There is a new FAFSA in town. The old has gone, the new has come. SAI is the new EFC.
As you begin to navigate this new financial aid world, here are four important insights to remember as we bravely try to adjust to SAI:
- Students don’t make a choice to come to your institution based on your financial aid package. If that were true, every student would choose community college – which is much more affordable. But, students do make the choice not to go to your institution based on your financial aid package. Trying to lure students with more money is not an enrollment strategy.
- The goal of financial aid is to overcome the student’s financial barrier to choosing you. It is to make sure that a “yes” decision is on the table. It keeps you in the student’s choice set. It does not win you the student. The student is won on value, not on cost. To optimize where to price students, you must overcome the financial obstacle while at the same time not giving away the farm. This is a difficult balance for schools. The danger is that lack of interest can be perceived as not getting enough financial aid, so institutions add last-minute aid and unknowingly lose money that students were willing to pay.
- The best financial aid is the aid that means something to the student. Would you rather be awarded a leadership scholarship or a university grant? The way that you title financial aid awards might mean as much (or more) to the student as the award size. This is especially true at the higher SAI/EFC levels. Do not underestimate the power of making the student feel valued for who they are and their individual accomplishments.
- Financial aid needs to be part of a bigger enrollment strategy. Financial aid is part of enrollment. It is one of the three legs of the enrollment engine (admissions, marketing, and financial aid). If you treat FA as a separate function from admissions and marketing, you are missing out on making your strongest, most cohesive value pitch. The highest functioning enrollment teams understand this.
If you are wondering if your financial aid is working for you or against you as you move into the end of this crazy new SAI-driven award cycle, please give us a call for more information on a financial aid audit or financial aid optimization. Now is the time to make sure that your financial aid is dialed in.
-Nick Willis is a partner at TG Three, Mathematician and problem solver
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