Classification: Private career school.
Modules Used:
- Module 1: Get a Grip on Your Finances: Smart Spending for
Students.
- Module 2: Seek out Financial Aid: Funding Resources and Financial
Obligations.
How Used: Student-success course.
Program Description: The director of financial aid at the
Institute of Business and Medical Careers has found that keeping students
focused on their goals is key to effective default management. Students must be
reminded that they're investing in their future and that financial aid is not a
burden. USA Funds® Life Skills® provides the essential
financial information that the financial-aid staff wants to communicate to
students during their first term of enrollment.
Module 1: Get a Grip on Your Finances: Smart Spending for Students
and Module 2: Seek out Financial Aid: Funding Resources and Financial
Obligations are integrated into the required student-success classes.
Conducted by a member of the financial-aid staff, the hour-long financial-aid
presentations to the student-success classes focus on budgeting, how loans work
and credit-card dos and don'ts. The staff uses the information to dissuade
students from borrowing unnecessarily. Students receive copies of the student
skills books and the interactive CD packaged with the module.
The director of financial aid reports that students enjoy the material and
find it extremely helpful. She reports that, after the presentations, students
frequently come into the financial-aid office to reduce loan amounts and take on
payment plans that reduce their loan payments after school.
Staffing Requirements: The financial-aid staff facilitates
Modules 1 and 2 in the student-success classes.
Recommendations: The director of financial aid at IBMC
suggests that ongoing communication is an essential ingredient in any successful
default-management program. USA Funds Life Skills makes it easy to communicate
by offering essential financial information in a student-friendly format.
Training provided by USA Funds consultants suggested multiple options for
implementing the program.
Campus Contact:
Jackie Gresham, Director of Financial
Aid
Phone: (970) 223-2669
E-mail: jgresham@ibmcedu.com