Checklist Assists in Default-Prevention
Efforts
Submitted by: The USA Funds Services SASFAA Team
Contact with students throughout their college experience
plays a critical role in proactively preventing defaults. The financial-aid
office is an important part of this process. By making frequent contact
with students and involving other campus offices and resources, aid
administrators can make a difference. Students who leave college with
a better understanding of their responsibilities and options are less
likely to default than those who do not have this exposure.
USA Funds®’ online Best Practices in Debt Management
Manual offers the following checklist to help financial-aid administrators
assess their in-school-period default-prevention efforts:
___ We have established a procedure to get debt-management information
to students early in their college experience.
___ Entrance- and exit-counseling procedures have been expanded beyond
the minimum regulatory
requirements.
___ We have established a diverse communication process using various
types of communication tools.
___ We have developed or acquired the necessary communication tools.
___ We frequently communicate with our students regarding debt-management
issues.
___ We target our debt-management messages to the specific
needs of our students, with special attention to
high-risk
groups.
___ We offer workshops and/or classes to educate students
about budgeting, borrowing and other financial-
management
topics.
___ We review our financial-aid-packaging policy to minimize student
borrowing as much as possible.
___ Our private-loan policies minimize student borrowing.
___ We evaluate on-campus credit-card use and solicitation to discourage
student application and use.
___ We have developed procedures and programs to help borrowers stay
in school.
___ We review average student indebtedness by program
to ensure that the starting salaries students can expect
to receive following
graduation are sufficient to permit our graduates to manage these average levels
of education debt.
___ We examine our program offerings to ensure that there is a demand
for our graduates in the job market.
___ We evaluate our job-placement services and potential
enhancements to assist our graduates in gaining
employment.
More suggestions and tools for helping students manage debt throughout
the life cycle of their loans is available in the newly updated Best
Practices in Debt Management Manual. To access the manual, go to www.usafunds.org/debt_management/best_practices_manual.htm on the USA Funds Web site.
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