State Education Assistance Authority State Update Elizabeth McDuffie State Education Assistance Authority Concord November 2016

Today’s Topics Election results Legislative session FAFSA volume Early FAFSA Outreach Other Initiatives

Trump: College Costs From NASFAA (citing Clovis, campaign co-chair) Would fight proposals for debt-free and tuition free public higher education Call on institutions to spend more on students to lower the cost of college Would reconsider “if those with large endowments deserve to keep those endowments tax-exempt”

Trump: Student Loans Wants the government out of lending and restore that role to private banks Local banks should lend to local students Should be partnership between student, bank and college Colleges should have role determining loan worthiness on factors beyond family income Future earnings for program of study Income-contingent repayment plan –payments capped at 12% of income and after 15 years, loan is canceled.

Trump: School Accountability Colleges should have “skin in the game” and share the risk in student lending Risk should be substantial enough to change admissions policies and programs of study offered Provide remediation but colleges should not admit students whom they are not confident can graduate in reasonable time frame and find jobs

Trump: Regulations Acknowledged that federal regulations have increased “administrative bloat” citing Vanderbilt University 2015 study

Federal Elections- NC North Carolina Congresswoman Virginia Foxx poised to chair the House Education and Workforce Committee Represents 5th district Very important as Reauthorization of the Higher Education Act is pending Stated she would seek much greater transparency from colleges on metrics such as the graduation rate of Pell Grant recipients

NC Elections Outcome of Governor’s race unsettled Republicans in the General Assembly retain supermajority = veto proof New State Superintendent of Education Third new leader for public education sectors

2016 Legislative Session Changes in tuition for UNC S.L. 2016-94 (S1030) Know Before You Go S.L. 2016-57 (S536)

UNC Tuition Guaranteed Tuition—effective for fall 2016 Tuition frozen for four years or appropriate length of time for students who transfer into the institution Fee increases limited to no more than 3% —effective for fall 2017 NC Promise—effective for fall 2018 Tuition reduced to $500/semester (in-state) and $2,500 (out-of-state) at Elizabeth City State University, UNC-Pembroke, Western Carolina University

Know Before You Go SEAA to provide information based on aggregate data for outcomes of public and private colleges/universities Completion rates within the expected number of semesters Transfer rates of students Percentage of students receiving financial aid, by type of aid Average and median debt upon graduation, by major Average and median salary by major Percent of graduates employed and percent in grad school within 6 months of graduation

Residency Students who are already enrolled will be grandfathered if they stay continuously enrolled. No gap in enrollment for two or more semesters Launch for independent colleges is December 5 Launch for 5 model community colleges is January 30, 2017 Launch for other community colleges and UNC is February 20, 2017

Grant Program Update Fall certification deadline of December 1 No extensions Complete reconciliations now Grants for 2017-18 will be available later in mid-December The semester count is based on your certifications---in December, most schools have not certified students for the spring semester so the remaining semesters will not include spring!!

State Grant Process Nuances Opportunity to file an early FAFSA means: Applicants may apply for aid before admission higher percentage of aid applicants will not apply for admission to all the institutions they list on FAFSA Over-commit will be slightly higher, but without history, must be conservative Students may be more thoughtful in their decision-making—more students may ask colleges to match other institutions’ offers

Early FAFSA What is still unknown? Fund Projections Will more students apply for aid? Will students list more colleges on their FAFSA? Will state grant programs be exhausted earlier?

FINISH the FAFSA! SEAA led initiative providing information to high school counselors about the FAFSA status of their seniors Using tools available on CFNC.org, counselors can see which of their high school seniors have completed the FAFSA and prod non-completers For 2017-18, 55% increase in the number of FAFSAs submitted by high school seniors by Oct 28, 2017

Financial Aid Training Completed training for 40 FAAs at our October session in Raleigh Since 2003, SEAA with the help of many campus experts has trained 1,005 FAAs! Next training will be spring 2017

FAFSA Volume Historical Trend

Comparison of NC FAFSAs Filed

Federal Family Educational Loans 3-Year Default Rate SEAA National FFY 2011 5.7% 13.7% FFY 2012 5.2% 11.8% FFY 2013 3.6% 11.6% The lowest guaranty agency default rate in the country!

New Education Loan Loan for students and parents with North Carolina nexus NC resident going to school out of state Out of state resident enrolled in a NC institution If student does not have credit or credit score is too low, will need a co-signer with eligible credit score Loan will provide an option to PLUS loan for parents and graduate students Summer start-up

Questions?