Loan Counseling Studentloans - Scasfaa

LOAN COUNSELING & STUDENTLOANS.GOV Wood Mason U.S Department of Education Federal Student Aid Atlanta, GA 770.383.9662 wood.mason@ed.gov

AGENDA Counseling Overview The regulations StudentLoans.gov What’s new? Logging in Counseling “Landing Page” Common features School functionality Options set on the Common Origination & Disbursement (COD) website “Options” screen Searching for counseling results Reports Contact information 2

Entrance and exit counseling are required by regulations, 34 CFR 685.304, “Counseling Borrowers” Who must undergo entrance and/or exit counseling and when Required topics to address The new “Limit on eligibility for Direct Subsidized Loan(s) and responsibility for paying accrued interest on Direct Subsidized Loan(s)” regulations are covered under 34 CFR 685.200, “Student Eligibility” 3

Entrance and Exit Counseling can be delivered online via an interactive electronic vehicle (e.g., StudentLoans.gov), in person, or on a signed and returned written form Entrance counseling must be completed prior to the first disbursement of the proceeds of a loan unless that student has received a Direct Subsidized/Direct Unsubsidized, Direct Graduate/Professional Student PLUS Loan, or Federal Stafford Loan previously Exit counseling must be conducted shortly before the student ceases at least half-time study at your school 4

StudentLoans.gov provides ALL* Federal Student Aid electronic loan counseling tools at one location and in pretty much the same “format” Entrance Counseling Sub/Unsub/Grad & Professional Student PLUS Financial Awareness Counseling NOT a regulatory or statutory requirement Exit Counseling NSLDS will continue to provide detailed Exit Counseling reports * TEACH Grant annual counseling via the TEACH Grant website 5

Financial Awareness Counseling was developed and implemented to provide a centralized, online source of financial literacy information for students Voluntary NOT mandatory Does NOT replace entrance counseling Assists borrowers in making informed postsecondary funding decisions by educating them about their current indebtedness and managing their student loans 6

StudentLoans.gov notifies your school if a student selects your school as the recipient of a completed Entrance or Financial Awareness counseling session or if you’re the attending school when it comes time to complete Exit counseling Transmits a common record (CR) acknowledgement Document (DOC) type “EC” Displays the type of counseling completed 7

Without logging in, students, borrowers, and other users can complete a “demo session” on any of the three counseling options No information from NSLDS will be “pulled” No schools notified No documentation of completion Once logged in, users can complete a counseling session with their current loan data provided, view completed counseling sessions, or send entrance or financial awareness counseling results to an additional school(s) 8

What’s new? Sign-in is more secure Data is now “masked” upon entry More emphasis on Federal loans before private loans Additional, and more clear, information on interest Capitalized interest Added 150% subsidized loan limit text and hyperlink “Confirm Your E-mail Address” fields added when user asked for email address “Notify School” vs. “Add School” 9

What’s new? “Projected Loan Balance Calculator” “Understand Your Loans” “Additional Loans” The “Estimate School Expenses” dropdown Pre-populated with schools “associated” with the borrower Schools from “Notify Schools” selection Pulled from NSLDS Can enter own expenses or choose from 2 and 4 year public/private school “estimated expenses” 10

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Initial logon provides the opportunity to set individual user preferences all users will be required to confirm again e-correspondence preferences on initial logon with COD Release 13.0 on April 14th 13

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Users can notify an additional school(s) of completed Entrance and Financial Awareness Counseling sessions 15

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Counseling landing page provides students with information on selecting the type of counseling they wish to complete 17

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Financial Awareness Counseling allows the user to forego school selection 20

“Understand Your Loans” Detailed list of loans pulled from NSLDS, loan basics, i.e., principal amount, interest, capitalized interest Things You Should Know about the MPN, accrual of interest, half-time enrollment, loan acceleration Free money should be sought first Types of loans and loan limits Dependent/Independent Grade level Hyperlink to 150% Subsidized interest eligibility information 21

“Manage Your Spending” (not in Exit Counseling) Develop a budget while still enrolled Load the “College Navigator” cost data for your selected institution Data pulled from IPEDS Benefits of controlling your expenses and incurring minimal debt Learn how paying accruing interest may lessen borrowing costs Tips to help you manage your debt 22

“Plan To Repay” topic Estimate your payment in different repayment plans Do you qualify you for an income-driven plan? Evaluate your student loan debt “burden” vs. estimated future income, i.e., high, medium, or low? Savings realized with extra payments, EFT, or paying interest during deferment or forbearance Repayment facts Grace period First payment Contacting your loan Servicer 23

“Avoid Default” topic Borrow only what you need Complete your program and graduate Pay on time Trouble making payments Deferment / Forbearance Change repayment plan Consequences of delinquency and/or default Forgiveness, cancellation, and discharge Retaining loan records and resolving a dispute Loan consolidation 24

“Make Finances a Priority” topic Plan for the future Plan, save, and spend wisely Your income and taxes Gross to net income comparison graph Education tax incentives, i.e., deductions and credits Your credit and identity Establish, maintain, and protect your good credit and identity Credit cards and other borrowing 25

“Repayment Information” topic (Exit Counseling only) Borrower Information Includes demographic, employer, and next-of-kin data Reference Information Different addresses and telephone numbers Known borrower 3 years or more Select a preferred Repayment Plan Compares your indebtedness and repayment across eligible repayment plans Preference sent to Servicer 26

“Check Your Knowledge,” “Did you Know?” and “Remember” appear throughout each topic except for Demo screens 27

Entrance, Exit, and Financial Awareness Counseling pull loan data from NSLDS and associated school(s) for Exit Counseling 28

Step 1 & Step 2 MUST be completed to continue IPEDS data pulled via the “College Navigator” and applied to “Manage Your Spending” screen 29

Step 2 allows entry of expected assistance for the upcoming award year 30

Entrance Counseling Summary screen Summary Tools allow e-mailing, posting to social media, exporting to MS Excel, or printing 31

Exit Counseling Summary concludes with current indebtedness and other information 32

The conclusion of Exit Counseling requires selection of a “preferred” repayment plan” that can be changed at a later date if desired 33

Schools are provided various controls and tools in COD to manage their participation in, and communication with, Entrance, Financial Awareness, and Exit Counseling School Options Page On-demand or daily acknowledgements Counseling Search Functions Counseling Response Requests COD Counseling Report 34

State University 35

COD School Options Page As you want it to appear 36

Upon completion of Counseling selected schools are notified electronically System generated acknowledgement Common Record (CR) response CRECMYOP DOC Type “EC” Schools can obtain and view completed Counseling COD Batch Search COD Counseling Response Request COD Reports: Counseling Reports (CSV) 37

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The response identifies the type of counseling completed Shane Williams xxxxxxxxx 12/12/1970 Specter University 000000000S14G00000001 ‘13-’14 39

Person Tab Counseling Search “Award Year” will default to the current award year and “Date Range” can be up to one week 40

Batch Tab search by date range, a particular Document ID, or a unique SSN Date Range window up to 60 days 41

Counseling “On Demand” Response Request Date Range up to 7 days 42

Returned Counseling Request Steven Tyler Jerry Garcia Steven Stills 43

The Counseling Report displays completed Entrance, Financial Awareness and Exit Counseling sessions Delivered weekly to the School’s Newsbox on the COD Reporting Website Saturday through Friday data window CSV with headers format REMEMBER: COD does NOT generate nor provide detailed Exit Counseling reports. Exit Counseling reports remain available from NSLDS and you should continue to retrieve those reports from NSLDS as you do currently 44

New counseling type indicators 45

COD School Relations Center – # 1,800.557.7394 CODSupport@ed.gov StudentLoans.gov NSLDS Customer Support Center - # 1.800.999.8219 nslds@ed.gov Direct Loan Exit Counseling Reports CPS/SAIG Technical Support - # 1.800.330.5947 CPSSAIG@ed.gov SAIG/TG Mailbox and EdExpress for Windows software 46

Wood Mason Phone: 770.383.9662 E-mail: wood.mason@ed.gov Federal Loan School Support Team E-mail: DLOps@ed.gov 47

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three counseling options No information from NSLDS will be "pulled" No schools notified No documentation of completion Once logged in, users can complete a counseling session with their current loan data provided, view completed counseling sessions, or send entrance or financial awareness counseling results to an additional school(s) 8