Thursday, April 27, 2017
It is the best of programs; it is the worst of programs, or....
Nice job breaking it, hero...
I was hoping to chronicle the SUNYFAP conference in the same way I wrote about Santiago and Cancun, but the news was so bad that I wasn't capable (willing?) to explore the topic beyond kvetching with my director, who was aghast as I was. Almost everything I learned was bad, though I did not learn everything. The regulations, far more important to financial aid than the law itself, won't be revealed until HESC has it's board of directors' meeting on May 26th. There is a glimmer of hope for some relief from the more onerous implications of the law, or at least others feel that way. I'm much more doubtful.
I'd like to try to avoid speculation and editorializing as much as possible, since we don't have much concrete information as to the regulations, but a few things do need to be said. Let's start with the good news: for the small handful of students who meet the income guidelines, and are motivated enough, smart enough, and disciplined enough to remain eligible, the program is a godsend - if they even get it - see below. Also, I conferred with my fellow financial aid professionals over dinner, and they agreed with my theory on the school choice possibilities as the probable legacy of the scholarship. All the rest of the news is bad.
First, the overselling of Excelsior and the amount of misinformation is staggering, giving students false hope, and making all our lives much more difficult. As mention in my prior post, there's only a narrow band of income where a student will get this money without getting financial aid anyway. Again, it only covers the tuition, not books or fees, so students will be on the hook for those expenses no matter what.
Second, it is not an entitlement, a word that has legal meaning in financial aid. Pell and TAP are considered entitlements, much like Social Security, food stamps, or welfare. If you meet the requirements, hand in any and all required documents, and relevant deadlines haven't passed for a particular time period, you are legally entitled to the money, period. Funds like SEOG and APTS are discretionary, and also limited by their respective appropriations. In addition to the requirements listed above, schools have guidelines for who gets what, and when the money runs out, there's no more, regardless of your income, academic standing, etc. Excelsior works the same way. In fact, there's only $81,000,000 (though I had heard $87,000,000 at the conference), budgeted for the first year. Assuming a full award ($5,500 with any extra tuition charges waived by the public colleges), that would mean only 14,727 students would be eligible. That's fewer students then presently attend my single community college. True, most awards will not be the full amount, but the number of potential students far outstrips the available money. To remedy this, HESC will have a lottery, with continuing students having better odds. Naturally, brand new students are the ones asking about Excelsior, not those presently enrolled. It's worth mentioning that there's some fine print in the law that hurts the schools financially. Students who get this award have their tuition frozen for four or two years, depending on the college, and around $1000 is actually not charged by the college as part of the policy. This doesn't hurt us, since our tuition is below $5,500, but other, smaller SUNY schools are panicked. It isn't that big of a deal in my opinion, since so few students will end up getting the aid anyway. By the way. if you lose the scholarship, your tuition goes up to whatever the normal price would have been, Can you say sticker shock?
Third, there's some confusion about this, but it seems that scholarships dedicated only to the paying of tuition must be used before Excelsior is available. More than any other requirement we discussed, this caused the most anger on behalf of the four-year colleges. They have foundations that award scholarships using private donations, and suddenly it's hurting the students because the way the monies are earmarked: they can only be used for tuition, preventing the student from getting Excelsior. They have agreements with donors, and cannot legally change the program, or something to that effect. I wasn't entirely clear on why it's a problem, only that this is a problem, and a big one at that. The schools may be really concerned about their fundraising. It may be fixed, or it may not be, but that does seem to be the policy right now.
Finally, but by no means the final word, the application isn't even available right now, and I'm not sure when it will become available. The Heathcare.gov debacle comes to mind, though on a smaller, more concentrated scale. Also, HESC will require presently enrolled students to send unofficial transcripts to them, and they'll determine whether or not the student meets the required academic progress for a funding source no one could have predicted would exist when the students registered and attempted the classes. Combine that with the fact students cannot even apply for it right now, and when will students be awarded for Fall of '17, February of 2018? March 2018? For the college, I suggested that anyone who wants this money would need a separate funding source - loans, which would be refunded after HESC paid the school. Our deadlines won't change, so unless HESC gets its shit together (ha!), loans or a payment plan will be required, my input notwithstanding.
As per one of the trainers from HESC, this program was designed to giveComrade First Secretary Gov. Andrew Cuomo a good soundbite and show that he could do what Sen. Bernie Sanders (D-VT), promised: free college. Obviously, the truth is a little different, and I hope, with some justification, that it blows up in his face, derailing his 2020 presidential hopes. The worst part is that there was an easy, correct way to do what he wanted: give everyone maximum TAP making under the prescribed income limits. It's a first dollar program, so Pell remains with the student for books, supplies, etc., and all the needed infrastructure was already in place. It would have helped students en masse; everyone in financial aid already understood the program, and could have been implemented immediately. It would have cost more money, but with the administrative costs of the new program, who's to say it won't turn out to be around the same amount anyway? Alas, such a simple solution doesn't generate headlines and praise from progressives. It was painful to hear the HESC representatives agree with me.
This post is written only to skim the surface of the realities of this lunacy, and trust me; this will be a nightmare. There's plenty more I could have said, but some of those things get into the arcane workings of financial aid, and aren't relevant to the end reader. In other words, they're boring enough to put me to sleep, much less a layperson. Concerning facts I do consider important, as I confirm more, I'll blog more. As an example, I have't yet touched on what's required academically to keep the scholarship, since there's contradictory information right now, and that's amongst financial aid personnel. The bar will be very high, but I want the full picture. If you're reading this and believe I'm merely avoiding the topic because I want to now assume the fetal position under my desk and sob quietly, congrats, you're paying attention. For now, there's a long-delayed post that never seems to get written: what I want to do next and why it's been taking me so long to write the essay.
I was hoping to chronicle the SUNYFAP conference in the same way I wrote about Santiago and Cancun, but the news was so bad that I wasn't capable (willing?) to explore the topic beyond kvetching with my director, who was aghast as I was. Almost everything I learned was bad, though I did not learn everything. The regulations, far more important to financial aid than the law itself, won't be revealed until HESC has it's board of directors' meeting on May 26th. There is a glimmer of hope for some relief from the more onerous implications of the law, or at least others feel that way. I'm much more doubtful.
I'd like to try to avoid speculation and editorializing as much as possible, since we don't have much concrete information as to the regulations, but a few things do need to be said. Let's start with the good news: for the small handful of students who meet the income guidelines, and are motivated enough, smart enough, and disciplined enough to remain eligible, the program is a godsend - if they even get it - see below. Also, I conferred with my fellow financial aid professionals over dinner, and they agreed with my theory on the school choice possibilities as the probable legacy of the scholarship. All the rest of the news is bad.
First, the overselling of Excelsior and the amount of misinformation is staggering, giving students false hope, and making all our lives much more difficult. As mention in my prior post, there's only a narrow band of income where a student will get this money without getting financial aid anyway. Again, it only covers the tuition, not books or fees, so students will be on the hook for those expenses no matter what.
Second, it is not an entitlement, a word that has legal meaning in financial aid. Pell and TAP are considered entitlements, much like Social Security, food stamps, or welfare. If you meet the requirements, hand in any and all required documents, and relevant deadlines haven't passed for a particular time period, you are legally entitled to the money, period. Funds like SEOG and APTS are discretionary, and also limited by their respective appropriations. In addition to the requirements listed above, schools have guidelines for who gets what, and when the money runs out, there's no more, regardless of your income, academic standing, etc. Excelsior works the same way. In fact, there's only $81,000,000 (though I had heard $87,000,000 at the conference), budgeted for the first year. Assuming a full award ($5,500 with any extra tuition charges waived by the public colleges), that would mean only 14,727 students would be eligible. That's fewer students then presently attend my single community college. True, most awards will not be the full amount, but the number of potential students far outstrips the available money. To remedy this, HESC will have a lottery, with continuing students having better odds. Naturally, brand new students are the ones asking about Excelsior, not those presently enrolled. It's worth mentioning that there's some fine print in the law that hurts the schools financially. Students who get this award have their tuition frozen for four or two years, depending on the college, and around $1000 is actually not charged by the college as part of the policy. This doesn't hurt us, since our tuition is below $5,500, but other, smaller SUNY schools are panicked. It isn't that big of a deal in my opinion, since so few students will end up getting the aid anyway. By the way. if you lose the scholarship, your tuition goes up to whatever the normal price would have been, Can you say sticker shock?
Third, there's some confusion about this, but it seems that scholarships dedicated only to the paying of tuition must be used before Excelsior is available. More than any other requirement we discussed, this caused the most anger on behalf of the four-year colleges. They have foundations that award scholarships using private donations, and suddenly it's hurting the students because the way the monies are earmarked: they can only be used for tuition, preventing the student from getting Excelsior. They have agreements with donors, and cannot legally change the program, or something to that effect. I wasn't entirely clear on why it's a problem, only that this is a problem, and a big one at that. The schools may be really concerned about their fundraising. It may be fixed, or it may not be, but that does seem to be the policy right now.
Finally, but by no means the final word, the application isn't even available right now, and I'm not sure when it will become available. The Heathcare.gov debacle comes to mind, though on a smaller, more concentrated scale. Also, HESC will require presently enrolled students to send unofficial transcripts to them, and they'll determine whether or not the student meets the required academic progress for a funding source no one could have predicted would exist when the students registered and attempted the classes. Combine that with the fact students cannot even apply for it right now, and when will students be awarded for Fall of '17, February of 2018? March 2018? For the college, I suggested that anyone who wants this money would need a separate funding source - loans, which would be refunded after HESC paid the school. Our deadlines won't change, so unless HESC gets its shit together (ha!), loans or a payment plan will be required, my input notwithstanding.
As per one of the trainers from HESC, this program was designed to give
This post is written only to skim the surface of the realities of this lunacy, and trust me; this will be a nightmare. There's plenty more I could have said, but some of those things get into the arcane workings of financial aid, and aren't relevant to the end reader. In other words, they're boring enough to put me to sleep, much less a layperson. Concerning facts I do consider important, as I confirm more, I'll blog more. As an example, I have't yet touched on what's required academically to keep the scholarship, since there's contradictory information right now, and that's amongst financial aid personnel. The bar will be very high, but I want the full picture. If you're reading this and believe I'm merely avoiding the topic because I want to now assume the fetal position under my desk and sob quietly, congrats, you're paying attention. For now, there's a long-delayed post that never seems to get written: what I want to do next and why it's been taking me so long to write the essay.
Wednesday, April 19, 2017
Beware he who doth prostesteth too much, or...
Much ado about (mostly) nothing...
My prior post was not my finest work, such was the shock and existential dismay I felt after the creation of this policy. After rereading the post, I should be more aghast at the quality of writing, but sometimes you need to just slap something together and see what happens. I'm happy to say it worked; my creative juices are flowing again, and ideas for posts are popping into my head like dandelions on a lawn. That may not be the best simile I could have come up with, actually.
Thus, it is with unusual prescience (especially for me, who normally stumbles from one situation to the next like a drunken wildebeest) that I find myself in Corning, NY attending the 2017 State University of New York Financial Aid Professionals (SUNYFAP) annual conference. I asked to attend this shindig months ago, and was told yes, but the college said no a few weeks later due to budgetary constraints. Nevertheless, I offered to pay for the event myself; I just needed the time off. That was acceptable, so $260 and a few airline miles later, here I am. In between my registering and the start of the conference, the bomb was dropped on all of us, and I'm sure it will be the only thing we discuss. Blathering on about work life balance can wait.
Speaking of work life balance, and the implication we don't have it, the effect this new policy will have on me (and oh boy will it ever, to almost ridiculous levels) is certainly a valid topic for exploration, but for this essay, let's examine the Excelsior scholarship in greater detail, now that my head has cleared somewhat.
First, it needs to be stated that the effect is being oversold, but any new government program would be. As a last dollar form of aid, if a student qualifies for enough TAP and Pell to pay the tuition, then no extra money is available, even though there are plenty of other bills that need to be paid: fees, books, dorms, transportation, etc. As such, the notion that the SUNY, CUNY, and Community Colleges systems are suddenly free is nothing more than a fantasy There was also the intimation that a whole new group of student was going to be able to attend college where before they could not. This is utter nonsense; it is not going send a stampede of new students to college. There was always money available to pay for school; it was just in a form that people didn't want: loans. The access was always there, and anyone saying otherwise is either ill-informed, or outright lying.
Nevertheless, there are those that will benefit, but not quite in the way its being presented. Those families who make, say $90,000 a year, will get free tuition at a public institution, where before they got nothing. Aside from the other unpaid costs, this is a huge benefit. What the new money does (if the grades are there) is give the student and family the option of choice. If this was three years ago, no matter what the grades, if there wasn't enough savings for college, or insufficient borrowing capacity on behalf of the parents (not the student, who could always borrow some money, just not enough to pay for going away to college) this student was not going to whatever SUNY accepted him or her. Instead, our example was probably trundling over to my office in the middle of August, desperately trying to get a Stafford loan processed in time to pay for classes. Hopefully the paperwork was in order. If there is some savings, or the ability to borrow, in addition to the Excelsior scholarship, then going away to Binghamton, Buffalo, etc. is an option. Otherwise, you're coming into my office anyway, You might leave with less debt, but how much less debt is unknown.
The other aspect that has be more or less confirmed is that the academic requirements are very stringent, requiring the completion of 30 credits in one year, and if this isn't met, the aid is lost. Moreover, the GPA requirements are higher than other forms of state aid. Of course, I don't know how much higher. Could it be 2.0, checked every semester? Probably, but I don't know that either. The next three days will hopefully have the answers. I do know we'll be asking the questions, but are we asking the right ones? I don't know.
My prior post was not my finest work, such was the shock and existential dismay I felt after the creation of this policy. After rereading the post, I should be more aghast at the quality of writing, but sometimes you need to just slap something together and see what happens. I'm happy to say it worked; my creative juices are flowing again, and ideas for posts are popping into my head like dandelions on a lawn. That may not be the best simile I could have come up with, actually.
Thus, it is with unusual prescience (especially for me, who normally stumbles from one situation to the next like a drunken wildebeest) that I find myself in Corning, NY attending the 2017 State University of New York Financial Aid Professionals (SUNYFAP) annual conference. I asked to attend this shindig months ago, and was told yes, but the college said no a few weeks later due to budgetary constraints. Nevertheless, I offered to pay for the event myself; I just needed the time off. That was acceptable, so $260 and a few airline miles later, here I am. In between my registering and the start of the conference, the bomb was dropped on all of us, and I'm sure it will be the only thing we discuss. Blathering on about work life balance can wait.
Speaking of work life balance, and the implication we don't have it, the effect this new policy will have on me (and oh boy will it ever, to almost ridiculous levels) is certainly a valid topic for exploration, but for this essay, let's examine the Excelsior scholarship in greater detail, now that my head has cleared somewhat.
First, it needs to be stated that the effect is being oversold, but any new government program would be. As a last dollar form of aid, if a student qualifies for enough TAP and Pell to pay the tuition, then no extra money is available, even though there are plenty of other bills that need to be paid: fees, books, dorms, transportation, etc. As such, the notion that the SUNY, CUNY, and Community Colleges systems are suddenly free is nothing more than a fantasy There was also the intimation that a whole new group of student was going to be able to attend college where before they could not. This is utter nonsense; it is not going send a stampede of new students to college. There was always money available to pay for school; it was just in a form that people didn't want: loans. The access was always there, and anyone saying otherwise is either ill-informed, or outright lying.
Nevertheless, there are those that will benefit, but not quite in the way its being presented. Those families who make, say $90,000 a year, will get free tuition at a public institution, where before they got nothing. Aside from the other unpaid costs, this is a huge benefit. What the new money does (if the grades are there) is give the student and family the option of choice. If this was three years ago, no matter what the grades, if there wasn't enough savings for college, or insufficient borrowing capacity on behalf of the parents (not the student, who could always borrow some money, just not enough to pay for going away to college) this student was not going to whatever SUNY accepted him or her. Instead, our example was probably trundling over to my office in the middle of August, desperately trying to get a Stafford loan processed in time to pay for classes. Hopefully the paperwork was in order. If there is some savings, or the ability to borrow, in addition to the Excelsior scholarship, then going away to Binghamton, Buffalo, etc. is an option. Otherwise, you're coming into my office anyway, You might leave with less debt, but how much less debt is unknown.
The other aspect that has be more or less confirmed is that the academic requirements are very stringent, requiring the completion of 30 credits in one year, and if this isn't met, the aid is lost. Moreover, the GPA requirements are higher than other forms of state aid. Of course, I don't know how much higher. Could it be 2.0, checked every semester? Probably, but I don't know that either. The next three days will hopefully have the answers. I do know we'll be asking the questions, but are we asking the right ones? I don't know.
Monday, April 10, 2017
Ask not for whom the Pell tolls...
It tolls for me.
Come August, I will have been a financial aid counselor for 19 years. I can't believe it's been that long, but my incredulity at surviving in this profession is minuscule compared to my blanching at the whipsaw politics of the day. One year ago I would never have believed Trump would be president, and I'm dumbstruck at Albany. When I'm done with this post, I'm getting canned goods.
There are lots of expensive goodies in the budget, and plenty of progressive aims fulfilled, but none are more relevant to me than the new policy of free SUNY and CUNY tuition, for families making less than $100,000 starting Fall of 2017, increasing to $110,000 in 2018, and stopping at $125,000 in Fall of 2019 - all figures are the federal adjusted gross income. Now, does this mean the end of financial aid as I know it? No. Certainly there will be some changes, and if I am interpreting the policies correctly, the free tuition will lower the student loan borrowing of our students - maybe However, our workload will increase overall, to a much greater degree than any relief we could expect from fewer student loans.
Programs such as this, whether it's termed financial aid, or tuition credit, or a scholarship (which is supposedly the case here, as the official name is the Excelsior Scholarship, but isn't quite the case, as I'll explain below), follow one of two models: first dollar or last dollar. First dollar means that, if you meet the criteria, the tuition (but not necessarily the fees, books, etc.) is paid, and any other aid you receive (Pell, SEOG, loans, school aid, etc.) can be used for other purposes. Last dollar is just the opposite: whatever aid you're awarded pays the bills, and whatever tuition isn't covered is then paid via the scholarship. This means that someone with an income around $50,000 would probably get just enough Pell and TAP to cover our tuition, but the fees, etc., would have to be paid out of pocket. The Excelsior voucher is a last dollar program, so everyone under the federal limit would need to apply for aid, be approved or denied (and a family of four making $95,000 wouldn't normally get anything besides loans, so not all families bother), then the new money would be available. As a result, a sizable portion of the student body, who would otherwise never be in my office, will be filing the FAFSA, applying for TAP, and financial aid would be required to process them: collecting tax forms, worksheets, green cards, etc. When I say our workload will explode, I mean it.
There are other requirements (for both students and financial aid) beyond the paperwork being processed. The academic requirements are quite stringent, and they are in addition to the regular TAP and Pell satisfactory academic progress (SAP) requirements. First, the student must be full time, a minimum of 12 credits per semester. However, the student must also complete (note: I didn't say earn) 30 credits per year, so I'm expecting our summer enrollment to go up as students play catch-up. Moreover, would that summer term be covered by anything other than loans? The TAP and Pell would be used up, and the Excelsior program says full time only. A certain GPA must be maintained as well. I'll guess that's a 2.0 or better, but I'm not sure. There's some flexibility built into the program, but don't ask me what the originators of the law mean by that. Also, TAP is reviewed academically every term. Will this follow suit? I am prepared for that to be the case. This could mean a significant increase in SAP appeals, on a semester to semester basis. It's a concern.
Also unclear is who will qualify for the program. The official statement uses the term families, not students, so does that mean a child considered a dependent for state purposes? Is there an age limit? Do you need to be taken as a dependent? I don't know. New York is especially eager to make students dependent, to the point that a 37 year old can be required to use parental tax returns if certain criteria are met. On the other hand, you could be independent at 22. Also, do parents with dependents qualify? Again, I'm not sure. Hopefully we'll get more guidance soon.
Finally, this money isn't really free; there are strings attached. For every year you get the aid, you are expected to live and work in New York. If you don't, your free money then becomes a student loan. Again, what does this mean? Who manages the loan? What is the interest rate? Does it count against lifetime loan limits? I have no clue. I'm not against this facet of the program, and the Smart Grant has a similar requirement and conversion policy.
There's a larger question as to New York's finances and whether or not this is sustainable. I doubt it, depending on what happens to Obamacare and New York's odd relationship with Medicaid. That is a topic for another time.
Come August, I will have been a financial aid counselor for 19 years. I can't believe it's been that long, but my incredulity at surviving in this profession is minuscule compared to my blanching at the whipsaw politics of the day. One year ago I would never have believed Trump would be president, and I'm dumbstruck at Albany. When I'm done with this post, I'm getting canned goods.
There are lots of expensive goodies in the budget, and plenty of progressive aims fulfilled, but none are more relevant to me than the new policy of free SUNY and CUNY tuition, for families making less than $100,000 starting Fall of 2017, increasing to $110,000 in 2018, and stopping at $125,000 in Fall of 2019 - all figures are the federal adjusted gross income. Now, does this mean the end of financial aid as I know it? No. Certainly there will be some changes, and if I am interpreting the policies correctly, the free tuition will lower the student loan borrowing of our students - maybe However, our workload will increase overall, to a much greater degree than any relief we could expect from fewer student loans.
Programs such as this, whether it's termed financial aid, or tuition credit, or a scholarship (which is supposedly the case here, as the official name is the Excelsior Scholarship, but isn't quite the case, as I'll explain below), follow one of two models: first dollar or last dollar. First dollar means that, if you meet the criteria, the tuition (but not necessarily the fees, books, etc.) is paid, and any other aid you receive (Pell, SEOG, loans, school aid, etc.) can be used for other purposes. Last dollar is just the opposite: whatever aid you're awarded pays the bills, and whatever tuition isn't covered is then paid via the scholarship. This means that someone with an income around $50,000 would probably get just enough Pell and TAP to cover our tuition, but the fees, etc., would have to be paid out of pocket. The Excelsior voucher is a last dollar program, so everyone under the federal limit would need to apply for aid, be approved or denied (and a family of four making $95,000 wouldn't normally get anything besides loans, so not all families bother), then the new money would be available. As a result, a sizable portion of the student body, who would otherwise never be in my office, will be filing the FAFSA, applying for TAP, and financial aid would be required to process them: collecting tax forms, worksheets, green cards, etc. When I say our workload will explode, I mean it.
There are other requirements (for both students and financial aid) beyond the paperwork being processed. The academic requirements are quite stringent, and they are in addition to the regular TAP and Pell satisfactory academic progress (SAP) requirements. First, the student must be full time, a minimum of 12 credits per semester. However, the student must also complete (note: I didn't say earn) 30 credits per year, so I'm expecting our summer enrollment to go up as students play catch-up. Moreover, would that summer term be covered by anything other than loans? The TAP and Pell would be used up, and the Excelsior program says full time only. A certain GPA must be maintained as well. I'll guess that's a 2.0 or better, but I'm not sure. There's some flexibility built into the program, but don't ask me what the originators of the law mean by that. Also, TAP is reviewed academically every term. Will this follow suit? I am prepared for that to be the case. This could mean a significant increase in SAP appeals, on a semester to semester basis. It's a concern.
Also unclear is who will qualify for the program. The official statement uses the term families, not students, so does that mean a child considered a dependent for state purposes? Is there an age limit? Do you need to be taken as a dependent? I don't know. New York is especially eager to make students dependent, to the point that a 37 year old can be required to use parental tax returns if certain criteria are met. On the other hand, you could be independent at 22. Also, do parents with dependents qualify? Again, I'm not sure. Hopefully we'll get more guidance soon.
Finally, this money isn't really free; there are strings attached. For every year you get the aid, you are expected to live and work in New York. If you don't, your free money then becomes a student loan. Again, what does this mean? Who manages the loan? What is the interest rate? Does it count against lifetime loan limits? I have no clue. I'm not against this facet of the program, and the Smart Grant has a similar requirement and conversion policy.
There's a larger question as to New York's finances and whether or not this is sustainable. I doubt it, depending on what happens to Obamacare and New York's odd relationship with Medicaid. That is a topic for another time.
