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Financial aid, a customer service test

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As a former Director of Financial Aid, I still have a special place in my heart for helping students through the confounding process that is financial aid. I work with local students whose parents are unemployed, under-employed or worse yet, in the abyss occupied by throngs of middle-income families. FAFSA

I volunteer with a remarkably talented but financially challenged group of young people. With the exception of their status as high-need students, they are a college recruiter’s dream. It is the financial aid process, however, that strikes fear in the hearts of these seemingly unstoppable, resilient young people because they know it is the one obstacle that stands between them and the education ...

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Categories: Customer Service, Financial Aid

Campus Visit Trend: “How much financial aid did ‘they’ give you?”

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Each month the Experience Team from TargetX will share with you a Campus Visit Tip, Trend and Talk. All of the “three T’s” are designed to give you a bit of insight into the work we do, the people we work with, and the places we pull our inspiration from. Here is this month’s “Trend”.

Ten years ago the number one question parents asked during a campus visit was, “What’s the party scene?” Then after the tragedies at Virginia Tech and Northern Illinois the priority question by parents was “How safe is this campus?” After our economy tanked the mainstream media began beating up Wall Street, then they singled out the mortgage industry; now they have their sights on higher education. ...

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Categories: Best Practice Documents, Campus Visit, Campus Visit Experiences, Campus Visit Talk, Campus Visit Three T's, Campus Visit Tip, Campus Visit Trend, Financial Aid, Parents, Uncategorized

Death of the sticker price?

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There are few numbers as meaningless as a college sticker price, says financial journalist Lynn O’Shaughnessy. But most parents still seem unaware of that and make assumptions about affordability based solely on published costs.

Which is why admissions officers have been hearing for years how important it is to provide a cost calculator on their website. Give families a true idea of what they will have to pay based on their individual circumstances, and you’ll stay in the mix as they begin narrowing their pool of possibilities.

As much sense as that makes for colleges — especially private institutions — there are surprisingly few schools that feature online calculators. That’s about to change, however, as higher ed reacts to a new federal ...

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Categories: College Recruiting, Financial Aid, Tuition

XpertTip No. 138: Money matters

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You’ve probably heard us TargetX-folk go on in recent months about how important it is to address cost with prospects as early as possible.

And now that you’ve accepted the first wave of applicants to this year’s class, it’s even more critical to supply information and de-bunk any myths surrounding your institution’s price.

Here are a few ideas if you’re looking to communicate value and address costs head-on in the weeks ahead:

  • Consider a simple email campaign (or at least one message) that centers on explaining the financial aid process at your institution and include links to learn more.
  • Have a private social network or Facebook page?  Try highlighting financial aid-related content and be sure to clearly point visitors to the person they should ...
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Categories: Cost, Email Campaign Ideas, Financial Aid

Selling the Value

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If you stayed at a hotel last night (like Jeff Kallay did), you were greeted with this headline under your door in this morning’s USA Today.

001For decades the argument for the real or perceived high price of a college education was balanced by the increase in earnings in one’s career.  However, we may be at a tipping point in that argument making it more difficult to win the battle on ROI during a recession.

I’m sure this will be brought up at this year’s iThink event at NACAC (if you’re a VP, Dean or Director of admissions or enrollment, be sure to sign up for ...

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Categories: Cost, Financial Aid, Tuition

The Tipping Point (from a parent)

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For as long as I can remember (as far back as my senior thesis for my undergraduate degree on the costs and pricing of higher education), I’ve always had a nagging question about how colleges and universities price themselves.

In my last position at a university, I was “at the table” for discussions of pricing at all levels. I remember researching costs at competing schools, reviewing CPI trends, helping to generate profit-loss statements for the three major areas of the university (undergraduate, graduate and continuing studies) and making recommendations. In the end, a bottom up pricing model peppered with what I like to call “pulled from your butt” market-based increases in tuition was the ultimate decision, mirroring trends in ...

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Categories: Change, Financial Aid, Tuition

Podcast #38: The Financial Aid Perfect Storm

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Recently I had a very interesting conversation with my friends from Scannell & Kurz including Jim Scannell, Kathy Kurz and Samantha “Sam” Veeder. We discussed what some have called “the perfect storm” around the financial aid crisis hitting colleges and families. They also provide information about their conference in 2009. More information can be found at www.scannellkurz.com

To stream, download and subscribe to the Recruiting Revolution Podcast, click here to launch the iTunes Podcast Store.

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Categories: Financial Aid

Revolutionizing Financial Aid

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Just finished reading a press release from Pomona College (a small liberal arts college college costing over $45,000 in tuition, room and board located in Claremont CA) announcing that they are eliminating loans from their financial aid packages and replacing them with scholarships. Good for them, but not every college has what they estimate to be $2.3 million per year to do this.

There are two things about financial aid that always bugged me – two things that every college should try to strive for to help increase accessibility and affordability. Now, I’m no financial aid expert and found it my job to avoid the subject as much as possible when I worked in admissions (“there ...

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Categories: Financial Aid