The University of Maryland, Baltimore (UMB), is a public, four-year school serving 5,477 undergraduate and graduate students, although most of its students are seeking graduate or professional degrees. The campus' academic programs include schools of dentistry, law, medicine, nursing, pharmacy and social work and graduate school. Because a large number of UMB students already have undergraduate degrees, many juggle jobs — and families — with class work. Many of the graduate and professional students leave school with large debt loads, and some arrive at UMB with existing credit problems. Additionally, each school on campus operates as a separate entity, sometimes making it a challenge for Carolyn Pritchett, debt-management counselor, to develop relationships with students in each academic unit.

Programs
To meet that challenge, UMB takes a personalized approach to debt management. Pritchett meets regularly with students in groups and individually to discuss financial-aid topics that pertain specifically to students’ field of study. Working in tandem with officials of the campus' academic units, Pritchett communicates with students throughout their careers at the school — and she employs some special tricks to engage students' interest in sound financial management.

Each year, Pritchett addresses a new group of about 1,800 students, starting with debt-management training during orientation. The sessions complement a required entrance-counseling tutorial offered through the university's Web site. For the orientation session, she wears a T-shirt, jeans, hard hat and tool belt complete with real tools to show that she's "here to bring you tools to work with." She focuses on education-loan interest rates, thrifty living, keeping good records, establishing good credit and helpful Web sites. Handing out candy to the students, she makes it clear that she's there to "take care of them" during their careers at UMB and when they repay their education loans.

Debt-management presentations continue through mid-year, with sessions geared to the specific needs of the campus' academic units.

Like its orientation debt-management sessions, UMB's education-loan exit counseling is designed with impact in mind. During exit-counseling presentations, students see Pritchett in costume again — this time dressed as a devil. Wearing horns and a tail, and with "Defaulted" written on her forehead, she makes the point that student-loan default has serious consequences and that she is available to help them avoid it.

During exit counseling, Pritchett provides each of the approximately 1,800 graduating students with a folder that contains their individual student-loan histories and a variety of USA Funds^® brochures whose topics range from deferments and forbearances, to loan consolidation, to higher-education tax benefits. Students also receive loan-payment charts and a glossary of pertinent terms, and she stresses the importance of students' providing their lenders with up-to-date contact information.

Results
UMB places special emphasis on debt management to assist its students with the heavy education-loan debt that is typical for graduate and professional students. Pritchett's unrelenting attention to students helps them make responsible decisions about borrowing and repayment. As a result, the university maintains a cohort default rate of less than 1 percent. Her work has an impact that reaches beyond the UMB-campus community to include students’ entire families: Pritchett's thorough message has prompted some students to bring members of their families to her so they can benefit from her lessons about debt management.