I’m sad that the holiday season is over because I really love the spirit of the gift exchange; not just of presents — but of time, stories, and nourishment (spiritual and, of course, gastronomical). To me, it honors what we love about our loved ones, it symbolizes what it means to sacrifice something to make another happy, and it signals the appreciation we feel to be part of a family that helps make us who we are.
This is also the ‘big picture’ purpose of the financial aid season. Financial aid investment is a gift that schools (and others) give in order to help families and the school achieve mutual dreams, building a family community that has multiple talents, making the whole greater than the sum of its parts. Now that the financial aid season is fully upon us, how do we make sure that we have what we need to make that sacrifice and investment of time, tears, and money really pay off?
To invigorate this spirit of exchange and investment in community-building, SSS By NAIS staff conducted six two-day financial aid training workshops, connecting over 400 financial aid professionals around the country with each other to learn new skills and exchange ideas on how to solve common challenges. One of the discussions held in each of the six locations was “What Does It Take To Make a Good Financial Aid Decision?” The responses of the attendees fell into three categories:
1. Good Information
a. Clear sense of school culture/mission: what is valued and what isn’t
b. Clarity of purpose of the financial aid program and its tie to school mission
c. Forms and documentation from families that is timely, sufficient, accurate, clear, and trustworthy (PFS, 1040, W-2 statements, etc.)
d. Clear communication channels between the school and families that promote trust and openness in the process
e. Clear picture of family’s financial and household situation as it relates to ability to pay tuition
f. Reliable data about the school’s financial aid trends that illuminate whether the school is on the path it wants to be on
g. Understanding demographic realities/projections and how they relate to the school’s affordability for families
h. A clear sense of the total demand for financial aid from the entire applicant pool and how to prioritize limited funding
2. Good Funding
a. Aid budgets that allow meeting 100% of demonstrated need
b. Aid budgets that encompass non-tuition costs
c. Awareness of financing alternatives beyond what the school can provide
d. Ability to assess how having too little funding affects school culture, enrollment, or both
e. Ability to assess how having adequate funding improves school culture, enrollment, or both
3. Good Support
a. Resources (tools, software, people, training, time) to help make the rough patches smoother
b. Clear and comprehensive policies and procedures for administering aid dollars
c. Educated and committed financial aid committee to share decision-making and/or workload
d. Head and board leadership that sets and honors clarity in:
i. Mission and purpose of financial aid program investment
ii. Policy and priority guidelines
iii. Lines of authority and decision-making
iv. Financial aid budget-setting processes
v. Assessing whether the goals of the financial aid investment are being met
1. If so, plan for sustaining or growing
2. If not, plan for rectifying where it falls short
e. Discipline to remain fair and equitable in the face of sensitive, difficult situations
f. Faculty and staff that understands the value of financial aid and respects confidentiality protocols
g. A network of colleagues who can be objective in helping you find solutions to difficult challenges
The list could go on. But it highlights that the best financial aid decisions come when you’re equipped with good information for determining how to allocate scarce funding, with good funding that enables you to operate along an intended path, and with the good support of people and processes needed to guide your work to the best possible outcome.
Use the outline above as a sort of checklist for where you think you do — or do not — have good information, good funding, and/or good support. If you’re lacking in any areas, have a conversation about what you need in order to address how that deficiency impacts your ability to meet the goals of the financial aid program and, by extension, the mission of the school.
When these things are aligned in proper balance, the investment in building community and making dreams happen that we value so much in our schools and our lives will be more readily achieved.
