arte,
The training manual is a great idea. I would be curious about what kind of information you will be asking them to convey--some courses in particular are terrific opportunities to include financial literacy and debt management information. You might even ask if you could participate by visiting the classroom during the last few minutes of class and being available for specific financial aid questions or tasks you needed to complete. The classroom provides a "captive audience" for relaying and collecting information.
The Admissions Office staff can be a great resource to ensure that the student provides good contact information, and of course you can expect your Admissions staff to carefully evaluate whether a student is a good candidate for a particular program and to be honest with a student that the program is usually not "free." Of course the Admissions Office must also take care not to discuss financial aid eligibility in any detail and not to use financial aid as a tool to "close" a prospective student. I think the best information you can share with your Admissions staff is an understanding of how important a student success in debt management is to everyone--the student, the school, and the taxpayers (us!).
Thank you for your great comments!
Diana Mateer
Currently,I am creating a training module for our faculty to participate in educating our students about default prevention. Many of our faculty welcome the opportunity to discuss the benefits of communicating loan management to our students.
Our admission office is very participative. My goal is to increase their involvement in 2012 -2013 and beyond. I plan to provide both written and video material about default management within our admission offices.
Kimberly,
You are correct in that it really helps to share ideas with other department staff and let them see for themselves how serious the CDR is and how they might be able to assist your office in its efforts to help your former students and your school. Some schools have a default management team, or task force, that consists of representatives from financial aid, admissions, student services, academics, and placement. In particular if the discussion is about repayment strategies the Placement Office can be a great resource. As the placement staff talk to students about job opportunities they can keep student loan repayment and options at the forefront of any discussion about salary with students.
Many schools with a very active default management team approach will meet monthly or once every two months at a minimum. If this is unfeasible, you might at least consider making default management an agenda item at regular all-staff meetings.
Diana Mateer
We recently started meeting and discussing our default rate. It was an eye opener for those who attended who are not employees of FA. We currently do not have faculty involved however the DOE is represented. I believe each department head should attend as well. Sharing ideas can only be a good thing. I would be curious to know who is involved in the meetings discussing FA repayment strategies of students and how often other schools meet.
Roger,
Admissions is a great time to begin reference collection because you begin obtaining information at the very beginning that will help all departments locate students during their time in school if they suddenly stop answering their mail or phones and have been missing classes.
It is also great to hear that you are conducting default management presentations during the in-school period because students who hear debt management information frequently are more likely to retain it. It is much harder for students to forget about repayment options if they have heard about them repeatedly before they get into financial trouble.
Great work!
Diana Mateer
I never thought about obtaining the references during admissions. This is something we will change quickly.
We have worked with a company that creates slide presentations about default management that we teach once a month. As of now we have 4 different modules and they are continuing to grow.
Thomas,
It sounds very beneficial to have the weekly departmental meeting to help other staff outside of Financial Aid appreciate how complex and overwhelming Title IV aid can be to students. It also gives other departments the chance to give you feedback on any general or individual financial issues they have witnessed with students so you can be more pro-active.
The new student meeting is a terrific idea to promote retention. Congratulations on your commitment to that practice! If you can catch student problems or concerns early and provide alternatives, a student will certainly be more successful.
Diana Mateer
Bernice,
It sounds as if you are really involving the other departments at your campus, and I think you will certainly see how positively they will impact your efforts to manage your borrowers. Your faculty seem very cooperative, so I encourage you to try the address change cards. The more demographic updates you obtain for your students, and of course the more references you collect for them, the better your chances of successful contact and communication with students after they leave your school if you need to assist them with their loan management. Keep up the great effort!
Diana Mateer
Our Financial Aid and Admissions offices are located in the same suite so they work quite well together. We have a weekly meeting with all dept managers, one of the issues we discuss weekly is Financial Aid and the issues students have understanding what they are told on that first day. We have started implementing a "new student" meeting after their first week of classes to discuss any issues the new students may have. The Financial Aid manager is there to answer any questions students may have regarding their financial aid.
Our Admissions Team contribute by the enrollment process. Their process includes getting 3 references from different addresses. Our Faculty Team contributes by reading memo's that come from the Financial Aid Office. They allow us to come in to the classroom to get with students for signatures (at the beginning of class). They send students to the office if we need them and they also confirm that the student has stopped by. We are not at a 100% but we are working at it. I think that having an "address change card" handed out monthly is a great idea for our Faculty department to assist us with.
Dale,
Ms. Hammer suggests that all schools use faculty and admissions staff to help collect additional references and assist in the updating of student contact information (in the case of faculty) throughout the student's enrollment. Also, of course it is difficult to involve admissions in financial aid matters because of obvious prohibitions, but you can certainly make sure your admissions department understands the importance of pre-qualifying students who are likely to succeed in your school. That is one of the most powerful default prevention tools.
Faculty can also set aside class time for you to visit their classes if you have information to share. Because students are most likely to be found in class, you have a "captive" audience!
The more information you give and contact you have with a student during their time at your school, the more likely that you will be successful in prohibiting defaults.
I have had some success with asking faculty to include me in some of their courses as a guest speaker on financial literacy. At Champion College Services we strongly believe that financial education is one of the big keys to preventing defaults. Diana
Hello Ms. Hammer,
I am wondering what you feel are the most appropriate and effective ways for the faculty and admissions offices to contribute the our institutions default prevention efforts? I'd appreciate any suggestions you may have on this topic.
Sincerely,
Dale Huyck
Michele,
That is certainly the right way to approach discussion and explanation on financial aid, because the Admissions Department should do no more than indicate that financial aid is available and refer the student to the Financial Aid Office for all other information and questions. The Admissions Department can help in the collection of references during the application process because good contact information is necessary for many facets of a student's enrollment, not just for financial aid purposes.
Diana
Diana Mateer
admissions touches base on financial aid, but financial aid then goes into detail.
Our admissions and faculty play a great role in assisting in our default prevention efforts. Admissions informs the student at the initial visit the importance of financial aid and of the vital information we will provide to them. Our faculty has been very generous and allows us time to meet with students to conduct group entrance counseling sessions. Our Financial Aid department also does a great job in providing students information to help them make informed financial decisions and express the importance of repaying loans to help maintain a good credit history. Our school also has contracted with an agency to provide free help to student to manage their student loans during and after graduation. I believe that we should have quarterly meetings with admissions and faculty to remind them of how vital their role is in default prevention and brain storm as a group for new ideas.
Ashley,
Your practice of beginning default prevention at Orientation is a great way to keep default management on every staff member's mind from the beginning of a student's enrollment. More importantly, it's never too early to begin borrower education activities, even before students receive their first loan disbursements. Orientation sessions provide a fine opportunity to answer student loan questions and emphasize the rights and responsibilities associated with borrowing student loans.
Diana Mateer
Default Prevention begins in FA and moves to Orientation and is discussed at each Fiscal meeting as well
Several open houses for trade schools I have been to lacked showing anything regarding student loans in lobbies, admission offices, etc... It's mostly on what the curriculum accomplishes then showing any care in default prevention. I believe posters would be very helpful and that extra step of a poster would leave a better impression on anyone new or wanting to attend the school. This probably sounds weird but I would even suggest magnets for students. Think about it for a second. Do you have a magnet on your refrigerator thats been there for ages? I know I have a bunch from food to pet grooming. Students can refer back to something as simple as that. Default Prevention Magnets provided during admissions, financial aid, open houses, etc...
Hi Robert,
I am happy to hear that you will be implementing one of the reference gathering tools. Your contact rate with your students after they leave school will improve in proportion to the number of unique references you can collect at various points in your programs, from beginning to end.
A life skills class would be perfect for you to conduct based on your banking background! If the class is offered at the beginning of the program, students can learn some valuable tips for budgeting while in school and for borrowing conservatively. You might also consider a refresher class near the end of the program to talk about money management, including student loan repayment, after graduation. I sometimes conducted the life skills class in conjunction with the student loan exit interview.
Good luck! Diana
I really like the idea of having Admissions get references. We are not currently doing this but by the end of today we will be.
Also the life skills class is something I am going to talk to the Director about. This is something I can teach as I cam from a banking background.
