According to The Office of MN Attorney General Keith Ellison (2023), "In Minnesota alone, over 775 thousand people owe a total of $29.1 billion in student debt".

For this presentation, our focus is on Anoka Ramsey Community College (ARCC), which is a MN State College & Universities.

I believe institutions have a share responsibility in helping student through financial literacy and decision making. I propose a policy to have individualized financial advisors available to all student at every institution.

https://www.ag.state.mn.us/Office/Communications/2023/09/06_StudentLoanDebt.asp

-Not all institutions interpret FAFSA or communicate financial literacy effectively or in the same way to students.

-Students are not required to apply for FAFSA before enrollment.

-Institutions varies in offices which helps with FAFSA application by different departments (eg, One Stop, Financial aid office, Some Advising Offices and/or TRIO).

-Institutions varies in office which helps with financial literacy.

-This is a prime example of students going through many departments or get shuffle around when seeking financial help (including tuition, child care, emergency grants, and food resources).

-Some departments including the financial aid office may not give the best advise on a student’s financial aid package information to the fullest. This issue may include lack of universal financial verbiage.

FAFSA & Financial literacy is a practice not a policy!

• This office is in-charge in all aspects of tuition billing & payments, FAFSA, financial aid, emergency funds, resources and scholarship workshops to students.

• This office will have open office hours and one-on-one appts available to students during normal work hours. All will go through a financial orientation hold requirement prior to courses starting.

• This mission of this office is to address financial retention efforts and initiate strategic & individualized outreaches to student financial support; such as students with no FAFSA on file and with tuition balances and students who are eligible for additional grants. The repeated efforts for data pulling and outreach is very important as students could still get Fall semester paid for and /or reimbursed even if no FAFSA was completed until summer deadline of that academic year.  

• This office values in one-on-one relationships to create trust in the student's success at the institution and providing financial resources.

  Financial resources may include food resources/ pantry/ SNAP, credit card information, private & public loan information, child care grants & public child care, emergency grants, tuition payment options, FAFSA and scholarships for allocation and/or to off set costs.

  
  

Another web page available is "Pay your Tuition" webpage shows students should pay tuition by the due date or make a payment plan. which goes over 4 ways to pay tuition. Nothing about FAFSA.

1. Paying online

2. Pay Via a Payment Plan

3. Pay in Person

4. Pay by Mail

   
   

Miss information or not enough information? Where is FAFSA? In a small box to the right side of the webpage shows;

More Ways to Pay:

1. Third party providers

2. Scholarships, Loans, grant s

3. Work-study

Notice a small box in the column labeled "Apply for Financial aid (before tuition deadline)". We must receive your Financial Aid application by the tuition deadline to hold your classes. Otherwise, students must pay their tuition in full or set up a payment plan by tuition due date. Any tuition and fees not paid by Financial Aid will remain the student's responsibility.

• This gives the impression that there is a FAFSA deadline before class starts.

• This gives the impression students can't apply for FAFSA once class has started.

• Which gives the impression students are ineligible for aid.

https://edalliesmn.org/blog/less-than-half-of-mn-students-completed-fafsa-its-time-for-state-action/

Don't forget we are only talking about applicants. This does not include students who didn't attend college, include students who actually are eligible for aid and students who didn't complete the whole FAFSA application process & missing paper work.

Unfortunately, Financial aid referrers to Grants, scholarships, students loans and work-study.

https://www.minnstate.edu/admissions/financialaid.html#:~:text=Overall%2C%2063%25%20of%20Minnesota%20State,for%20college%20or%20offset%20costs.

• Active outreaches by the financial Advisor team, prior to the beginning of the semester will help engage student sooner and be financially prepared.

• Short-term & Long-term effects: We want to eliminate or reduce the stress of not knowing if tuition is paid for, if not-how much does a student have to come up with for remaining balances, if students could charge books right away or is it out of pocket, if courses schedule will be held or dropped and if students should actively see scholarships. Not to mention other resources available such as grants and food assistance to help student budget and financial allocation.

• We hope to retain Milo as a student until graduation.

• Milo being college debt free would be our dream goal.