Innovation Archives

Closing the Gap on FAFSA Completion Rates

May 14, 2024

By: Robert Heil, FAS Chief Executive Officer (CEO)

The Challenge:

Statistics from the National College Attainment Network (NCAN) indicate FAFSA completions for the class of 2024 are currently down 24.3% compared to this same time last year. This poses serious risk to enrollments this fall. Significant timing delays, a flawed rollout, inaccurate data files, and application fatigue are but a few of the contributing factors that led us to this point. May 1, National Decision Day, felt largely uneventful as most students were not in a position to make college decisions without financial aid offers.

The FAFSA delays and challenges have been frustrating for campuses and students alike. Financial aid professionals are the unsung heroes of higher education right now, working tirelessly to do everything they can to get accurate financial aid offers to students. Still, many students are fatigued from the process and fewer students have completed the FAFSA as the statistics bear out. Much is at stake and students deserve the opportunity to step into their future.

A Solution:

Our mission at FAS compels us to do something about the challenge. This is why we are partnering with 3 Enrollment Marketing, Rutgers University, Florida State University, and ZeeMee to host FAFSA Now, a nationwide online event, June 6, designed to guide students and parents through completing the FAFSA and demystify the myth that it is too late to apply. During this event, students and parents can:

Follow step-by-step guidance on completing the FAFSA from experts at FAS.
Learn from admissions leaders on navigating late college applications and optimizing their college choices.
Engage in breakout rooms and live Q&A sessions.

Most importantly, colleges and universities can make this event available to their prospective and admitted students at no cost. With the fall semester fast approaching, this event is a prime opportunity for students and families to get real-time assistance and expert advice, ensuring they can move past the hurdles and toward their future.

Challenges Deserve Solutions:

Our team believes challenges deserve solutions. It’s a guiding principle at FAS. With over 1,600 years of combined industry experience, we don’t stare at problems; we head toward problems.

Event Registration and Resources:

Event resources and promotional kits are available on the FAS Resource Library at https://www.financialaidservices.org/research-and-resource/

Colleges and universities are welcome to use the email templates, social media graphics, and event registration link when promoting FAFSA Now to students.

Students and their families can register for the event at https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_HOE8xYkZS3KEEMXX33s97g#/registration

About FAS:

Trusted by over 1,800 colleges and universities and fortified by over 1,600 years of industry experience, the mission of FAS is to empower colleges and universities to strengthen financial operations, optimize enrollment and enhance the student experience.

Want to learn more about what FAS can do for your institution? Reach out here to start a conversation and learn more about our services. You can watch the explainer videos of our services or reach out for a 20-minute quick consultation.

Financial Aid Services (FAS) has served higher education for over 30 years. Located in Atlanta, Georgia, FAS provides consulting, staffing, processing, and assessment services to assist institutions with improving operational efficiency, student satisfaction, and regulatory compliance in financial aid and student business services. FAS’ accomplished team averages 26 years of experience and has a combined 1,600 years of higher education experience. With clients in 49 states, FAS has successfully served over 1,800 institutions nationwide. The Company’s extensive experience combined with industry-leading expertise and focus on superior client outcomes, enables FAS to deliver lasting results to its clients and the students they serve. Visit www.FinancialAidServices.org for more information.

Navigating the Maze of FAFSA Delays: Understanding your Next Steps

February 6, 2024

Preparing for the 2024-25 Award Year: Understanding the FAFSA Simplification Act

December 28, 2023

By: Tiffany Motyka, Ed.D., FAS Senior Consultant

The term simplification is defined as ‘to make simpler’ or ‘to make more intelligible’. However, the FAFSA Simplification Act can appear to any college or university like the new requirements are the opposite. The changes began in the 2021-22 Award Year when limitations on student eligibility related to Selective Service registration, drug convictions, and subsidized usage limitations were eliminated. These changes were very welcome to the Financial Aid community. However, things began to get more serious in the 2023-24 Award Year when changes to the statutory definition of cost of attendance (COA), professional judgment requirements, determinations of independence, and the application process for unaccompanied homeless youth and foster care youth were published. These updates required institutions to change long-held language and terminology and specified the dynamics of the cost of attendance figures and the Professional Judgement processes.

Amid the 2023-24 Award Year changes, there was also a looming responsibility schools were trying to grapple with for the coming 2024-25 Award Year. Students would be asked to complete a reformatted FAFSA, become “contributors”, and provide consent for a more streamlined transference of newly designated Controlled Unclassified Federal Tax Information (FTI). The 2024-25 FAFSA would not be available until New Year’s Eve, a change from the October 1^st date many families and schools were used to. This delay, however, would not soften the severity of what was then to become the biggest changes of the FAFSA Simplification Act, the Student Aid Index (SAI). This concept would require changes to financial aid vernacular and long-lived terminology shared among students, parents, financial aid administrators, and student information systems. The SAI calculation would eliminate the need for certain FAFSA information and instead of zero being the best option, a negative SAI could result. New markers such as AGI, poverty thresholds, family size, state of residence, and federal means-tested benefits would now allow families to be automatically eligible for maximum Pell Grant or minimum Pell Grant, but the Simplified Needs Test (SNT) and Auto-Zero calculations from previous years would be eliminated.

As the financial aid community began to digest the FAFSA Simplification requirements, they also began to wonder how the technology will be ready for the 2024-25 Award Year. First, schools would need to sign up for a new Student Aid Internet Gateway (SAIG) mailbox just to import the new FAFSA submissions due to the CUI designation of the Federal Tax Information. Programs like TDClient and EdConnect would have to be updated to cooperate with the new mailbox. However, the largest burden seemed to fall at the feet of the student information system companies. They must ensure the new SAI calculations are formulated correctly, the new FAFSA fields are included, and old ones removed, the vernacular is changed, a mechanism is included to report campus-based earnings to COD, and most importantly the software releases are provided to schools in a timely manner. The SIS companies must ensure schools have a way to determine cost of attendance when the FAFSA no longer offers housing choice. The proration of Pell Grant awards must now be based on enrollment intensity and not a prorated disbursement as in prior years. Year-round Pell Grant cannot be limited to only half-time enrolled students. Negative SAI figures must be used for determination of Pell Grant but cannot be used to determine need. Systems must ensure that there is only one Student Aid Index, no matter the number of terms enrolled. The outcry of concern from current users was visceral and began to sharpen the focus of the SIS companies. The financial aid community provided insight and regulatory interpretation and demonstrated the important relationship between financial aid administrators and the necessary technology to support aid recipients.

Once the Student Information Systems are delivered and contain all required updates, institutions still must make updates needed to comply with the FAFSA Simplification Act. These changes include ensuring the newly revamped FAFSA/ISIR comment codes are updated and correlate to any documentation or action required from the student, parent, or school. Cost of Attendance designations often include housing choice but since that question has been removed from the FAFSA, schools will need to determine how to identify and include that designation in the COA without postponing student awarding and disbursement. Any FAFSA fields that were removed and updated which resulted in new SIS fields will need to be updated in any existing rules, algorithms, and schedulers. Other stakeholders will need to be updated on the changes and ensure all marketing materials are updated to remove old information such as EFC. Federal work-study earnings must be provided to and accepted by the Department of Education to ensure that information is included in the FAFSA data. The administrative burden is intense but necessary to ensure the goals of the FAFSA Simplification Act come to fruition. Colleges and universities are preparing for these changes by communicating with each other, assisting student information systems with feedback on releases to come, and educating families on the new FAFSA and awarding processes. The additional effort amongst the financial aid community and its stakeholders can make a tremendous difference in the lives of the students and families we serve.

Are you facing staffing challenges at your institution that will affect your ability to handle the upcoming federal changes?

Contact FAS today for a quick consultation on how we can help you discover solutions tailored to your unique needs. Reach out at 770.988.9447 or via email at info@FinancialAidServices.org. We look forward to connecting with institutions ready to overcome challenges and elevate their financial aid and student business services.

About FAS

Financial Aid Services (FAS) has served higher education for over 30 years. Located in Atlanta, Georgia, FAS provides consulting, staffing, processing, and assessment services to assist institutions with improving operational efficiency, student satisfaction, and regulatory compliance in financial aid and student business services. FAS’ accomplished team averages 28 years of experience and has a combined 1,600 years of higher education experience. With clients in 49 states, FAS has successfully served over 1,800 institutions nationwide. The Company’s extensive experience combined with industry-leading expertise and focus on superior client outcomes, enables FAS to deliver lasting results to its clients and the students they serve. Visit www.FinancialAidServices.org for more information.

Challenges Deserve Solutions Master Class Episode 4: ‘Just in Time’ to ‘2 Steps Ahead’ on Compliance

October 18, 2023

A single financial aid officer can be expected to handle up to 2,000 cases each year. Imagine the pressure and the immense responsibility that comes with ensuring each case is handled accurately and in compliance with frequently changing regulations. What’s more, looming on the horizon is the pending FAFSA Simplification, set to streamline the application process. While simplification holds promise, it also introduces new compliance considerations, adding to the challenges that financial aid officers face. The challenge is real, and it’s relentless.

Watch

Financial Aid Services, LLC (FAS) CEO Robert Heil decodes the complexities of regulatory challenges and offers expert insights on achieving compliance. For an even more comprehensive understanding, don’t miss the Challenges Deserve Solutions eBook. Click below to watch the full seven-part master class.

Watch Full Series

The Challenge: Dense, Ever-Changing Regulations

Federal and state financial aid regulations are complex at the best of times, with the federal student aid handbook as dense and challenging to read as the tax code. Yet, regulations aren’t set in stone. They are changing at a lightning pace, adding an extra layer of complexity to each case a student aid officer handles. In fact, in the FAS survey of financial aid professionals, regulatory change on the federal, state, and local levels was the second most common challenge, having been cited by nearly half of respondents. Additionally, federal and state-level requirements are often at odds, leading to confusion and uncertainty among professionals and students alike.

The Solution: Approaching Regulatory Demands With Teamwork

Financial Aid Solutions, LLC (FAS) offers tailored coaching and training, as well as advisory services, that can help teams become well-versed in the latest regulatory changes and ensure they are compliant in handling each case. Newly trained staff, armed with this information, can quickly access any detailed documentation they might need instead of having to go off in search. More readily available information frees them up to spend more time on the day-to-day operations of their specific role.

FAS’ team of experts also offers compliance reviews and training on policy and procedures that can help any institution prepare for both the expected and the unexpected. Put together, these offerings from FAS enable financial aid teams to operate more efficiently and steer far clear of any compliance issues, helping everyone work more confidently and effectively.

What’s Next

Whether you are a seasoned professional or an aspiring leader in higher education, this engaging and informative session provides a unique opportunity to gain a deeper understanding of the challenges facing higher education and discover innovative solutions to shape its future. Contact us to learn your options! Together, we can transform financial aid, empower students, and create a brighter future for higher education.

Watch Now

Challenges Deserve Solutions Master Class Episode 2: Meeting Student Expectations

October 6, 2023

Higher Ed’s Landscape is changing. Students expect swift customer service, influenced by their experiences in the era of on-demand services. However, when it comes to financial aid in higher education, many institutions struggle to meet these expectations, causing frustration and anxiety among parents and students. The misalignment of expectations erodes trust in the institution, hampers enrollment contributing to low retention rates, and presents preventable challenges for the university. How can your institution meet the rising expectations?

Watch

Financial Aid Services, LLC (FAS) CEO Robert Heil’s Master Class episode on this topic and explore further insights in the Challenges Deserve Solutions eBook. Let’s work together to make higher education more accessible and student-friendly.

Watch Full Series

The Challenge

For students, a college degree represents a significant investment. They view it as a product that comes with a hefty price tag and expect to be treated as valued customers. In this context, speed is key. Unfortunately, the traditional financial aid process is often slow, methodical, and paper-intensive, failing to align with students’ need for efficiency.

Digital natives, today’s students want quick responses and 24/7 accessibility. Yet, many find it challenging to connect with financial aid professionals, with surveys showing that a significant portion of students have never met or interacted with aid administrators. This highlights a pressing need for more frequent and consistent touchpoints in the financial aid process.

Adding to students’ frustration is the fear of loans. Many have seen their parents and older siblings struggle with student loan repayment, making them acutely aware of the financial risks associated with higher education.

Financial challenges are a leading cause of dropout, with 42% of students citing them as the primary reason for leaving their studies. Furthermore, 38% of potential students decide not to enroll due to fears about student loans. Families often find the level of service provided by financial aid offices underwhelming compared to other customer service experiences.

The Solution

Financial Aid Services (FAS) offers a transformative partnership model that empowers financial aid teams. By strategically outsourcing processing and providing additional support, FAS ensures rapid responses to student queries, meeting their expectations for efficiency and accessibility.

This partnership doesn’t replace professionals but enhances their capabilities, allowing them to focus on counseling and advising students. It streamlines processes with online verification, freeing up staff time for personalized customer service and simplifying the experience for students and families.

What’s Next

Whether you are a seasoned professional or an aspiring leader in academia, this engaging and informative session provides a unique opportunity to gain a deeper understanding of the challenges facing higher education and discover innovative solutions to shape its future. Contact us to learn your options! Together, we can transform financial aid, empower students, and create a brighter future for higher education.

Watch Now

The Looming Enrollment Cliff

June 5, 2023

By: Robert Heil, CEO

You are likely aware of the impending enrollment cliff expected to hit higher education soon. The cliff is a demographic trend resulting from a decline in the number of high school graduates in the early 2000s, Now that those students are reaching college-age, the metrics are clear – many college seats available, not nearly enough students to fill them all.

Preparing for the looming cliff is a central topic in higher education meetings, conferences, and webinars. Too often, these meetings revolve around the conventional go-to topics: diversifying revenue streams, exploring non-traditional and graduate programs, targeting specific markets, increasing financial aid, improving recruitment strategies, and boosting retention rates. While these aspects are undoubtedly important, they have always been on the radar. These initiatives matter but haven’t these always been priorities? The question now is: What is it about the impending cliff that makes these new?

Campuses cannot simply market their way around the cliff. A comprehensive solution is required, which means programs and operational excellence are equally important. As I meet with college and university Presidents and their Boards, leaders in Washington DC, and in the EdTech sector, I noticed 4 factors that warrant more attention when preparing for the enrollment cliff.

College-Going Rates in Your Market is a Metric You Need to Know:

The college-going rate is the number of higher school graduates who enroll in college. It is critical that you know these rates throughout your markets. Everyone is aware of the national demographics. Not as many campuses are paying close attention to the college-going rates in their primary and secondary markets. Are those rates increasing or decreasing in your markets? What are the projections in the coming years? These rates will either increase or mitigate the severity of the cliff you experience.

Historically, higher education weathered these demographic storms by relying on an increase in the college-going rate. What makes this particular cliff so concerning is that we may not have the luxury of relying on higher college-going rates. The cliff reality could be made even steeper by a segment of students and families that are giving up or doubting the ROI of higher education. Career opportunities are drawing students into the world of work directly out of higher school.

Alternative online credentials are luring others away from traditional degree programs. COVID had a short and long-term impact on the learning experience. Unfortunately, more students and families now question the value of college and are exploring new routes to learning and career outcomes. This value question was under scrutiny already due to rising costs in tuition and student loan debt; however, it appears to have gained momentum post-COVID and could impact college-going rates. Keep reading. You can do something about this.

Pathways Need to Be Central to Your Strategy:

Creating opportunities for high school students to experience your campus earlier will create an advantage. More dual enrollment programs, weekend coding boot camps, literature events, athletic camps, gaming contests, performing arts programs, mock trial coaching events, and shark-tank business projects are just a few examples of where you might invest. Align those immersive experiences with academic or extra-curricular programs you are confident will drive growth for your campus.

Do not overlook transfer agreements with community colleges in your primary and secondary markets either. The development of pathway programs benefits everyone. You drive more demand while influencing the college-going rates in your primary and secondary markets.

Pathways are important priorities for legislatures at the state and federal levels; you may discover funding sources exist, too. You are not going to market your way around the cliff with simply more direct marketing and social media strategies. Pathway programs are key to the solution and benefit everyone.

You Will Lose Pricing Power:

NACUBO recently released their Tuition Discounting Study. The average institutional tuition discounting rate increased to a record 56.2% for first-time undergraduates. These rates already raise questions about how sustainable these discount rates are for most institutions. Unfortunately, the impending cliff will only add significant downward pressure on tuition pricing. While this may signal good news for students and families, it means noticeably less tuition revenue for many colleges and universities, making many campuses particularly vulnerable.

To combat this, make sure you are maximizing your financial aid strategy and operations. It is not just your leveraging strategy, but your financial aid operations and processes too. How timely are your award offers? What are your turnaround times on the key steps of the financial aid process? Wait time? Are you staffed appropriately? Does your process create a seamless and convenient experience for students and their families? When considering financial aid, it is not just about the money. A great experience speaks volumes about the value of your campus. No amount of marketing will offset a poor process or experience.

What Happens When the Enrollment Cliff Meets Higher Ed’s Staffing Crisis?

While COVID accelerated staff vacancies and hiring challenges, the root causes existed pre-pandemic. Today’s staff vacancies and hiring challenges show no signs of letting up anytime soon, pushing many campuses to re-imagine their operating models. This is particularly important for financial aid offices that influence the student experience and are on the front lines of combating the impact of the enrollment cliff. A 2022 survey conducted by The Chronicle and P3.EDU indicated 71% of campuses are outsourcing more of their operations to strategic partners.

Our most recent eCity and FAS (Financial Aid Services) industry survey mirrored equivalent results when asked about financial aid operations. The primary contributing factor is to create a model where the strategic partner can do what they do best and free up the financial aid staff to do what they do best. That is a model that benefits both the students and your campus. Staff retention is important to this conversation, too. If you want to retain your students- retain your staff. When you do lose staff members, rely on interim staffing to stem the tide until you can backfill those positions. This limits operational disruption and protects your compliance, enrollment goals, and student experience.

Challenges Deserve Solutions:

The enrollment cliff presents a significant challenge for colleges and universities, but it is not insurmountable. Our team believes challenges deserve solutions. It is a guiding principle at FAS. The good news? These challenges have solutions. They come from creating new pathways, empowering your existing team, and applying new operating models and partnerships alongside enrollment management strategies. Combined, these create a framework for a comprehensive solution that benefits students and your campus. The right solution always benefits both.

Want to learn more about what FAS can do for your institution? Reach out here to start a conversation and learn more about our services. You can watch our service videos or reach out for a 20-minute quick consultation.

Contact Us

7 Successful Strategies that Increase Financial Aid Retention Rates

May 11, 2023

By: FAS Staff

Offer and promote financial literacy and education programs: Many students who drop out of college or struggle to repay student loans do so because they lack financial literacy skills. By offering financial education programs and resources, financial aid offices can help students better manage their finances and make informed decisions about borrowing and repayment.

Personalized communication and outreach efforts: Financial Aid Services Reported that 86% of first-generation students use some type of Financial Aid. Financial aid offices should try to communicate with students and families in a personalized and targeted way, taking into account their individual needs and circumstances. This can include using student-specific messaging and offering individualized counseling sessions on a rotating semester base.

Streamline and Simplify awarding process: The financial aid process can be hard to navigate, and complex and confusing financial aid processes can discourage students from applying or accepting financial aid awards. By simplifying and streamlining these processes, financial aid offices can make it easier for students to receive and accept financial aid.

Monitor academic progress and provide support: Financial aid offices should monitor academic progress and provide support to students who are struggling academically. This can include offering academic counseling, tutoring, and other support services to help students succeed.

Encourage involvement in campus activities and organizations: Students who are involved in campus activities and organizations are more likely to stay enrolled and graduate on time. Financial aid offices can encourage involvement by providing information about campus events and organizations and offering support for extracurricular activities.

Offer incentives for meeting academic milestones: Financial aid offices can offer incentives such as book stipends, meal plans, grants, or other financial rewards for students who meet academic milestones such as maintaining a certain GPA or completing a certain number of credit hours.

Monitor and address non-academic factors that can impact retention:
Non-academic factors such as mental health, housing, and food insecurity can impact a student’s ability to stay enrolled and succeed academically. Financial aid offices should be aware of these factors and provide support and resources to address them.

Challenges Deserve Solutions: Rethinking the Financial Aid Services Model

April 17, 2023

Is Financial Aid a Process or an Experience?

April 11, 2023

The Need for Speed

February 8, 2023

By: Robert Heil, CEO

Students expect a combination of personalization with the speed that they experience from Amazon or DoorDash. Without that speed, students are less likely to stay engaged with you, and less engagement leads to recruitment and retention challenges. This can be especially challenging for financial aid and student accounts offices where speed + quality + accuracy must be delivered at scale.

Whether it be wait times, responding to their initial inquiry, offering admission first, or processing aid faster and sending an offer notice first–students reward speed.

If students love speed, what does speed love? Efficiency.

Providing a more efficient enrollment experience for students and parents must be a critical element in your comprehensive enrollment management strategy. No amount of marketing can offset an inefficient process. This is the pitfall too many campuses fall in. You can spend (or waste) hundreds of thousands of dollars on enrollment marketing, yet your greatest competitive advantage may be uncovering the efficiency and organizational capability needed to deliver customization and speed at scale.

You may not consider your financial aid and student accounts offices as major brand influencers, but you should. Mistakes and complications damage your brand. Your brand is not driven by US News & World Report rankings. Your brand is shaped by the student experience you deliver. When students and parents receive a streamlined, accurate experience, you strengthen your brand every time.

Websites that do not load in less than 6 seconds are usually abandoned. In the same vein, dissatisfied students will go elsewhere. Outside of academics, no other two offices on campus shape the student experience more than the financial aid and student accounts offices. Do your strategic investments in recruitment and retention reflect that?

Without speed + accuracy + quality, you are operating at a disadvantage.

Here are two ways we are helping our clients:

At FAS, we’ve spent 32 years mastering a model connecting the best people, processes, and systems to help our clients gain a competitive advantage. Our Outsourced Processing service combines our consultants, analysts, industry-leading practices, lean process methodology, and meticulous quality controls. These coupled with our technology platform provides the speed, accuracy, and quality your students expect. Using this service, your financial aid office can process aid exponentially faster with accuracy giving you a major competitive advantage with recruitment and retention.

Want to know where you stand? Our Organizational Capability Reviews for financial aid and student accounts offices can measure your business processes against best practices to discover where the major efficiency gains can be found. How well are you optimizing technology? How do your staffing levels stack up against benchmarks from peer institutions? Where can you improve the student experience? Don’t think of it as an audit. The goal is not to point out mistakes. The purpose is to find opportunities. We are “peer educators”. Our consultants come alongside to teach, coach, and roll up their sleeves to help.

To learn more, contact FAS to uncover how you can strengthen your financial operations, optimize enrollment, and enhance the student experience.