Determining—and facilitating—a prospective student’s ability to pay their tuition is a key ingredient to a successful start rate. Unfortunately, at many institutions the working relationship between Financial Aid and Admissions is more adversarial than cooperative. Building real teamwork between these departments will result in significant results.

Good Guys/Bad Guys
If you talk with most Admissions people they will tell you many of their new students are ‘lost’ when they meet with financial aid. Financial Aid staff, on the other hand, typically indicate that Admissions has either told them nothing regarding price—leaving the FA staff to overcome pricing objections—or they have provided unrealistic expectations regarding the amount and type of aid available. If your Admissions team is not discussing the tuition investment with prospective students, this develops a ‘good guy/bad guy’ relationship with Financial Aid (with Admissions, of course, wanting to play the role of good cop!).

Let’s be fair to both departments. Admissions are ‘sales’ people. They have their own set of demands, most of which is to create a sense of belonging and excitement for the prospective student. They are painting word pictures about how wonderful it will be and how your institution will help them achieve their goals. Details aren’t usually part of that scenario! Financial Aid on the other hand, by it’s nature, is very rule and detail driven. You definitely want individuals in this department who are good at detail and follow regulations. Unfortunately, this means they sometimes have to tell students news that they may not want to hear.

It is very important that your Financial Aid office has people with basic sales training and excellent customer service skills. They need to consider themselves the financing department. Think back to your last car purchase. After you came to an agreement with your salesperson regarding your car, you where shuffled off to the finance department who discussed your payment options. They didn’t try to talk you OUT of purchasing the car! I have often found over the years that people aren’t so much upset about disappointing news as they are in the way it’s presented. The most depressing thing for prospective students is to find out they are not going to receive any (or enough) financial assistance and then have both the Financial Aid and the Admissions staff not provide alternatives.

First things first
What can Admissions do to help make the financial aid experience positive? They need to talk cost during the appointment and continually reinforce the value of attending your college. If they are too timid to talk about the cost, then you have some major training to do. These are typically the representatives with low start rates because they are not building enough value in to their appointment presentations. Students are generally willing to pay more if they feel they are getting their money’s worth!

Your staff should be making many analogies regarding the ‘investment’ of education. Rather than purchasing a car, a cell phone, etc. that won’t last—they are purchasing a future…one that will not rust! Many student loan repayment plans cost the same as monthly acrylic nails and basic cell phone plans. Students need to see their education as at least as valuable as those commodities! Your Admissions team need to be having these value and investment conversations with students BEFORE they meet with your financial aid department. Financial Aid also needs to be able to articulate these key ‘value added’ concepts.

Smooth handoffs.
When your Admissions team walks the student to the Financial Aid department, show the student that the two departments are cooperatively working in the students’ best interest. The representative should briefly introduce and describe the students’ situation so that the Financial Aid representative can immediately get up-to-speed on building a relationship.

Conversely, when the Financial Aid representative brings the student back to Admissions (they are doing this, right? Not just letting them walk out the door?!?!?), it is imperative that they bring the Admissions up-to-speed so that the enrollment process can proceed without interruption.

Helpful Alternatives.
Once the Financial Aid department has determined the estimated aid, if the student is having difficulty with the results one or more of the following things need to take place:

1. Restate the value propositions….investments and comparisons.
2. Offer alternatives. If they do not qualify for Federal aid or other grants/scholarships, the Financial Aid representative needs to introduce any available alternative funding options.
3. Ensure the Admissions personnel clearly understand what the situation is so they can reinforce what’s happened and support the conversation. They will need to continue discussing the value of your college and can help follow up with any paperwork required by the Financial Aid office.

Building a supportive, cooperative relationship between these two departments can significantly impact both the number of applicants and the number of new student starts. Take time to work out a process with your team that will maximize your service to students!