Colleges and universities should be texting students—but not everyone, not all the time, and not about everything that's happening on campus. Highly targeted messages, particularly those sent to incoming or prospective students, can reduce summer melt by providing timely reminders of financial aid filing dates and other important deadlines. "Texting becomes most impactful when it […]
Sara Goldrick-Rab's mission is to make higher education the accessible and affordable place that families want and need it to be. In Paying the Price: College Costs, Financial Aid, and the Betrayal of the American Dream (2016, University of Chicago Press), Goldrick-Rab, a professor of higher education policy and sociology at Temple University, describes what […]
Seven years ago, Western Kentucky University said goodbye to its time-consuming, paper-based way of issuing financial aid refunds and said hello to BankMobile, an electronic disbursement service that has led to major savings. "Between student refunds and student payroll disbursements, we have eliminated having to issue 76,000 paper checks annually," says Belinda Higginbotham, bursar for […]
While students have a variety of options when it comes to paying for college, making unwise financial decisions can lead to negative consequences for the student as well as the institution. Overborrowing, poor planning and budgeting, and misunderstanding financial aid can create seemingly insurmountable debt that can affect academic performance, push students to leave school […]
The leadership of Dickinson College understands the importance of predictive analytics to help shape their class. But they also know that models can get stale, and will improve only when they are transparent and institutional departments collaborate during the model building and enrollment process. In this web seminar, the vice president for enrollment, marketing and […]
While the concept may seem unnecessary, a formal document—signed by each student—that states tuition payments are, in fact, expected is now required by a majority of colleges. In December 2016, Idaho State University began folding a financial responsibility agreement into the course registration process. Student financial obligations have not changed. Rather, the move is an […]
The "nontraditional" student represents perhaps the single biggest growth area for higher ed enrollment. But no single set of characteristics defines that student.
A small change in admissions at many of the most selective colleges and universities could make a big difference to low-income learners. To meet a goal of having all schools enroll at least 20 percent Pell Grant recipients, about 350 "elite" institutions would have to admit about 20,000 low-income students, says a new report from […]
Donna Salak knew the financial aid office at Xavier University in Cincinnati, Ohio, was not using its Banner student information system to full capacity. Salak, who is Xavier's director of financial aid, had staff with a user-level understanding of Banner, but there had been knowledge loss on the technical side due to staff turnover. Salak […]
A vigilant employee at Rio Salado College in Tempe, Arizona, noticed similar handwriting on several financial aid applications. She alerted her supervisors, who found other irregularities—such as the same mailing addresses—on a number of applications. The college notified authorities, and when the federal investigators completed their work, participants in a financial aid scheme faced 130 […]
