How to Maximize the Recruitment Value of Aid Packaging
When the Department of Education first announced the recent changes to FAFSA, enrollment managers and aid directors had to decide quickly—and with little information—whether to change their aid packaging timelines. Many are now considering if they made the right decision.
This white paper considers how the decisions made by both institutions and by families in response to Early FAFSA have changed the enrollment market, and what enrollment managers can do now to capitalize on the new FAFSA reality.
This resource is part of the Clearly Communicate Price and Financial Aid Roadmap. Access the Roadmap for stepwise guidance with additional tools and research.
The new reality of Early FAFSA: Families and schools are embracing the additional months
50.8%
When the Department of Education announced that it would open the FAFSA application in October, starting with the 2017/18 award year, many schools wondered whether enough families would submit earlier applications to warrant changing aid-packaging timelines. The first enrollment cycle under the Early FAFSA schedule showed that families are indeed taking advantage: more than half of applications filed for the 2017/18 award year were submitted by the end of December 2016. Applications for the 2018/19 award year are continuing along the same trend.
Schools have also taken advantage of the additional months afforded by Early FAFSA. Although the full impact of Early FAFSA is still not clear, a trend toward earlier packaging timelines has emerged. Many schools made significant changes to their timelines for the 2017/18 award year, sending out aid letters more than two months earlier than they traditionally had. More than half of EAB’s Enrollment Services clients have indicated that they are doubling down on this strategy, sending out their first rounds of aid letters even earlier for the 2018/19 award year.
7 ways schools can make the most of Early FAFSA
Given the new reality of aid packaging, the Enrollment Management Forum created a series of recommendations for how schools can make the most of Early FAFSA by maximizing the recruitment value of their aid packages:
Send the first wave of aid packages before mid-February—if not before the holiday break—and use the extra time to build affinity with students.
It’s no longer practical to wait until all budget and aid information is finalized before packaging aid.
Design aid letters to transparently communicate not just the size of a family’s investment, but also the return they’ll receive.
After sending out aid packages, use the family’s knowledge of net cost as a catalyst for building more personal, responsive recruiting relationships.
Empower all recruitment staff to turn conversations about aid into conversations about value.
Use the extra time created by packaging early to create programming that distinctly target the concerns that parents and students might have about college costs.
For schools that accept appeals, use the appeals process to demonstrate responsiveness to student needs.
This resource requires EAB partnership access to view.
Access the tool
Learn how you can get access to this resource as well as hands-on support from our experts through Strategic Advisory Services.
Learn More