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CB FORUM FINAL
- 1. Helping Families MoreSuccessfully 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.
- 2. Please provide feedback onthis session using the Forum mobile app! Note: This session is not CEU eligible.
- 3. A Practitioner’s View:Beth Post-Lundquist
- 4. Situation Analysis What haschanged • Families’ concerns • Society’s general concern • More tools, more information • More complexity
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- 6. Today’s Parents Today’s Price 10% 27% Families’Concerns, Affordability
- 7. Society’s General Concern Highereducation access Western Interstate Commission for Higher Education
- 8. Society’s General Concern, Studentloan 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.”
- 9. More Tools andInformation Net Price Calculators
- 10. …and lots moreinformation 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 Junior 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.
- 11. Communication & Education Higheredhas a reasonable and positive affordability message to share
- 12. How can weimprove? • 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.
- 13. Have and thenadvertise 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
- 14. Data speaks volumes:track it and use it ©2013 ideas42 https://studentaid.ed.gov/about/data-center/student/application-volume/fafsa- completion-high-school
- 15. How can weimprove? Innovate • San Francisco’s Kindergarten to College program
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- 18. An Observer’s View:Beckie Supiano
- 19. There are ManyConsumer 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…
- 20. Two Main Approaches toImproving Consumer Choice • 1) Improve the Choices (Accountability) • 2) Encourage More Informed Decisions (Consumer Information) • Which one is easier, financially & politically?
- 21. 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
- 22. Information May NotBe Enough • If it’s not enough for me, it’s probably not enough for a teenager making their first big decision
- 23. Growing Interest inInformation Design • Hoxby/Turner • Castleman/Page • Other examples?
- 24. One Challenge: • Goalis to help prospective students make a good choice…not direct that choice. But where’s that line, exactly?
- 25. Another Challenge • Canthis be done without a human guidance counselor?
- 26. A Researcher’s View:Katie Martin
- 27. BEHAVIORAL ECONOMICS: A NEWWAY 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
- 29. BEHAVIORAL MODEL Decision ActionOutcomes Choice 1 Action 1 Outcome 1 Choice 2 Choice 3 Choice 4 Action 2 ©2013 ideas42
- 30. THE GOOD NEWSIS… ©2013 ideas42
- 31. THERE ARE MANYOPPORTUNITIES FOR “BE” TO IMPROVE COLLEGE SUCCESS Transition from Secondary Education 2 ©2013 ideas42 ©2013 ideas42
- 32. THE POSTSECONDARY PREPARATION PROBLEM 90% 54% 0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100% Aspireto Attend College Expect to Attend College Aspiration vs. Expectation of College Attendance (Elliot, 2009)
- 33. TRANSITION TO POSTSECONDARYEDUCATION 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
- 34. 0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% FAFSA Completion CollegeEnrollment Control Information Only FAFSA & Information TRANSITION: SOLUTIONS (Bettinger, Long, Oreopoulos, & Sanbonmatsu, 2009) !
- 35. TRANSITION: SOLUTIONS A textmessage intervention led to 3 to 7 percentage point increase in enrollment The intervention cost only $7 per student
- 36. ONGOING WORK • ideas42is 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
- 37. Thank you forattending. Please provide feedback on this session using the Forum mobile app!
Editor's Notes
- #5 In this section we will show some data that supports families growing affordability concerns -Talk about how society is impacted – review tools and acknowledge process complexity
- #6 High costs are not just a higher ed perception problem, data supports the growing public discontent
- #7 Illustrates change in percentage of family income required to pay 4 yr tuition and fees….when my parents sent me to college, it cost them 10% of their income….now parents have to plan on 27% on average. Affordability has changed
- #8 Changing demographics – colleges must be responsive or inaccessibility trajectory will continue
- #9 Quote – “College Sticker Shock” Darlene Friedman, Phil Inquirer, Sept 2014
- #10 Complexity – NPCs come in various shapes and sizes, not uniform (for better and worse)
- #11 …this mom suggested I review and update my LinkedIn profile, after noting my previous job experience!
- #15 College Enrollment increases when students are provided information and assistance with FAFSA completion…without regard to financial aid award amounts…this govt website allows you to compare FAFSA completions from one year to next by hs
- #18 Higher ed consumers aren’t the only ones longing for simplification
- #29 Behavioral Economics can be summed up as: People don’t always do things that make sense….
- #30 Decisions are hard to make, but even when they’re made we don’t always follow through on them – even if it’s in our own best interest to take action. Understanding what causes these “behavioral bottlenecks” is crucial to designing policies and programs that are more effective
- #31 As we’ll see…
- #35 One example is the H&R Block study, which I’m sure many of you are familiar with. Researchers tested two interventions on low- and moderate- income families. One group got help completing and submitting their FAFSA. Staff used a tool to pre-populate most of the form using the family’s tax information, asked some additional questions to fill in the gaps, provided personalized aid estimates, and then offered to file the FAFSA electronically. A second group received personalized information, but they didn’t receive any help actually filling in their FAFSA. When compared with a control group, the information-only intervention (shown here in orange) had no statistically significant effect on the submission of financial aid applications. But the group that received assistance completing their FAFSA (the gray bar) was 15.7% more likely to file their application than the control group. Even more importantly, the group that received assistance was far more likely to actually enroll in college the next fall - a relative increase of about 29%. The results suggest that simply making a complicated process easier for people can have a significant impact on postsecondary outcomes.
- #36 Let’s look at a study by Ben Castleman and Lindsay Page about summer melt. When looking for potential solutions to this problem, the researchers found that a simple, well-timed text message reminder helped students and parents remember important dates so that they didn’t miss deadlines during the enrollment process. This light-touch intervention, which cost only $7 per student, led to a 3-7% increase in enrollment – a huge return on investment.