By obtaining borrower contacts and references throughout the student's academic career, our school's student records are current and up to date. During the exit interview, the opportunity exists to update the student's contacts and references should any information change during the academic career.
One step to improve our information gathering strategy is to encourage more personal one-on-one exit interviews with each of our exiting students. Currently, the preferred strategy is a group exit discussion.
Joseph,
This frequent updating is bound to pay off when you are trying to locate students after they leave school. I hope you are seeing this procedure's positive effects on your contact rate if you are trying to reach students who are experiencing student loan repayment difficulties. If you can locate the student, you can surely help him or her. Great work!
Diana Mateer
We update four times a year and confirm information every time a student is serviced in the financial aid office.
tiera,
You are correct in that if you never update reference and contact information after a student starts school, you are very likely to have unreliable information by the time the student leaves your school. It is a good idea to "spot-check" information as your receive it so that you are more certain about the validity of the information. If necessary, have students take paperwork with them and return it as soon as they have complete contact information for references. You might have to keep chasing them to get the paperwork back, but it will be worth it!
Diana Mateer
I think it is of great benefit to collect student information each time the student completes or updates their financial aid obligations. The reference amd borrower information that a student has entered today may have easily become expired by the time they enter into a new school year. By not requesting students to update this information on a regular basis we are performing a disservice to our schools as well as our students.
Carolyn ,
I think you will see very positive results from the way you are handling contacts. You have identified two benefits from the information you collect and how you can validate it. Financial Aid will gain valuable contact information for the future that has been verified as accurate, but just as importantly you are celebrating the student's choices and achievement and building that caring relationship you mention from the very beginning of the program! Good luck with this effort--I think you will be pleased with the outcomes all around!
Diana Mateer
Collecting borrower contact and reference information is a logical way to keep the student involved in school. A student who has family and friends encouraging them to complete the program allows the student to be motivated and proud of themselves as well.
Our first step to improve information gathering strategies is verifying that the information the student provides in Admissions is completely filled out. Another step is to start verifying the infomation by sending a congratulations letter or phone call to the student AND references upon enrollment. This can be a postive way to verify phone numbers, addresses, etc. It may help the student feel special when their family/friend/etc. say encouraging words to the student who just enrolled.
Our school previously contacted the student and their student references only when the student goes missing which didn't allow for a caring relationship to be built. Now we are beginning to gather, verify, and update student information from day 1 and thereafter when a student reaches different levels in classes. I look forward to the positive outcomes of retention and student loan repayment.
Kimberly,
You bring up a valid concern about privacy issues. As long as you are identifying your school when contacting a reference and NOT disclosing anything regarding personal circumstances, and certainly not student loan indebtedness, you should feel comfortable contacting references. We let the reference know that we are trying to contact the student in relation to his or her enrollment at XXX University, and we ask that the reference relay our number for call-back, emphasizing that we are not trying to sell anything or collect money. It really does lead to a good amount of call-backs.
You may wish to add a brief statement about what references are used for ("to reach you with important information in case we lose contact with you," for instance) on reference collection forms.
Diana Mateer
Throughout the process, contact information is vital. I amazes me to find invalid information on resumes that we are supposed to use in helping grads obtain employment. The references - or additional contact information would help in locating those students who change addresses and phone numbers frequently. I would like to know what verbage is in the letters to the "references" of newly enrolled students. Do you ask for their opinions or just announce that the student is enrolling? Should you tell the newly enrolled student that these people will be receiving information regarding their enrollment? If you don't receive their approval to contact their references and disclose their enrollment...is it violating any privacy issues?
Roger,
These frequent updates are very valuable for so many different purposes--student services, retention, and debt management. If you can locate a student, you can almost always help him or her. It is the student you cannot locate that runs the greatest risk or withdrawing or experiencing financial issues with student loans. It's good to hear that you will be implementing a successful practice from your former school at your new employer!
Diana Mateer
The first school I was at required students to submit contact information every 12 weeks when they changes quarters. This information was kept by the teacher as well as submitted to the registrar.
This allowed for successful contact of students current or not. This is something I will be implementing at the new school.
Thomas,
Social media like Facebook are becoming very valuable ways to locate students you need to reach with vital information, so congratulations on using that tool. It's also a very good idea that all staff make it routine to get updated demographic information every time they interact with students. Keep encouraging them to do that and educating them about how much it helps your office stay in touch with students. I am glad that you will also be trying to collect updated contact information on tests--every opportunity you take to ensure good contact information is a step toward success!
Diana Mateer
All staff are required to ask a student about their current address and telephone numbers when they have any interaction with the students. We have also found Facebook to be a good source when trying to locate a student that has not been heard from in a while. I think the addition of the information on all tests would be a good idea and plan on bringing that up in our next meeting.
Rita,
Congratulations on recognizing how critical good contact and reference information is to default management! You are using the practices we have found to be most successful here at Champion--ask often for information and updates, encourage relevant references, and emphasize the importance of updating demographic information with the servicer. After all, you can't help the student you cannot locate, so your efforts will go far in managing your CDR!
The benefits of obtaining current borrower contact and reference information is vital to the student and the school. Any time we have contact with a student we verify that their information is correct and current, we also explain that the references they use should be people they know they will have consistent contact with now and in the future. We strongly suggest using family members instead of friends and explain the importance of informing the school and loan servicer of any changes to their address, phone number and email. I think that change of address cards readily available in certain areas of the school and explaining to students the importance of updating information would help increase student accountability.
Moises,
You have identified another great reason to collect contact information and references on a regular basis while a student is in school. You are getting valuable information that may be used later during student loan repayment, but just as importantly you area able to use that information to reach students who may be having problems with attendance related issues such as child care or transportation, and if you can contact them you can help solve the issues and thereby promote retention.
Diana Mateer
It is very important to gather contact information just in case the student were to miss classes on a regular basis, we would be able to get in contact with him or her through thier contact/ reference information.
It's extremely critical to gather references, especially now with the cohort now having a 3rd year. I would suggest using other social media such as Facebook or Twitter to stay connected with students. Get their facebook accounts written down along with filling out their refernce information.
That is a great practice! Waiting until you discover the information is invalid will not only require more work, but it increases the chance of the student remaining a "skip".
Our institution feel collecting bowers information is very important as well as helpful. When the students are so busy in their lives they don’t always put school first. And with have an update form every so often while the students are still currently enrolled helps. If there have been any changes then the school will already have collected that data. If then institution choose to wait until the end than possibilities with end up being that the information is out dated and you can’t gather new information if the student is a “skipâ€. We have forms that are available to our students for any information or contact updates in the lobby as well as with student services.
