1. 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

2. 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

3. 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

4. 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

5. 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?

6. 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

7. 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 based on new 2016 income – processed and student is now eligible for PELL and other aid. Student is also completing their 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

8. 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!

9. 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

10. 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

11. 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