Once in a while you have students that you have to chase to get all information in to complete their F/A.

the are very beneficial to our school

good tool to keep main office informed

we need to do a better job of coordinating between the campuses

that becomes an issue between the students and financial aid

Well I share my office with the Student Services Counselor and Student Accounts so my appointments are flooded with present students and their complaints. I plan to propose having a meeting room for my counseling. So students won't be distracted with possible negative activities while trying to focus on their financial aid.

Does anyone feel like this will actually help a student continue paying on a loan?

For our upcoming graduates, we know at least 3 months out who they are. Once we have identified who they are we tracking (via excel spreadsheet) when the one-on-one exit interview is scheduled, if the students missed, and then when it is completed. We require (audit and compliance checks) that 100% of our graduates have an exit interview prior to completing their finals. We even have a individuals whose primary job is to make sure that the exit is completed and completed timely.

Every other month our company goes to great lengths to gather current address information from our students. We require that ALL student complete an address update form that is then submitted to our home office for input (if changes) into our company wide information system (all employees have access). We allow two weeks for submissions of these updates, and the submissions of changes are tracked on a company basis. This has greatly improved our ability to communicate to our students as well as shows the students just how important it is to update the school with address changes.

A couple of things we are doing at our campus to impact default rates. We are making sure that the new students meet with the finance processors, and the student loan specialists at the point of enrollment. The student may not remember much of the day, however we make it a point to give the student our business cards, as well as a welcome packet which discusses loan responsiblity. Within the first 45 days of the student starting we make sure our student loan specialist are in the classroom conducting a Financial literacy workshop. This workshop talks about budgeting, as well as student loan obligations. We make this as interactive as we can by showing a ppoint presentation, and awarding goodies to students who answer questions, or offer comments. After that we send the finance folks into the classroom on a regular schedule to see how things are going, and to remind students of their obligations.

How do you actually verify that the references have been updated and more importantly regularly verified? It seems like a task that will get dropped.

If you’ve just completed a training course, please consider responding to the three self-assessment questions below. Your responses will help you and other participants to get a head start on the transfer of training process.

 

1. What have you learned? Write a brief summary of what you’ve learned.

2. How can you apply it? List one or two ways in which you can apply what you’ve learned in your professional practice.

3. What support do you need? Identify any support or additional information that you may need to apply what you’ve learned.

Much of this module centered on repetition of the message. All makes sense. However when dealing with non-traditional student base, most with very little support (financial or emotional) from their home, isn't there a fear of too much constant emphasis on financial obligation given them more reasons to quit school.

The use of proper procedures,minimize compliance concerns

What would you do if a studen't parent tell you she will provide all the necessary documentation to complete the student's verification process but the student cannot has access to those documents(eg. divorce documents, parent's income documents, etc.)?

When a student drops/withdraws from his/her courses, how long does the University have to return Pell Grant funds?

Once the student has completed his/her financial aid, how long should it take for funds to be disbursed to the student?

I have a hard time with my staff not taking their time and making careless mistakes when processing/submitting files. The volume seems to push them to want to rush, which causes more problems in the end.

I feel that exit interviews are extremely important, but yet it is rarely possible to set up with student's that withdraw from school. How would you suggest setting up exit interviews for withdrawn students?

The school I work for is a 10-month program and we only start one class each September. We also have rolling admissions, so it is very common for a student to apply and be accepted in October then wait to start in September the following year. Typically, a student is given two weeks to apply after they completed their admissions interview, then within a week of their acceptance I call them to do an initial FA overview to discuss the FAFSA and other funding options. From this point forward either myself or someone in the FA office follows up with that student every 2-3 wks until their FAFSA is complete. Once that occurs we package the students Federal Aid and budget with the student for needs on living expenses and discuss alternative loans, because the Federal Aid is typically not enough to cover their needs. Once a student is approved a loan we complete their FA package. Would it be wise for us to compress our processing timeline in Financial Aid and if so do you have any suggestions? We have discussed the advantages and disadvantages of our current process internally, and feel it is best to spread it out in order to have a reason to contact the student over the 6-9 months they wait to start our program. However, we are open to suggestions.