Are You Ready for Loan Counseling in the Direct Loan Program?
EdFund Institute Webinars Can Help
Whether your school has a traditional calendar or rolling enrollment, you may still have work to do before you are ready to deliver required loan counseling to Direct Loan (DL) Program borrowers. An EdFund Institute webinar can help you identify the differences between Federal Family Education Loan (FFEL) Program and DL counseling requirements, and provide tips and resources on how to effectively engage your students.
After securing participation by your student borrowers, there are two key challenges when it comes to loan counseling: getting the information right, and making it stick. We’ll talk about DL terminology and requirements, including the options in DL that don’t exist in the FFEL Program, and provide you a checklist so you can familiarize yourself with what’s required vs. what’s recommended. If you’re already up and running in DL, you may still have to think about what your loan counseling will look like: will it all be delivered via the Web? Or will it be a mix of in-person and Web-based counseling?
Just as important, we will talk about how to make your time with your borrowers as effective as possible. We’ll start with smart marketing of your counseling sessions and include ideas on how to prepare and deliver your content. Making your time with students more interactive and fun increases the odds that the information you are delivering will actually influence the behavior of your student borrowers, which will only help your default prevention efforts in the long term.
With the requirements in hand, and marketing tips to make sure brains aren’t just present but tuned in, you can help your borrowers succeed. Sign up today for a one-hour webinar entitled “Loan Counseling in a World of Transition” scheduled for Thursday, June 17 at 10 a.m. PST and Tuesday June 22 at 10:00 a.m. PST.
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Don’t Miss the HEOA Provisions with a July 1 Trigger Date
Consult the EdFund Overview for Handy Reference
While the Higher Education Opportunity Act was signed into law in 2008, and many of its provisions have already taken effect, additional provisions become effective July 1, 2010. Here’s an overview that can help you keep track.
Be sure your school remains in compliance. These topics cover HEOA provisions with a July 1, 2010, trigger date:
For greater detail on all the provisions of HEOA, refer to the U. S. Department of Education’s Dear Colleague letter of December 2008. If you have questions or need guidance, your first point of contact should be ED’s School Participation Team in your region.
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Supporting Your Students in a Post-FFEL World
Prepare for the Future Now
Your school may be looking for ways to increase your students’ financial literacy skills or help your borrowers successfully manage their debt obligations, but uncertain how to proceed as you transition into DL. Now’s the time to identify the needs of your student population for the next year, and plan how you will meet them.
The first step is to determine the most pressing needs among your students. Are they:
- using credit cards to make ends meet?
- loading up on private loans to finance their education without planning for repayment?
- withdrawing from school because they run out of funds mid-semester?
- delinquent on their student loans?
Next, prioritize the challenges. Even the level of school and student support provided under FFEL—free, high-quality publications, evolving products and services, and on-campus support—required this exercise.
If financial resources are limited or unavailable, don’t despair. Brainstorm across departments within your school to come up with the methods and means to meet the needs of your student population. There are low-cost ways to reach out to your students, like texting or e-mailing your students budgeting and saving tips first thing in the morning. These types of regular but brief communication could spark a major change, like getting a student to sell his car and rely on mass transit, or a relatively minor one like bringing his specialty coffee habit under control. Every change in behavior adds up.
If you haven’t started strategizing for next year, don’t delay!
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Final Issue of EdFund Link
The Mission Continues
Hundreds of schools across the country have regularly turned to EdFund Link for timely news on training opportunities, industry best practices, legislative updates and solutions to common challenges. This is the last issue of our bi-weekly e-newsletter to schools, and we are grateful to have been a trusted resource for so many.
Our focus on student success and customer service is unchanged but EdFund is evolving to meet the shifting needs in higher education in a post-FFEL world. We are adapting our business model so that we can continue to improve the repayment success of student borrowers through programs like our Borrower Counseling Services.
As it has since its inception, EdFund will continue to concentrate its energy, expertise and passion on supporting students. Learn more about how we can work together to help your students persist and succeed by contacting your EdFund national account manager, or calling 866.222.2680.
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