Bridging the financial aid information gap: schools do a good job dispensing aid information, but these experts say there's room for improvement

University Business,  Sept, 2004  by Tim Goral

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Earlier this year, The Sallie Mae Fund (www.thesalliemaefund.org) conducted a study on the financial aid information gap among Latino students (see University Business July 2004). "In general, the study showed that people want more information," says Tom Joyce, vice president of corporate communications for Sallie Mae. "They're also saying that they want the information at a younger age than they are getting it. And, especially in the Hispanic community, they want to get the information in person, from an expert source, as opposed to a brochure a letter."

While the Sallie Mae study focused on a specific population, the data also made clear that a significant portion of the general population wasn't getting information on financial aid options that would enable them to attend the schools of their choice. "I think it's an overriding broad-based issue with first-generation families, period, regardless of their ethnicity," adds Carl Buck. "You often have Caucasian first-generation families who have no idea how this works."

Buck has spent the last 30 years directing financial aid services at a number of universities, including UCLA, Rice University (TX), Rutgers (NJ), the University of Wisconsin, and the University of Utah. That kind of background gives him a solid foundation in the workings of financial aid from the school's side of the fence. Now VP of Financial Aid Services for Peterson's clearinghouse for higher education information and director of the Best College Deals Web site (www.petersons.com/bcd), Buck conducts financial aid workshops with families of high school juniors. What he encounters most, he says, is confusion.

"A lot of good work is done on the admissions side," says Buck, "but I think schools really need to take a hard Look at how they work with families that have applied for aid and are deemed to be eligible--or, just as importantly, are deemed to be ineligible. What can they do to help these students find other ways to pay for college?"

THE PERSONAL TOUCH

Buck says one of the chief frustrations he hears from parents is getting answers to their questions about paying for college. "They often ask, 'How do we connect with the main player, the key person, to show us how to make college affordable at this school?'" he says. "Surprisingly, at most schools, there really isn't one person who has that assignment."

In an ideal world, he says, schools could create a "hub office," a department responsible for taking the financial aid process to the next Level, beyond the form-checking stage. "Perhaps we need an ombudsman or troubleshooter role, someone who can work with families and help them figure out how they're going to pay their bill, not just for the first year, but for all four years. Financial aid need is relative, and it's very subjective. Non-needy families need to know information up front about prepaid tuition plans. They need to know about monthly plans, and they need to know about merit scholarship opportunities. For example, many families don't realize that if you apply for merit scholarship in your freshman year and don't get it, you can still apply in your sophomore, junior, and senior year."

Unfortunately, Buck says, the Larger the school, the more families that need to be served, and the more difficult it is to deliver that Level of personalized service. "It's not that financial aid counselors aren't interested in helping, it's that their job responsibilities no Longer allow them to," he says. "These days, counselors are not just counselors anymore. They're dealing with various Liability issues, quality control issues, fund management issues, and so on. The percentage of actual quality counseling for families is minimal at best."

Heather Ficarra, vice president of sales and marketing for ACS Higher Education Services (www.acs-inc.com), says that in an age of rapidly growing enrollment, schools find it tough to adjust their services to meet demand. ACS helps schools improve enrollments by providing services that bridge the admissions and financial aid processes. "A Lot of schools want to be able to offer better service, but they simply don't have the infrastructure to do it," says Ficarra. "They have Long queues in the financial aid office, busy phone Lines, and so on. Schools are struggling with how to handle that growth, because if you can't help families finance an education, you aren't going to get students into the seats."

Many schools have turned to online tools, offered by ACS as well as other companies, to complement their in-person financial aid services. "We're adding a new element to financial aid services by marrying online solutions with offline solutions," says Ficarra. "We combine call center and other administrative financial aid processing with online tools. We put together outbound programs to help schools move prospective students from the admissions process through financial aid. And we have inbound programs where we field calls from families that have general questions or concerns about the financial aid process. It's all about moving people through the process and educating them about financial aid."