Financial aid is an important part of getting students enrolled and ready to progress toward their achieving their educational goals. Financial aid requirements and regulations frequently change so it is critical that financial aid professionals stay informed. This group is for financial aid professionals who aspire to discuss and master the competencies necessary for exemplary performance and top customer service in a dynamic, rapidly changing education landscape. Group members share best practices, ideas, thoughts, reflections, and resources to help colleagues across the globe improve performance.
It is important to provide the student with all the options they have to repay their loans. Empowering with all the knowledge is key for them to be able to pay back their loans in the best way that will work for them.
Entrance counseling is a great way to educate the students on financial aid. There are great tips here on how not to overwhelm the students by making the meetings as short as 5 to 10 minutes. It is so important to cover the rights and responsibilities and they should be repeated throughout the education process. It is still a good ides to provide the information in writing.
Building great relationships is always the key in not having students disappear in the future. It makes so much sense to collect he references at the beginning and six references sound like a lot, but it can be done. I like the idea of sending students home with the reference request list and then can bring it back. The idea of sending good credit letters would make student feel proud and will encourage them to pay in time so they take care of their credit now and in the future.
Having a nice decorated and clean FA office does sound like a great idea for the student to fill comfortable about talking to someone that will care for them and educate them about their loans. Having posters around the school is an excellent idea to remind students about their responsibility. Getting students involved in each step is smart.
I learned about how the department of education uses the 90/10 rule.
In this module, I learned what information the Department of Education required, and what could trigger a review from the department.
In this module, I learned about the importance of exit counseling. This information is provided to help students understand their responsibility now that they have received their loans and the timeline for repayment is set to begin.
I have learned that a financial aid office is a customer-service oriented office. For it to run effectively, representatives need to be knowledgeable about financial aid, and also possess customer service skills.
Compliance is for sure a group effort. This module has given me some good ideas.
This module was very helpful to me being in my new role in education.
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