1. Survey Says: Graduate/Professional Students and Their Finances
Derek Brainard, AFC® Manager, Education Services

3. Agenda About You About Grad/Pro Students
Graduate Study Investment and Income
Financial Education for Grad/Pro Students
Taking Action

4. About You
Undergrad focus, grad focus, separate job function, part of a job description?

5. Financial Stress and Student Success
Money trouble isn’t just an “other” issue.
The number one reason students report for withdrawing
Students feel underprepared to deal with finances
Impacts academic performance
Financial wellbeing linked to positive outcomes
Higher grades
Financial illiteracy associated with stop out behavior
First generation college students often extra vulnerable

6. Survey Quote
“Financial literacy for all our students (grad & undergrad) has become increasingly important to our office. We have already begun the process of researching options and discussing ways we can provide help to students, but we have not taken too much action yet due to time and staffing issues, as well as budget constraints on our university.”
Source: National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators and Access Group. (2016). The Graduate and Professional Financial Education Survey.

7. About Grad/Professional Students

8. Who Are They?

9. Demographics Older: Students still waiting to attend graduate school
May be moving toward their second career
Growing number have family: partners and children
International students more like to be graduate students than undergraduate
Source: Baum, S., & Steele, P. (2017). Who Goes to Graduate School and Who Succeeds?; Myers-Walls, J. A., Frias, L. V., Kwon, K. A., Ko, M. J. M., & Lu, T. (2011). Living life in two worlds: Acculturative stress among Asian international graduate student parents and spouses. Journal of Comparative Family Studies, ; Springer, K. W., Parker, B. K., & Leviten-Reid, C. (2009). Making space for graduate student parents: Practice and politics. Journal of Family Issues, 30(4),

10. Age Distribution
Source: National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), 2015, Trends in Graduate Student Financing: Selected Years, 1995–96 to 2011–12, Table 1.

11. College Educated Millennials
85 percent had savings accounts
About 50 percent owned a home
40 percent had investments or securities
International Students
Source: National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), 2015, Trends in Graduate Student Financing: Selected Years, 1995–96 to 2011–12, Table 1.

12. Graduate Study Investment and Income

13. Survey Quote
“At our school, there is currently a very effective Financial Education programming/peer counseling opportunity for undergraduate students. These resources are available to Graduate/Professional students, however they don't directly address their needs, which are sometimes similar and sometimes very different (high debt to income ratio, etc.).”
Source: National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators and Access Group. (2016). The Graduate and Professional Financial Education Survey.

14. Renee
How many grad students are in debt.
Source: National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), 2015, Trends in Graduate Student Financing: Selected Years, 1995–96 to 2011–12, Table 7.

15. Renee
How much debt they are taking on.
Source: College Board. (2014). [Comparative bar graphs]. Loans. Trends in higher education.

16. Pay Differentials of Degree Programs
Wide-range of outcomes including in same fields and considerable employment uncertainty.
Approximately 25% of those with professional/research doctoral degrees earned less than the median for those with bachelors degrees. For master’s degrees it was 37%.
Those leaving their studies with full-time employment commitments is going down across many sectors.
Discrepancies in wages along race/ethnicity and gender lines. Also, more likely to take on more debt for study.
Source: Baum, S., & Steele, P. (2018). After Graduate and Professional School: How Students Fare in the Labor Market.
and

18.
2015 AVMA Report on Veterinary Debt and Income
Source: American Veterinary Medical Association, 2015 AVMA Report on Veterinary Debt & Income

19.
Source: Graduate Management Admission Council, Post MBA Salary Estimator

20. Pediatrics: $167,012 Family Medicine: $182,500 Dermatology: $252,500
Emergency Medicine: $280,000
Source: Association of American Medical Colleges, MGMA 2016 Physician Placement Starting Salary Report

21. Financial Education for Graduate and Professional Students

22. Survey Quote
“We started making it a requirement that all first year MD students meet with either the counselor or director at the start of the year. We've found no replacement for the one-on-one meeting to introduce ourselves, promote what we can offer in the way of coaching through the aid process. Student follow-up has been very successful, reducing loan amounts borrowed, rethinking housing costs, etc.”
Source: National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators and Access Group. (2016). The Graduate and Professional Financial Education Survey.

23. Survey Participants: 11/2016 – 3/2017
4,625 law school students from 42 schools provided survey responses
Source: Financial Education Pilot Program. (2017). AccessLex Institute.

24. Focus Groups/Panels: 12/2016 – 3/2017
Schools
Student Participants
Time 23
In-person
Focus group
416
60-90 minutes 19
Online Panels
341
2-week time frame
Source: Financial Education Pilot Program. (2017). AccessLex Institute.

25. Financial Stress
70%:
I feel stressed about my personal finances in general
40%:
I worry about being able to pay my current monthly expenses
77%:
I worry about the student debt I will accrue during law school
Source: Financial Education Pilot Program. (2017). AccessLex Institute.

26. Personal Finance Grade
85% of respondents gave themselves a B- or lower grade on their personal finance knowledge.
Source: Financial Education Pilot Program. (2017). AccessLex Institute.

27. Financial Knowledge Score
Only 55.8% scored a 75% or higher.
(And the questions weren’t that hard…)

28. Financial Confidence Confidence Grade
Source: Financial Education Pilot Program. (2017). AccessLex Institute.

29. Taking Action

30. Reading, Willing, Able
Score
Willing
Ready
Able 7+
74%
54%
44%

31. What They Want to Know Money management Financial decision making
Educational financing and planning
Financial planning and investments
Insurance and risk management

32. How They Want to Learn
Workshops can work – IF connected to classroom experience or profession
One-on-one – but NOT via peer counselors
Online
Messaging is really important
Consider their time constraints

33. Source: Financial Education Pilot Program. (2017). AccessLex Institute.

34. Taking Action Know your students and environment
Connect to their future professional lives
Understand their current context
Collaborate with faculty; connect with class
Connect to accreditation standards
Use meaningful incentives
Understand physical location, service

35. THANK YOU