Prior-Prior Year: Now What Do We Do? Lisa G. Blazer, PhD Sr. Associate Vice President for Student Affairs NASFAA Chair University of Texas San Antonio

NASFAA and PPY Background NASFAA advocacy for PPY Reduced verification burden More time to make college going decisions After much research NASFAA discovered… Most students did not see significant change in Pell Awards About 16-18% would see large changes in their Pell Grants (more than $1,000 in either direction) Shift to PPY appears to work best for students from lowest-income families

Remember the Benefits of PPY Earlier availability of the FAFSA to provide earlier award letters Helps students and families make more informed decisions Helps students and families budget This could also impact your scholarship awarding process so students are made aware of any merit funds they may be receiving More families will be able to use the IRS Data Retrieval Tool Taxes should be complete Using prior-prior year data still provides consistent income information for student eligibility Could reduce verification in some cases, more consistent data instead of estimates

PPY Task Force Goals Proactively identify implementation issues, work with NASFAA staff, and collaborate with Department of Education to ensure successful rollout of PPY Solicit and deliver feedback from the NASFAA membership and Board of Directors Identify best practices, Q&As, and trainings to the NASFAA membership Identify and address any issues impacting FA computer systems during PPY transition Facilitate collaboration with other key stakeholders Conduct a post-mortem as PPY is rolled out

Challenges to consider on our campuses When will tuition and fees be set? If you are going to package early, will you know what your tuition and fees will be? If not, what can you do to package anyway? Estimated tuition and fees Disclaimers Batch posting to make changes What about state allocations (or institutional) If you are going to package early, will you know your allocations? If not, what kind of risk will you take to get early awards out?

Challenges to work through on our campuses What about scholarships? Are you changing your awarding process? Timing of scholarships along with packaging aid What about colleges/department scholarships? Verification – Big Question – will there be an impact (good or bad)? With IRS Data Retrieval, we will likely see a reduction 399 Codes – this year, we may see more conflicts, how are you going to address the additional work and processes to ensure we are compliant but also not creating barriers for students How do you combat others wanting to move deadlines up? Admissions – still have May 1st – hasn’t changed PPY is designed to give students/families more time – moving up a financial aid deadline will impact students negatively Flipside – we have to watch our budgets to make sure we don’t overspend

Professional Judgment Financial Aid can use professional judgment to look at loss of income that can impact eligibility NASFAA suggests: Use income that best reflects the student’s current situation Don’t ask for more information than necessary Scenario Student submitted a loss of income for 2016-17 based on new 2016 income – processed and student is now eligible for PELL and other aid. Student is also completing their 2017-18 FAFSA and requesting another loss of income – Ideas? Require student/family to complete their 2016 taxes before processing the loss of income? PPY Taskforce is considering creating professional judgment sample forms for institutions to use

Recruitment and PPY Yield and Melt – what kind of impact? Recruitment and Financial Aid Cycle are changed and there’s overlap More opportunities for students to “melt away” if we package earlier – how will you reduce that possibility? Communication will be critical because our “summer melt” is now longer More than 500,000 FAFSA’s were filed in the first 4 days – WOW! The Word is Out!

Communication – More, More, More!!! It needs to be positive and early – remember the recruitment and financial aid cycles are now overlapping, how will that change your marketing and communication plan? Be transparent about your policies and processes to students Admissions staff are the best defense for reaching out to high school counselors. We need to get them trained so they can help advise students Determine your follow-up communication plan once award letters go out – this is critical to reducing the melt and yielding students

Advice to help your Admissions Staff They are on the road Help them understand the FAFSA and what’s collected – they are likely going to get more questions since our cycles are overlapping now – be prepared Train them on needs analysis – do a manual calculation – it really helps them understand more about the FAFSA Make sure your recruiters understand the disclosures on your award letter so you can explain it to students: If tuition and fees aren’t set, there should be a disclosure – make sure recruiters are able to talk to students about when they will have more information Explain to recruiters whether you will estimate or package with estimates and what that looks like Make sure recruiters know what scholarships are available on your campus – they need to help students navigate through your institution’s processes as well as external organizations If your students will be on campus for admissions events or tours, etc., figure out a way to collaborate and get in front of the students to explain the new process and highlight award letters

What Resources are Available to You and your Institution? PPY Toolkit- Great resources for you Checklists for institutions to prep for PPY (financial aid, admissions, etc.) Blog posts from aid administrators on PPY Webinars on PPY implementation Policy work NASFAA has done on PPY Financial Aid Timeline Tool Implementation Decision Timeline Recommended Best Practices PPY Task Force working to identify implementation issues, solicit feedback, identify best practices, facilitate collaboration, develop resources, and evaluate implementation