Student Financial Aid as an Online Service

1
Student Financial Aid as an Online Service

• Marianne Phelps and Norm Finlinson
• June 24, 2002

2
Agenda

• Overview
• History of providing aid to distance students
• Challenge of shifting the paradigm
• Characteristics of an online service
• Drawing on outside resources
• Brigham Young Universitys solution
• Some links to other sites

3
Barriers to an Online Student Aid Service

• Past
• Need associated with distance students
• Many schools did not provide aid to distance
  students
• Unit administering programs often operated
  independently
• Present
• Need to reorient perception of service from a
  primarily administrative function to a student
  service
• Administrative systems

4
Some Characteristics of an OnlineStudent Aid
Student Service

• Builds on federal paperless process and draws
  data from administrative systems
• Utilizes capabilities of technology to assist
  students in accessing information and in
  conducting business with the aid office
• Provides personalized information
• Provides one click service
• And also offers face to face or telephone contact
  with the SAO

5
Online Information Concerning Aid

• Federal Resources
• Federal Guide to Student Financial Assistance
  http//www.ed.gov/prog_info/SFA/StudentGuide
• Federal Student Website http//www.students.gov/in
  dex.html
• Other Resources

• Floridas Facts
• http//www.facts.org/

• FinAid
  http//www.finaid.org/

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Paperless Processing of Federal Aid

• The FAFSA Web page http//www.fafsa.ed.gov

• Application for Federal student financial
  assistance
• Application for pin
• Electronic Signature for application
• Student Aid Report
• Correction of Student Aid Report

• Electronic signature for direct loan promissory
  note
• Entrance Counseling
• Loan History
• Loan Consolidation

7
Brigham Young University Automation Milestones

• 1981 Automated institutional loan program
• 1983 Automated Federal loan processing
• 1987 On-line verification
• 1993 Touch-tone telephone financial aid
  application
• 1997 Financial Path web application
• 1999 VIP web data collecting system

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Financial Path to Graduation
http//financialaid.byu.edu/path/

• Step 1 Chart your academic plan
• Step 2 Estimate educational costs
• Step 3 Estimate financial resources
• Step 4 Identify and analyze unmet need
• Step 5 Establish your maximum debt limit
• Step 6 Identify the costs of borrowing
• Step 7 Make a commitment and monitor your
  progress

9
Results of Financial Path

• 24 Decrease in borrowing
• 2000 Default Rate is 0.6
• 4 Reduction in average loan debt at graduation

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A PAPERLESS OFFICE
THE FINAL FRONTIER
http//financialaid.byu.edu/vip/
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VIP Process

• Initial letter is sent to the student
• Student accesses VIP
• Student inputs verification data
• Second letter is sent to the student for
  signature
• Student returns signature document
• System completes verification and awards student

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What is Virtual Immediate Processing (VIP)?

• Data collection apparatus, replacing paper
• Student empowerment tool - student controls the
  process
• Work flow manager
• Financial aid resource liberator - we can do
  things other than process
• Ubiquitous window of access for students to the
  financial aid process

13
Examples of Online Aid Services

• University of Southern California
• www.usc.edu/dept/fao
• University of Texas
• www.utexas.edu/student/finaid

• Brigham Young University
• financialaid.byu.edu
• Florida State University
• www.finaid.fsu.edu
• University of Minnesota
• http//onestop.umn.edu/Finances/viewfa02.html

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Contact information

• Marianne Phelps
• mrphelps_at_starpower.net
• Norm Finlinson
• norman_b_finlinson_at_byu.edu