Boston—For financial-aid professionals, the last point of contact with many student borrowers is the exit counseling colleges are required to give before graduation. So on Tuesday, when a session at the annual meeting of the National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators here included a presenter who had recently started repaying his loans, a good-size crowd turned up to hear about his experiences.
The other two presenters, who both work for the Great Lakes Higher Education Corporation and Affiliates, a student-loan servicer, started by giving a rundown of the payment options and protections available to student borrowers. Then they asked the student-loan borrower on the panel questions to draw out his story.
The borrower, Terron Austin, graduated from the University of Cincinnati in 2008 with a degree in journalism. Mr. Austin lived at home during much of his college career to cut down his costs, and he had a job lined up at graduation. So, when his grace period ended six months after college, and his first bill was due, Mr. Austin was able to manage the payments.
But then, Mr. Austin was laid off. Asked by one of his co-presenters, Tasha McDaniel, the school-training director for the servicer, if he had ever missed a payment or been late, he replied, “Haven’t we all?”
When Mr. Austin ran into trouble paying his loans, he was unaware of the repayment options and tools his co-presenters described earlier in the session.
Mr. Austin also said that his exit counseling could have been more detailed and specific, and that when his first student-loan bill arrived, “‘ouch’ was the first word.”
He took a number of questions from audience members who wondered how colleges could better serve their borrowers. Mr. Austin said he would have preferred to have had more contact with his university financial-aid office rather than his loan servicer, and he would have liked more help working out a plan for paying off his loans under various scenarios.
One audience member asked when Mr. Austin would have liked to work through those options with someone from his aid office, and he said earlier in his senior year would have been ideal.
Mr. Austin elaborated on that point in an interview after the presentation: “Hit me with that early, so it’s not in hindsight, in March, when I’m paying for my cap and gown,” he said.
Mr. Austin also told the audience that the messages he received about his loans would have been more helpful if they came in an e-mail or over the phone, rather than in the mail. “I put it in a paper clip, put it in a manila folder, and put it in the bottom of the sock drawer,” he said.
One of the other presenters, Roger Eldridge, a vice president with the servicer, said that organizations like his are doing more of their communication over e-mail, but that information security remains a concern.
Toward the end of the presentation, Mr. Eldridge and Ms. McDaniel described ways financial-aid professionals could help borrowers be better prepared for repayment. Their suggestions included:
“This was an opportunity,” he said, “for me to give the people in this profession what they need to hear from the little people.”
The other two presenters, who both work for the Great Lakes Higher Education Corporation and Affiliates, a student-loan servicer, started by giving a rundown of the payment options and protections available to student borrowers. Then they asked the student-loan borrower on the panel questions to draw out his story.
The borrower, Terron Austin, graduated from the University of Cincinnati in 2008 with a degree in journalism. Mr. Austin lived at home during much of his college career to cut down his costs, and he had a job lined up at graduation. So, when his grace period ended six months after college, and his first bill was due, Mr. Austin was able to manage the payments.
But then, Mr. Austin was laid off. Asked by one of his co-presenters, Tasha McDaniel, the school-training director for the servicer, if he had ever missed a payment or been late, he replied, “Haven’t we all?”
When Mr. Austin ran into trouble paying his loans, he was unaware of the repayment options and tools his co-presenters described earlier in the session.
Mr. Austin also said that his exit counseling could have been more detailed and specific, and that when his first student-loan bill arrived, “‘ouch’ was the first word.”
He took a number of questions from audience members who wondered how colleges could better serve their borrowers. Mr. Austin said he would have preferred to have had more contact with his university financial-aid office rather than his loan servicer, and he would have liked more help working out a plan for paying off his loans under various scenarios.
One audience member asked when Mr. Austin would have liked to work through those options with someone from his aid office, and he said earlier in his senior year would have been ideal.
Mr. Austin elaborated on that point in an interview after the presentation: “Hit me with that early, so it’s not in hindsight, in March, when I’m paying for my cap and gown,” he said.
Mr. Austin also told the audience that the messages he received about his loans would have been more helpful if they came in an e-mail or over the phone, rather than in the mail. “I put it in a paper clip, put it in a manila folder, and put it in the bottom of the sock drawer,” he said.
One of the other presenters, Roger Eldridge, a vice president with the servicer, said that organizations like his are doing more of their communication over e-mail, but that information security remains a concern.
Toward the end of the presentation, Mr. Eldridge and Ms. McDaniel described ways financial-aid professionals could help borrowers be better prepared for repayment. Their suggestions included:
- Train borrowers to use the National Student Loan Data System for Students, or NSLDS, which tracks students’ federal loans.
- Put links to the NSLDS Web site, and AnnualCreditReport.com, where students can see all of their private loans, on the financial-aid office’s Website.
- Help students calculate what their loan payments would be under various plans, such as standard, graduated, or income-based repayment.
- Provide loan-servicer contact information.
- Let students know they can change their repayment plan if the first one they choose doesn’t work well for them.
- Encourage students that successful repayment can be achieved.
“This was an opportunity,” he said, “for me to give the people in this profession what they need to hear from the little people.”
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