Financial Aid Performance Group

Public

Ask a question from your peers to help you in your professional work. Seek different points of view on a topic that interests you. Start a thought-provoking conversation about a hot, current topic. Encourage your peers to join you in the discussion, and feel free to facilitate the discussion. As a community of educators, all members of the Career Ed Lounge are empowered to act as a discussion facilitator to help us all learn from each other.

Leslie Jensen

Never Say "I don't know"?

I found it interesting that the customer complaints sections recommends to never say to the student "I don't know". I've found that's acceptable as long as I also tell the student that I will either find the answer or get them to the person who knows the answer. Of course, I would never just say "I don't know" and just leave them hanging...

Sarah Patt

Incorrect Tax Information

A situation that I struggle with as far as communicating with students and/or parents is when a student (or parent) is married and they file seperately as head of household. I explain that they need to file an amended tax return just to hear that I am not a tax professional. Any tips?

Matt Rheinecker

Online Students

I am reading the posts as it applies to physical financial aid and admissions offices. Does anyone have suggestions for an online institution? I think relating financial aid to credit checks done by employers is a great example of making the money students are using "real" to them and hopefully they will take it very seriously.

robertina richard

Timeliness, Accuracy & Service

we need to give the student a good services and help to make the best decision when the such a program

Melissa Lawson

Getting students in for Financial Aid appointments

One of our biggest struggles is getting students back into the office for their appointments. I know communication, excellent customer service and getting into relationship are key factors while working with our students. Our Financial Aid department meets with every student who shows interest in our program and when we complete our initial meeting they leave excited. What are some strategies for keeping the student's excitement and getting them back in for their follow up appointments?

Lauren Oliver

Audits can be helpful

Audits can be helpful and rewarding to a degree. They signal weaknesses and strengths as well. As a whole, our organization welcomes audits, they help us evaluate what we are doing. We try to be as organized and prepared as well. We also implemented a checks and balance so there is a peer review.

Lauren Oliver

Program Review

I firmly believe that if you meet regulation requirements then a program review is able to be avoided. However, there are times when accrediting bodies come to inspect the school and those cannot be avoided. I think as in most things, by being prepared then there is nothing to fear. Inspections and audits can come and go if one is prepared and not have a problem.

Lauren Oliver

R2T4

When the R2T4 process changes, it was tedious to get adjusted to the new changes, but now it has become quite easy. We had to regroup and once it was clearly explained it became second nature. Another issue that has been recently occuring at our facility is the difficulty to receive the exit counseling when a student withdraws. It has been extremely difficult to get students to comply once they have decided to leave the school. Any suggestions on how to have students comply?

Lauren Oliver

Financial Aid

One of the biggest issues we have is that the financial aid officers struggle to give good service yet finish things on a timely basis.We try to stress the fact that prompt service is often not worth the issues created by careless errors. However, the students do not understand the internal framework that entails. We currently have a checks and balance put in place in order to avoid mistakes. This works well because the advisors work in pairs and check each other's work.

Carolyn Jones

Fun ways to invite the students to take ownership of their loans?

I do notice that students take out loans when they can, knowing it could help pay their program costs for the periods they are enrolled in, but don't always "care". What ways has your school's faculty and/or staff helped in getting the students involved in taking ownership of their loans in the beginning of their enrollment so they do care about their future debt? I LOVE the idea of having a poster contest for the students to explain their rights and responsibilities and importance of paying the student loans back. I truly think this will give the faculty and staff… >>>

Michele Hays