shawn,
One on one loan counseling is a great means to inform the student about general concepts as you discuss their specific indebtedness and financial aid status. But you are right that it is not always possible to do it this way. The next best thing is to conduct small group in-person sessions in which you discuss the general concepts and invite students with specific questions about their loans to meet with you individually. Sometimes a group session will be the stimulus for a renewed interest in the student's own indebtedness, and the session will motivate them to research and ask questions.
Diana Mateer
We have both on-campus and on-line students. We prefer face-to-face counseling. So far all of our entrance and exit interviews have been on-campus. The students live in reasonable driving distance. We have to prepare ourselves for the inevitable student that can't come in.
Joseph,
In-person loan counseling, with a back-up plan for students who cannot complete entrance or exit interviews that way, definitely ensures that students get the information you want them to focus on. Your information stimulates questions that students cannot ask when completing loan counseling on-line or by video. In-person counseling may be time-consuming, but its benefits in helping students understand their student loan rights and responsibilities are enormous. Congratulations on your commitment to this practice!
Diana Mateer
Usually the entrance and exit counseling are long and boring, so I like the idea of keeping it short but straight to the point. I believe we should do the counseling in a way which encourages the students to ask questions, this will help them to think about the responsibilities of borrowing loans and will better prepare them in repayment.
Joshua,
You have identified one of the biggest challenges of loan counseling--making it relevant while keeping it to the point and interesting. I have found that using examples of hypothetical students similar to the borrowers I am speaking with helps drive the information home for them.And you are correct in that encouraging interaction and questions makes the sessions much more meaningful. If one student has a comment or question, chances are that other students have the same comments or questions, and everyone benefits!
Diana Mateer
Entrance and exit counseling are done in-person at the school. Students watch the entrance/exit counseling video and take a brief student loan quiz, highlighting key areas. Exit interviews are limited to three students at a time and all receive a personalized payment disclosure for their loans in addition to servicer name, phone number and website information. The importance of loan obligation is emphasized and students are encouraged to call their servicer or the school with any questions / problems. Students sign the acknowledgement to receive loan disbursements and take the student loan quiz again at this time.
Diane,
I think you are giving all of the right pieces of student loan information at the right time, including when disbursements are made during the in-school period. You are emphasizing important points and repeating them frequently, plus personalizing the exits with custom information in a small group setting is a great idea!
Diana Mateer
Our school is also an online school. We have started requiring the online exit counseling for the students, also I require the students to call me back with the total amount of their loan and who their servicer is. This helps the student learn to use the NSLDS system.
Kathy,
That is a perfect way to personalize an online exit for a student AND help them learn to use NSLDS. During your personal contact with students they also have the opportunity to ask questions about their personal circumstances as well as exit interview informationj. Great idea!
Diana Mateer
I think it is important to define and explain words that are specific to or have a different meaning when referring to financial aid. Entrance and exit counseling procedures should be similar because they the loans are still there and will need to be repaid. It is important to reiterate loan servicer contact information and to-date debt totals. Interest may have accrued on some form of aid and will need to be disclosed to the student upon completion or withdrawal of their program.
Michael,
I agree that it is very important that financial aid terms and acronyms be explained to the student. We are so used to hearing them everyday that we can forget how foreign it may sound to someone outside of financial aid. Keeping things as simple as possible will help the student to not feel so overwhelmed.
Cheryl Kesson
We currently have students complete Entrance and Exit Counseling online. In addition, I also meet with students individually in person to answer any questions they have with their repayment resources, and to show them how to pull up their loans on NSLDS.
To assist with default prevention efforts, I also meet with students individually each quarter within their program to review their aid borrowed, and to work on a sample budget/financial literacy.
I too have had past experience with struggling with getting students to complete the manual entrance and exit counseling brochures.
I now find success with having students complete online entrance and exit counseling. This may be due to the nature of my student body and students being tech-savvy, and preferring to do items online vs. paper.
I can imagine that your default rate is improving with students completed entrance and exit counseling online, and comprehending their loan amount and loan obligations more clearly.
Carol,
I really like the efforts you put into assisting your students. I think it's great that you teach them to use NSLDS. You are introducing them to a useful tool and reinforcing the fact that they have loans and this is where they will always be able to find their information.
Working on a sample budget with them is a great practice as well and something I wish someone had done with me when I first left school!
Cheryl Kesson
Carol,
Many schools seem to be moving toward online entrance and exit counseling. With students so used to doing everything online already it's not surprising that they prefer this method. I like how you had mentioned in a previous post that you still set up individual meetings to answer any questions. Making sure they understood and retained what they learned is a vital part.
Cheryl Kesson
I fell counseling students on the importance of the entrance and exit counseling is important because they need to understand there rights and responsibilites of borrowing money from the dept of education
Shelly,
I agree that it is important to have good entrance and exit counseling strategies in place. Entrance counseling is a good introduction to the loan process and their rights and responsibilities. It is important to get this information out at the beginning so that even if a student does not complete they will have received beneficial information. Exit counseling is the time to review and further stress their rights and responsibilities which hopefully have been touched upon at other points through their education as well. It is also time to make sure all their contact and reference information is up to date before leaving school.
Cheryl Kesson
As we are still a small institution (1500) students we offer one on one services, providing all the Financial Aid Q&A they may have hopefully guiding them to better understand their commitment.
We do online entrance and exit counseling. We also go to each classroom and explain to the students their rights and responsibililties during each of our six modules. Our hope is by the time they graduate they have a good understanding of the student loans they have received
After reviewing the material covered in this section I see that one on one exit counseling is the suggested means of delivering the exit interview. Adding a personal touch to our process by adding one one one counseling would be a good additions our current process of lecture -type and online exit counseling.
