The FAFSA Mobile App: How to Engage Differing Demographics   Robert Muhammad, Financial Aid Director, Winston-Salem State University Michael A. O’Grady, Financial Aid Services, Atlanta, Georgia

A New Tool in the Financial Aid Process: October 2018 Snapshot myStudentAid mobile app downloaded 180,000 10% of FAFSA filers (Source: FSA)

Since When is the FAFSA Completion Process Called? ”Pretty Snazzy!” “Quick” “Fun”

Brief History of Centralized Financial Aid Application Process College Board's ”Financial Aid Form” or FAF ACT financial aid form Free FAFSA Form (College Board continues in the market with the Profile form that includes data previously available in the FAF for a fee) ELM –Develops the first FAFSA electronic application. (Floppy disc) Department of Education electronic FAFSA application ED FAFSA Mobile Application

NextGen for First Gen??? Effectuating the FAFSA Mobile App with First Gen Students 95% have mobile phones Counseling intermediaries and organizations impact? Non-traditional families’ perspective Intention for app use outside FAFSA

Mystudentaid: mobile app Ability to complete, save, and submit the FAFSA from the app

Mystudentaid: mobile app Information protected the same as FOTW Prompts applicant to create a save key, allowing completion at later time

Mystudentaid: mobile app FAFSA completion tracked Successful completion of each section indicated

Mystudentaid: mobile app Digital signature box is NOT the official signature. Student and parent MUST use the FSA ID to “sign” Confirmation of submission Estimated EFC calculated and displayed

FIU Office of Financial Aid 42,537 UGRD students across 5 campuses and Online. Minority Majority institution. 64% Hispanic, 12% Black, 13% Other, 11% White Approx. 44% Independent, 56% Dependent for Undergraduates. Financial Aid stats: Undergraduate Loaded ISIR applications – 33,380 Undergraduate Aided Students 31,917 % of enrolled students who receive aid – 75% Undergraduate Disbursed - $327 M (Pell - $105.6M Loans - $122M) 27 OFA Full-Time Staff*, 35 FWS*. (*Transferred 12 OFA staff to OneStop when it went to full operation August 2015, All walk-in and most phone FA contacts are now with OneStop, 6 FA FWS handle Live Chat.

Winston Salem State University Historically Black University 4,668 undergraduates Racial makeup 75.9% African-American 12.4% Caucasian 3.6% Hispanic/Latino 3.6% Two or more races Financial Aid $15 million Pell Grant (3,4242 recipients) $34 million in Federal Loans (8,563 loans) $475,000 FSEOG $500,000 FWS $6 million approximate in other aid including State Staff 11 including director and managers 5 Federal Work-Studies 1 remote part-time IT person

Viewing the Complete Financial Aid Process and Potential ”Speedbumps” Awareness and Completing FAFSA and other Applications FAFSA Completion and Corrections Verification process Best practices to avoid “Verification melt” Tangential off ramps to enrollment (immunization, etc.) Winston-Salem’s “Rapid Outreach” pilot

Multi-pronged Campaigns Develop and engagement/outreach calendar Call campaigns both internal and with third-part vendors Targeted postcard campaigns On and off campus (delivered to residence halls and postal mail) Partnerships Special populations – athletics, band, TRiO Housing and Residence Life First Year Experience Review and work data, address anomalies, identify trends

Spring Conference April 7 – 10, 2019 Data Snapshots Spring Conference April 7 – 10, 2019

Round Table Observations Execution observations? On the ground data? Other Speed bumps?

NCASFAA would like to thank our vendors for their support. Please visit them and let them know how much we appreciate them.

Please remember to complete the session evaluation.

Spring Conference April 7 – 10, 2019