success and development of the Fintech ecosystem in India. With India’s population going digital at a very fast pace, the number of internet users touched 450-465 million in June 2017 and is expected to rise even further. With government’s consistent efforts to promote digital services through ‘Digital India’, there lies an opportunity for existing Fintech start-ups as well as potential investors.Apart from this, the government’s push towards financial inclusion for India’s population is a critical factor as well. The launch of ‘Jan Dhan Yojana’ scheme aims to provide a bank account to every citizen. The Fintech start-ups can capitalise on such opportunities by offering simplified and efficient transaction services. The government’s biometric identification database, Aadhar, contains information of over 1 billion Indian citizens; this is likely to minimise the effort required for first-level verification of customers.Furthermore, to provide an impetus to cashless transactions, the government has introduced tax rebates for traders accepting more than 50% as electronic payment.TAXATION & REGULATIONSIndia’s primary regulator, RBI, introduced a new set of guidelines in 2014 and relaxed the rule of undergoing a KYC process for customers carrying out transactions up to worth Rs. 20,000/month . Under this, the customer can download a wallet of his choice and use it for services such as booking of tickets and paying bills without furnishing any documents or photographs.RBI is now expected to introduce new set of norms in 2017 to revamp the Indian peer-to- peer (P2P) lending market. In April 2016, the government came out with a consultation paper that categorises P2P as a Non-Banking Financial Company (NBFC). P2P is a kind of crowd funding, wherein loans are raised and paid back with interest. The interest rate is set by the platform or the borrower and lender can mutually decide upon a rate. After the adoption of new norms, P2P will only serve as a medium to bring the borrower and lender at a common platform.Significant growth in capital investments, government policies and an entrepreneurial mindset make Fintech an emerging industry. This interest is likely to witness a spike with continued participation from banks and regulatory bodies. With this momentum, the transaction value for the Indian Fintech sector is likely to touch USD 73 billion in 2020, growing at a five-year CAGR of 22%.Source: Growth of FinTech in India