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Mark Kantrowitz, the student-aid guru, packs up his hairless cats and origami for a new job, in Las Vegas.
Mark Kantrowitz breeds hairless cats. He solves complicated math problems. He collects aboriginal art, folds elaborate origami, restores early battery-operated toys. And then there's the hobby that has turned into his career: knowing absolutely everything about financial aid.
Mr. Kantrowitz, 46, is the brains behind FinAid, an encyclopedic Web site on the topic, and Fastweb, a scholarship search site. He devotes a good part of his considerable mental energy to studying the inner workings of the financial-aid machine, calling attention to its flaws, and explaining it to the rest of us.
His policy papers go out to dozens of legislative aides, among others, and his authoritative answers to the questions of financial-aid administrators have turned up on a professional e-mail list. For students and families struggling to understand aid-award letters or manage student loans, he acts as a lifeline. And while Mr. Kantrowitz associates with all of those stakeholders, he doesn't fit in any group. At various times, he's taken positions that align with different camps.
By his estimate, he has been quoted in more than 5,000 news articles in the past five years. That sounds like a lot. But when I call him, which I do all the time, he is often on the other line with another reporter.
While he's technically had co-workers, Mr. Kantrowitz is really a one-man show. He works out of a big, ornate house outside Pittsburgh, oddly outfitted to meet the needs of his family and their eight pets. The laundry room, for instance, houses a three-level, custom-built cat cabinet. A fenced-in chute leads through the garage so the dogs can let themselves in and out.
The vast walkout basement--stacked high with enough stuff that it must be navigated single file--serves as Mr. Kantrowitz's office and museum of sorts. "My commute is zero minutes after breakfast," he says. When he sits down to work, he is surrounded by his favorite things: toy ray guns, stained glass he's made, a two-gigabyte library of financial-aid documents. He knows his collections inside and out.
This basement is his kingdom. "I have my own little environment here," Mr. Kantrowitz says. But not for long.