Supporting Students & Families through the Conundrum

7 MIN READ

This article is the 4th in a series on
"Financial Aid, College Choice, and COVID-19"

The time is now to support our students and families through this financial aid conundrum and ensure they’re making the best choices for their futures.

In the first article in this series, Financial Aid, College Choice, and COVID-19, I talk about the importance of all of us working together right now because as adults, as students, as human beings, if we’re going to get through COVID-19, it will be together.

In the second article, I talk about how we face a Financial Aid Conundrum that is persistent, systemic, fraught with pitfalls ready to take advantage of families, and overbearingly complex to tackle. I talk about this now because this issue is facing our students right now as they prepare to choose what college they will go to by the College Decision Day deadline of May 1 for many California public and independent four-year institutions.

When all is said and done, though, we must keep in mind the Power of Student Resilience and Choice.

That's why in this fourth article, I want to address the students so that they can recognize this power. I also address all adult allies so that we can support students in embracing said power. 

Students, you can do this!

​​If you are a student, or you are a family member or guardian, consider the power of savings and learn how to budget. You can make it work if you know what’s in front of you and take the time to thoughtfully plan it out.

Times may be different than what you expected but that doesn’t mean you have to give up on your goals. You may have to cultivate a more open heart and mind to opportunities you weren’t thinking about, and you may need to work on your ability to adapt. You may need to “make the most of all that comes and the least of all that goes,” as Sara Teasdale advises us (it's also my mantra).

In “An Open Letter To Graduating Students” published by Rose Nakamoto, Higher Education Leader and Growth & Change Enthusiast and Director of the Career Center at Santa Clara University, Rose offers you the following insights:

“Take an entrepreneurial approach and focus on sectors that are growing. Even if these areas don’t align with what you imagined you’d be doing after graduation, cultivate a flexible and open mindset - this will be essential for students in a COVID-19 economy.
​
Build your energy as if you’re preparing for a marathon not a sprint. In the weeks and months ahead, be patient with and kind to yourself and develop support systems. Consider the possibilities that may emerge (in time) for us as a society, when many communities and sectors begin to focus on rebuilding.”

Allies, we can help them!

​Colleague Lara Fox, Senior Advisor at the Marin Community Foundation who served prior to that as the Founding Executive Director of uAspire Bay Area, has this advice for us adult allies and educators:​

"It's crucial that counselors both stay in regular contact with 12th graders and ensure that students know they can appeal their financial aid offers if family circumstances have recently changed.

​It's also essential that colleges prepare to respond to a likely increase in appeals, given that 22 million Americans have filed for unemployment in the past four weeks alone.”

I know the financial side of college can be daunting and overwhelming and I just hope families and educators will work together to ensure our students make the most of their options. 

Allies, let’s help our students now as much as we can, while also thinking strategically about how to support future cohorts through this.

If you are a college advisor, counselor, or educator, consider teaching your students financial literacy, especially now, but also much earlier in students’ high school careers. Next Gen Personal Finance (NGPF) has a curriculum called “Paying for College.”

​Here’s a snippet of what you can teach your students using NGPF's lessons:

---

With lesson
SC-4.5 - Financial Aid Packages, students will be able to:

• Understand the rising national trends in student debt.
• Explain the differences between different federal and private loans.
• Identify various strategies they can use to be a responsible borrower.
• Analyze three student profiles and determine the best course of action to take for their student loans.
• Access a great activity called FINE PRINT: Financial Aid Package.

---

With lesson SC-4.6 - Time for Payback, students will be able to:

• Evaluate how the type of college they choose to attend might impact their college experience and post-college lifestyle.
• Make decisions during college to minimize debt while also maximizing their academic and social-emotional college experience.

---

With lesson SC-4.7 - Budgeting During College, students will be able to:

• Explain the importance of a budget. 
  
• Identify common challenges college students face when trying to stick to a budget. 
• Envision their college career and make choices that will impact their college budget. 
  
• Create a monthly college budget.

---

With Activity CARTOONS: Student Loan Debt, students will be able to:

• Examine a number of cartoons about student loan debt and choose one to analyze in more depth.
  
• Explain the cartoon's key message about student loan debt and how it depicts that message.
  

Colleges, please consider your students!

​To colleges and university financial aid officers and advocates, thank you for keeping students at the center. Please continue to do so.

Our colleges will also need to support families, now more than ever, so that they can advocate for the best deals that will lead to less debt and more degrees.

The Community College League of California Financial Aid Office Operations Taskforce released the report “Increasing Student Access, Success and Equity: California Community College Student Focused Financial Aid Policies February 2020” with the following guidance. Though written for community colleges, they bear consideration for all higher education institutions.
​

• “It is important for trustee boards to establish policies and procedures that strike a balance: reducing artificial barriers that prevent low-income students from receipt of their awards, while ensuring that the college remains compliant with federal and state law. A financial aid office should feel empowered to make decisions in the student’s best interest wherever possible.”
• “While it is important to minimize student debt, it is critical that our students be given the choice to determine what debt level is appropriate for them. Without borrowing, our low-income students will either need to work more rather than take additional classes or take out expensive private loans. Thus, the subsidized loan borrowing rate can have direct implications on the success of him or her at your college. Prospective students should be given all of the information they need to make an informed choice on whether or not borrowing is right for them.”
• “Financial aid administrators have the ability to use professional judgment to replace the prior-prior year data with current year estimated income data, so that student eligibility is determined by their actual income while they are going to college. Aid administrators also have the ability to provide a “Dependency Status Override” for students under the age of 24 with special circumstances that prevent them from supplying parental income and asset information. Aid offices also have great flexibility in designing Satisfactory Academic Progress policies, and related appeal policies. CEOs should encourage financial aid administrators to design student-friendly processes and policies if this is the case at your college.”
• “To help students through the confusion and jargon, work with your financial aid leadership to create and support a culture where financial aid staff help students to navigate the ins-and-outs of a complex system. While this is not an easy shift due to time and staffing limits, we lose too many students who are not able to complete these processes.”

​

And finally, some Best Practices they offer for higher ed:

• Regarding Award Letters: “Help students understand their award by providing true and actual college costs by explaining cost-of-attendance calculations and indicating costs that are actually paid out (fees, books, supplies). Provide clear identification and proper grouping of each type of award indicating whether the award can result in a disbursement to the student. Avoid using financial aid jargon and include a reference to a glossary of terms used in the award letter.”
  
• Regarding Outreach: “Identify disproportionally impacted students as defined in the college’s equity plan and provide targeted application support through the entire process for these populations. Partner with other student services programs to host “one-stop” outreach events.” Programs can be internal or external to your campus!
• Regarding Culture: “Trust the student” by placing more focus on student needs rather than compliance above all else. Asses key decision-making in the processing of financial aid applications and empower front-line staff to make routine decisions that do not require director-level approval. Provide students with resources (in-person and virtual help, computer lab, etc.) to assist them with the financial aid process.”

​Thank you for sticking through this series on Financial Aid, College Choice, and COVID-19!

Good luck to the #ClassOf2020 and all non-traditional students who are preparing their choice for College Decision Day this year! 

To learn more about Moneythink, go to moneythink.org/.
To learn more about Next Gen Personal Finance, go to www.ngpf.org/.