I feel its really important, the more you educate them the more they wont go into default
It has been difficult to get across the importance of default prevention spread across departments, but we are making progress. Our school has recently developed a program to educate our students about the financial aid they have received at different times within the seventh month course. A member from the FA team goes into each class does a brief talk the first day of each of our 5 modules regarding student loans. Our default specialist will later go into to the classes of Modules 3, 4 and 5 and give a power point presentation focusing on default prevention and the consequences if it happens. We are hoping this will new approach will help our student understand their responsibilities when borrowing money.
Michael,
Yes, I think it important for the different departments to understand what an impact they can make. Reminders on the importance of paying back loans can be easily incorporated into each department.
Cheryl Kesson
Financial aid is the sole department that concentrates on default prevention/management.
Financial Aid can have a meeting with all departments. The meeting will involve the seriousness of default and how prevalent it is today because students are not counseled enough. Although, department are supposed to be separate in terms of what is discussed with a student. Meaning, FA doesn't speak about admission, academics, student services, etc. It is important that the student have resources and reminders at ever step of the process to ensure the student is counseled about default in the best and most comprehensive way possible.
Allison,
Career Services has such a unique and valuable role. I agree that it is important they feel comfortable contacting students they know may be struggling to make payments. Helping them to understand it is support and assistance they are offering will greatly help alleviate the feeling of being collections in these situations. When students know this type of support is available to them they will be more apt to reach out for assistance early if they are in a difficult situation.
Cheryl Kesson
Allison,
I love that you already have faculty involved in placement efforts and have identified a way to build on that to include loan management. Support and interaction between departments is so important in delivering a consistent message to students and helping to ensure their success.
Cheryl Kesson
I really appreciate this post! My institution has built in many systems to support students as they move through the program. We have Student and Career Services Specialists who work closely with each student. However we have not yet pulled them into the financial aid world for fear that it might make struggling graduates reluctant to answer emails and calls (believing we are only calling to collect money). I think that if finance and loan support is presented as linked to career success and work with them from day one on how to manage their financial obligations, then our student services team can feel comfortable initiating contact with students and grads we know to be struggling with payments. It'a about the intention to serve our students first.
Our admissions team works closely with the financial aid dept. an dthem with faculty to assess each student's needs within the first two weeks of the program. Faculty could be better supported in how to bring it into lectures and outside interactions without detracting from the material they are covering.
We have found sucess in getting teachers excited about placement efforts by creating value and giving them both speciifc ways to contribute and opportunity to offer suggestions. I hope that a similar approach to Financial aid matters will lead to more company wide "Loan Management consciousness".
Annaliett,
It sounds as if your school has some excellent admissions staff and faculty. With Admissions working toward the best fit for the student and school, and with faculty focusing on student retention, you should have some great success. You will find that both the Admissions and Faculty practices will assist in your default prevention efforts.
Diana Mateer
Admissions takes great pride in screening each potential student to determine their worthability. The need of the institution plays an important part in the composition of the diversity our Institute represents. Our faculty monitors the progress of each student and intervines with constructive feedback in order to stimulate training and student retention.
Wendy,
Faculty involvement is a very successful way to help you gain access to your students. It could be as simple as asking faculty to reserve a small amount of class time for you to provide or collect information and documents, because you are likely to find a student in class when s/he is on campus! You can also get your faculty used to the idea of collecting updated demographic information from students in their classes. Faculty members also sometimes are the first of your school's staff to hear from former students, and updated contact information can be one of the first things they ask for when former students contact them.
I have found that when faculty realize how valuable a little of their time can be to such an important initiative at the school (default management), they are glad to assist. Good luck!
Diana Mateer
I'm the Student Loan Coordinator and I'm new at this position, I found really good information that I know it's going to help us reduce our students defaulting. Getting our faculty in involved is a great idea.
Gari,
I am glad you plan to try the poster idea on campus. Reminders on important student loan concepts let your borrowers know that you take their indebtedness seriously and want to help. Faculty may not require extensive financial aid training--they just need to be willing to collect demographic updates if you request them to do that, refer students they feel may need your assistance, and give you a bit of n-class time if you need to make announcements or contact students you have not had the opportunity to meet with outside of class. After all, in class should be the easiest place to find students! Good luck working with your other departments. They can be a valuable resource for the Financial Aid Office.
Diana Mateer
As to Faculty I am not quite sure how they may contribute unless they are trained to do it and actually allowed doing that. As to posters in classrooms - yes, that may help as constant reminder and I am going to try it.
Admission advisor's contribution is:
1.Initial meeting - with applicants:
- instructions how to apply for FAFSA,
- what types of Fin Aid FAFSA offers,
2.With Students:
- after enrollment schedules students for Fin Aid orientation
As of right now neither the faculty nor the admissions department contributes. We are a distance learning school and I would like to implement a process where the on-line instructors give the students a contact page to fill out at the end of every module. I think this would benefit greatly. We are also going to be adding a "life skills" course in the second module.
I am the loan coordinator here, and it is a new position, I will be in contact with the students on a regular basis.
David,
It is great to hear you recognize the importance of having everyone involved in default prevention efforts and are working towards having everyone actively involved. Faculty and admissions may not even know what a CDR is, so it is important to make them aware of it and how their contributions are so vital to the success of the organization.
I wish you continued success in your efforts.
Cheryl Kesson
at this point faculty and admissions have very little involvement in default efforts. our default prevention committee recognizes the importance of their contribution and is actively working on ways to include them in our efforts. the directors of both departments are on our default prevention committee and providing input on ways to increase the involvment of their personnel.
Jeffrey,
It's great to hear you are collecting those references!
I like that you are starting the student off with information right from the start at orientation. It is never to early to hear it and repetition leads to retention.
Cheryl Kesson
Joseph,
I agree that showing the student the value of their investment will greatly reduce their chance of defaulting. A solid education and pride in all that they have accomplished is a great start. The value of paying back their loans and establishing good credit continues them on the path toward success.
Great post! Best of luck with your new comittee!
Cheryl Kesson
In the enrollment process the admissions advisor make sure the student completes a reference sheet that includes at least 6 references and during the student's orientation process all departments’ heads are involved with providing student's with resources and tools to help prevent Default
