We do have a orientation at our school, but that is not just for F/A. I find we often come across those student that just don't want to come in, but we have to contact them by phone or set appointment with them to let them know how important it is to have all the documents need to process there financial aid and that it will only benefit the them (the student). I found myself giving students a call to talk about what has been holding them up in coming in and get on a more personal level with the student to make them fell more comfortable when speaking with financial aid. The best thing we can do is make it clean and easy for the student to do and understand and to let them know we are here if you need more counseling because most of the time they don't come back because they don't realize how important it is for them.
Bernadette,
You are making some great points. The best approach with students is to keep the requirements simple and provide in writing. It might be beneficial to your team to develop a simple one page document that outlines the requirements with a due date and explain the impact if they fail to meet the deadlines. Counseling and keeping the student informed on what is required is critical to the success of the process.
Sincerely,
Chyrl Ayers
Creating a timeline for the student is important as well as creating deadlines (with consequences). I don't want to sound like the mean FA Officer that no one like so I often reassure that I just want to the student to receive any aid they are entitled to and that I'm on their side trying to help them out.
Michael,
I agree with you (and don't find your comments to be mean) that students need to understand their responsibilities and how failure to meet these responsibilities may result in a negative impact to their overal process. It is important to empower students in their FA process.
Sincerely,
Chyrl Ayers
I agree with many posts here regarding orientation and how useful it is in getting those last outliers. Orientation is usually the Thursday before the start so it gives us time to have everything complete before the start. If a student does not have the required paperwork at orientation they can still to bring it in the following day and be complete before classes start.
James,
Based on your response you have a process similar to other institutions and this process works to move the prospective student from incomplete to complete. It is important to work with the students to ensure all documentation is accurate and complete by the start date; however, there are times you have to allow a student additional time. As long as you have a plan to track and complete these your institution should be in good shape.
Sincerely,
Chyrl Ayers
Our institution uses a lot of the examples discussed here. For each start we have our "risk meeting" and Orientation to catch any student that still needs to bring in additional required documents. Those seem to keep all departments on the same page and we get about 90-95% of missing information before those students start.
When we need information from our continuing population we work with instructors, program managers and our campus directors to get them in if they aren't responding to us. This is something we started a few terms ago and really seems to help!
I think the team work with all the departments is key. I previously worked at an institution that didn't have that ability and getting information was always difficult.
We have the same problem at our school. The first week of school each student must meet with the Financial Aid office to finalize all their paperwork. Working one on one with each student seems to work for us.
LINDA,
This seems to be an issue that many colleges deal with and the level of procrastination often depends on the college's policies around scheduling and starting class. Some colleges have strict policies that require students to have secured funding (not necessarily completed the process) and others allow students to start and attend without having secured funding. This is a very personal decision made by colleges and must work with your student demographics. However, I do think that additional "hand holding" is beneficial to students who have delays in the process and are working toward completion late in the process.
Sincerely, Chyrl
Chyrl Ayers
I like this idea of Financial Aid meeting with each student the first week of school. This would seem to be a great way to collect needed documents. Our campus does something somewhat similiar in that we require the student to sign in for the first two weeks and if Financial Aid still needs documents we catch the students then. Most of what is needed cannot be done at that time and then we are back to waiting for documents (mostly dependents needing parent signatures etc). We also go to the classroom and get the student from class to finish up but invariably either we miss the class because they start at 6am or student is absent. If we used the idea of having the student meet with FA indivudially before or after class this might help us and the student as well. Great ideas/
Karen,
Good deal. It is great to know that the forum has provided you so thoughts to improve your process. All Aid Administrators should be looking for ideas and opportunities to improve the student's experience.
Best wishes in your pursuit of online financial aid growth.
Respectfully, Chyrl
Chyrl Ayers
