As a seasoned financial aid administrator, I am all too familiar with bottlenecks in the financial aid process. These challenges can certainly cause organizational leaders to see financial aid as a barrier, rather than an opportunity for success. It comes to no surprise that some of the problems are regulatory in nature, however, after visiting one of my clients, I learned that bottlenecks can also be created by lack of knowledge.
There is no silver bullet that will address challenges in the financial aid system. The problems are complex and extremely diverse depending on the organizational type: private versus public, state versus community college, federal methodology versus institutional methodology. While there have been efforts targeting the simplification of the FAFSA or revising the FAFSA to just one step, redesigning the financial aid system for improved student experience and outcomes need a more comprehensive review. For example, communication and scholarship processing are particularly problematic pieces of the financial aid process for both students and institutions. Communication, in particular, is connected to a majority of issues in the system; for example, students are often not aware of deadlines, requirements, or other necessary information for applying for financial aid, due to lack of efficient or effective communication.
Another issue is SIS systems that support the financial aid process. There is a great divide between those who understand financial aid regulation and those who know financial aid systems. At a former institution, I had an institutional leader who was a staunch opponent of funky-tech professionals. At every turn, he readily ignored the financial aid staff over IT professionals. This lead to ineffective processes and worse, greater problems with compliance. Financial aid professionals need to be better engaged with systems so they can understand the impact on process and compliance.
At CAS, we know that the financial aid process is the probably the single most important tool an organization can have to attract, retain and graduate students. In order to remain viable options, financial aid administrators and enrollment management leaders should consider a comprehensive life-cycle review of the financial aid process. This includes all the tangential processes like administrative holds, collections, transcript releases, grade changes and much more.
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