Helping Families More Successfully Navigate the Financial Aid Process:

Moderator: • Dan Lundquist, retired college vice president (Sage, Union, Penn), Senior

Counsel, The Stockade Consulting Group Panel:• Beth Post-Lundquist, financial aid director, Skidmore College • Beckie Supiano, staff reporter, The Chronicle of Higher Education • Katie Martin, managing director, Ideas42 (in absentia)

Lessons from the Field.

Please provide feedback on this session usingthe Forum mobile app!Note: This session is not CEU eligible.

A Practitioner’s View: Beth Post-Lundquist

Situation Analysis

What has changed

• Families’ concerns• Society’s general concern• More tools, more information• More complexity

Families’ Concerns, Price

Today’s Parents

Today’s Price

10%

27%

Families’ Concerns, Affordability

Society’s General ConcernHigher education access

Western Interstate Commission for Higher Education

Society’s General Concern, Student loan indebtedness

“The debt-load is going to hobble an entire generation of kids who will spend their working lives getting out from under their school loans. That's just plain nuts, and something we should all be very worried about it.”

More Tools and InformationNet Price Calculators

…and lots more information families access…but still many look for more

From: J Sent: Thursday, October 16, 2014 12:01 PM To: Beth Post-Lundquist Subject: Thank You Again

Hello Beth,

Thank you for your time yesterday. I always learn something new when we correspond. Below is the link for Skidmore’s “report card” which is a conglomeration of student and public data:

https:/ /colleges.niche.com/skidmore-college/

(Google college name and prowler or just go to Prowler)

Other sites that guidance counselors and kids use are:

1. Naviance 2. College Confidential 3. https:/ /admitted.ly/ (start up that uses personality traits to match student with college) 4. College Board 5. https:/ /www.college-kickstart.com/

After I complete the Profile, I ’ll email you with our financial picture, income and assets, for L’s J unior and Senior year and projected next two years in the hope that you can guesstimate what, if any, aid she might be eligible for as we spend down her assets at Skidmore and estimate our income which is very much stalled.

Communication & Education Highered has a reasonable and positive affordability message to share

How can we improve?• Simplify

• Constant re-evaluation of web for clarity, directness• Are financial aid applications/forms used by colleges streamlined/antiquated?• Ditto polices? redundancy? “Abundance of caution?”

• Personalize• Ask families/students how they want to receive information• Customize messaging: “speak their language, when and how they hear”

• Be Responsive• We live in a “FedEx/Amazon” culture: response time counts• Automate messaging whenever possible

• Reach Out• Partner with admissions/fin aid/high school colleagues to reach prospective families

Identify, prioritize, explain, and advocate for the resources needed to communicate affordability messaging, education.

Have and then advertise clear financial aid policies for returning students …Retention benefits students, colleges and society

• Do hidden pitfalls exist?• Minimum GPAs attached to merit aid examples:Institution #1

Institution #2

• What if student need increases once enrolled • Historical/anticipated rates of tuition increase

Data speaks volumes: track it and use it

©2013 ideas42

https://studentaid.ed.gov/about/data-center/student/application-volume/fafsa-completion-high-school

How can we improve?Innovate

• San Francisco’s Kindergarten to College program

And innovate…

…and keep trying

An Observer’s View: Beckie Supiano

There are Many Consumer Info. Tools for Prospective Students• College Navigator (National Center for Education Statistics)• College Scorecard (Education Dept.)• Financial Aid Shopping Sheet (Ed. Dept.)• Big Future (The College Board)• U.S. News & World Report Rankings• College Confidential• Noodle• The Ratings…

Two Main Approaches to Improving Consumer Choice

• 1) Improve the Choices (Accountability)

• 2) Encourage More Informed Decisions (Consumer Information)

• Which one is easier, financially & politically?

A Complicated Choice

• For some prospective students going through a selective process, choice is complex

• For others, whose process is not selective (whether matter of academic prep or otherwise) choice is constrained

Information May Not Be Enough

• If it’s not enough for me, it’s probably not enough for a teenager making their first big decision

Growing Interest in Information Design

• Hoxby/Turner• Castleman/Page• Other examples?

One Challenge:

• Goal is to help prospective students make a good choice…not direct that choice. But where’s that line, exactly?

Another Challenge• Can this be done without a human guidance counselor?

A Researcher’s View: Katie Martin

BEHAVIORAL ECONOMICS: A NEW WAY OF DOING THINGS• Most public policy involves human behavior

• Conventional public policy levers:• Regulation • Incentives• Information

• Behavioral Economics offers new and cost effective tools to address difficult problems by anticipating and addressing the intention-act gap

BEHAVIORAL MODEL

Decision Action Outcomes

Choice 1 Action 1 Outcome 1

Choice 2

Choice 3

Choice 4

Action 2

©2013 ideas42

THE GOOD NEWS IS…

©2013 ideas42

Solutions can be simple and cost effective

THERE ARE MANY OPPORTUNITIES FOR “BE” TO IMPROVE COLLEGE SUCCESS

Transition from Secondary Education

2

©2013 ideas42 ©2013 ideas42

THE POSTSECONDARY PREPARATION PROBLEM

Aspire to Attend College Expect to Attend College0%

10%20%30%40%50%60%70%80%90%

100% 90%

54%

Aspiration vs. Expectation of College Attendance

(Elliot, 2009)

TRANSITION TO POSTSECONDARY EDUCATION

Should I attend school? Which school should I attend?

Should I apply for financial aid?

How can I cover expenses if I don’t receive sufficient financial aid?

How can I create a school-compatible work schedule?

How will I make moving arrangements and where will I live?

©2013 ideas42

FAFSA Completion College Enrollment0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

Control Information Only FAFSA & Information

TRANSITION: SOLUTIONS

(Bettinger, Long, Oreopoulos, & Sanbonmatsu, 2009)

!

TRANSITION: SOLUTIONS

A text message intervention

led to 3 to 7 percentage point increase in

enrollment

The intervention cost only $7 per student

ONGOING WORK • ideas42 is working on a range of projects applying BE

in postsecondary education

• Focus on financial aid

• Results end of 2015/beginning 2016

• See www.ideas42.org for updates

Thank you for attending.Please provide feedback on this session usingthe Forum mobile app!