Transcript
CFPB FinEx Webinar:  Paying for College—Federal Resources for Higher Education
November 8, 2023
Presenters:  Gaby Watts, Office of Postsecondary Education, U.S. Department of Education; Brian Stone, Office for Students and Young Consumers, CFPB; Elizabeth Coogan, FSA Ombudsman Office, U.S. Department of Education; Brent Madoo, College Scorecard, U.S. Department of Education; and Leslie Jones, CFPB
Facilitator:  Ken McDonnell, Financial Education Program Analyst, CFPB
  
 >>Susan Burgess:  Good afternoon. I am Susan Burgess from the Bureau's Events Management Team. I will go over some logistics before we begin.
 
If you are having any issues with your audio, click on the Audio button near the bottom of your screen. The audio options are located within the Circle button with three dots. There, you will receive guidance on switching your audio to your telephone. For Webex-generated closed captioning, click on the CC button at the lower left corner of the Webex window. At any time during this session, please type your question into the Q&A box located in the lower right-hand side of your Webex window. For technical support during this event, send a message in the chat box to the host, and I will provide assistance. 
 
Now I will turn the webinar over to Ken McDonnell of the Bureau's Financial Education Office.
 
>>Ken McDonnell:   Thank you, Susan.
  
Next slide. Thank you. Welcome to our Financial Aid 101 webinar. We'll have speakers here from the CFPB as well as the U.S. Department of Education.
 
I would also like to introduce myself to all of you. You've seen me on occasions, but Heather Brown has gone on to other opportunities at another agency, and I will be taking over Heather's functions as leader of the FinEx group. 
 
The next slide, please. Next slide, please. Thank you. I'd like to have our disclaimer here that this presentation is being made by a Consumer Financial Production Bureau representative on behalf of the Bureau. It does not constitute legal interpretation, guidance, or advice of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Any opinions or views stated by the presenter are the presenter's own and may not represent the Bureau's views. This document is used to support a live discussion. As such, it does not necessarily express the entirety of that discussion nor the relative emphasis of topics therein.
 
Next slide, please. In addition, since we have a couple of speakers from outside of the CFPB, the inclusion of links or references to third-party sites does not necessarily reflect the Bureau's endorsement of the third party, the views expressed on the third-party site, or products or services offered on the third-party site. The Bureau has not vetted these third parties, their content, or any products or services they may offer. There may be other possible entities or resources that are not listed that may also service your needs. 
 
The next slide, please. So for all of you, we encourage you—if you are not a member of FinEx, we encourage you to sign up to be, to join FinEx. You see our link here. You can go to consumerfinance.gov, and you can type in our search bar, FinEx, as another way of accessing our information. You will receive updates on research, tools, and webinars via email, and also stay up to date on our multiple webinar offerings throughout the year and access past webinar recordings.
 
Next, please. Next slide, please. So for today's agenda, we're going to have our welcome, which was me and Susan, and I will shortly be turning it over for financial aid and the CFPB's Your Path to Financial Graduation. Then we're going to hear from the U.S. Department of Education's Student Aid Resources, also from the Department of Ed's College Scoreboard, and we'll also learn of some lesson plans, and then we'll follow with Q&A. 
 
Next slide, please. And now, at this point, I'd like to turn it over to Gaby Watts from the Department of Education. Gaby, take it away.
 
>>Ms. Gaby Watts:  Thank you, Ken, and thank you to the CFPB for including us, the U.S. Department of Education, today for this very important webinar. You know, because our agencies, both of our agencies, is dedicated to making sure everyone is treated fairly by banks, lenders, and other financial institutions, we believe this is a great partnership. And we think that—we believe that we also complement each other's mission.
 
I am so happy that today we're going to be talking about ways in which to pay for college, and that we're going to combine the resources that both agencies have to ensure that students are able to enroll into college, not only to enroll into college, but to remain in college, and then also to graduate. And then when they graduate, they will be able to go out into society, and they will be good contributors to our economic well-being. But not only that, but they will be financially literate in how to maneuver through this financial world and scholarships and grants, and different things as they continue their progress through maturity. So we're happy to be here today.

We're glad that your FinEx group is here to hear today, and we're also excited that the TRIO community has registered and that they are here today. That is one of the main goals of our TRIO program is to ensure that students are able to enter postsecondary education, and since we mainly work with low-income, first-generation, and students with disabilities, we know that paying for college sometimes can be seen as a big obstacle. And so we are here to provide them with all the resources that they need. So this is a perfect pairing today with your FinEx group, and we're just happy to be here, and we thank you for allowing us to be involved. And we also hope that the information will be helpful to everyone today because we have some really good resources to share, both agencies. So, again, we just thank you all for attending.
 
All right. Next slide and the next presenter.
  
>>Brian Stone:  All right, good afternoon. Thank you for joining us today. My name is Brian Stone. I'm a policy analyst in the Office for Students and Young Consumers at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Today I'll briefly discuss financial aid and one of our tools to help students and families, which is Grad Path. You might have heard that already.
 
Next slide, please. Okay. So how do students and families pay for college? We tend to think it all comes from using, air quotes, financial aid, but this breakdown from Sallie Mae shows that about half tends to come from parents' savings, parents' income, and the other half, as you can see, is kind of a blend between different funding sources, including grants, scholarships, friends and family, student borrowing, student income, and also student savings.
 
Next slide, please. So when and where can families act? The application process is a great intervention point. So it's a good time to decide to make sure a target school meets your students' academic, social, and financial fit. It's also a good time to think about activities that can bolster a student's application, things like volunteer work or advanced classes. And the last point is that, again, our Grad Path tool, which we've created to help facilitate some of these conversations by allowing a family to create a financial plan that shows the cost of higher education over the course of a student's tenure. And we'll talk more about Grad Path later in my presentation.
 
Next slide, please. So one important consideration, which comes up a lot—and you might, of course, hear it a lot in the news when you're thinking about paying for college—is loans and so the difference between both federal loans and private loans, and some of the main differences are going to be the terms, the consumer protections, and the total costs. So with federal loans, the repayment starts at the end of the in-school deferment period. So, for example, if a student completes their program in May, they should receive their first bill—or the first bill should be due around November. The grace period is about six months, and a servicer, which is the company that handles your payments and processes all your paperwork on behalf of the government, is assigned at random unless you consolidate or enter the public service loan forgiveness program. And with repayments, I guess, in choosing your repayment option, there are many different options for federal student loans, and those are based on your financial situation. 
 
So private student loans are different. They mainly require payment—some could require payments while in school. They may not have a grace period, like I talked about with federal student loans. Payment could be—essentially began immediately. It may be the lender or another company that services the loan. So if they got a loan from Bank A, they could have a subsidiary or another company actually service the loan. And then they may not offer multiple repayment plans. So the terms may be based on, again, what's set by the lender, which typically includes a credit score, income, and some other factors. And so, again, it varies by lender and their actual requirements.
 
Next slide, please. Okay. So we talked a little bit about Federal Student Aid, but it's important to differentiate between federal aid that has to be paid and that does not have to be repaid, and that typically falls into categories. So it's going to be grants and loans. So grants, two to think about, are the Pell Grant and the FSEOG grant, and so the both of those are needs-based, which is essentially based on information that you provide the federal government through the FAFSA application, and so both of these do not need to be repaid. And then you have subsidized versus unsubsidized loans, and so subsidized is a needs-based loan, and it does not accrue interest. So interest doesn't get tacked onto a loan until after the student enters through repayment period, which again, I mentioned is about six months after a student ends their program. But this is a loan and does need to be repaid. And then you have an unsubsidized loan, which is a non-need- based loan, and interest accrues essentially when the loan is taken out. And again, it needs to be repaid. Work-Study can be needs-based or non-needs-based. It's income earned when a student works. So they find an eligible job, and they work, and then they earn the income. So it's not automatic. And I'll show in a sample award letter on the next slide.
 
Next slide, please. Well, it's the slide after this one, but this is a sample cost of attendance letter. So the sample cost of attendance letter, which you've all probably seen before, is essentially a breakdown between the expenses that—and it's the estimate of a breakdown of the expenses that a student may occur—or incurred through a particular college year. And so for this one, you can see in the fall and the spring, it has tuition broken down, different fees, living expenses, books. Again, that's the estimate. It could be more; it could be less. Transportation could be more, could be less, and then personal expenses. And at times, we'll hear from different consumers that, you know, cost of attendance letters, especially in the—or cost of attendance examples tend to be a little bit conservative in the area of personal expenses. So that's just one thing to remember. 
  
Next slide, please. Thank you. Okay. So this is the example of the sample financial aid letter I mentioned, and as you can see, Part 1 includes both scholarships and federal aid, mixed with federal aid that needs to be paid and doesn't have to be repaid. So the grants are—one particular grant you can see here. The Pell Grant does not have to be repaid. The scholarships usually don't have to be repaid, but it's important to remember that different scholarships have different requirements, and some of the main ones are the number of credit hours that a student must take and the GPA that they have to maintain in order to keep the scholarship. Then you see work study also, and just as a reminder, work study is not guaranteed. So a student has to find a particular job, work the hours, and then they can earn up to that amount.

And then we transition to the cost of attendance, and we talked about that in the last slide, but it's just a summary of an estimate of the cost that a student is expected to incur in a particular year. And then the expected family contribution, which will shift to the student aid index with the 2024–2025 FASFA, as a part of the FASFA Simplification Act, essentially shows based on the financial information that their parents provide the federal government, the expected amount that they're essentially expected to contribute. And so you see the financial need is the cost of attendance minus the expected family contribution, and if you look at the amount of total financial aid, it looks like, you know, roughly the financial aid will actually cover the cost of attendance, again, roughly because work study again has to be earned.

So next slide, please. Okay. And one important reminder that we always talk about, because we hear a lot when students set foot on campus or start a particular program—it could be a certificate program or a two-year college—that there's an assumption that the financial aid process is sort of locked, and this is what I have to operate on the next eight months, year, four years, two years, however long, or even longer they may be in college or pursuing higher education. But there is research that shows essentially for every dollar borrowed that borrowers tend to repay two or more, and that's just because of a bunch of different things, including loan fees, interest rates, capitalization, depending on what type of repayment plan you may be in. And then on average for federal student loans, it takes about 20 years for the average borrower to repay their student debt. So we always encourage, even if it's $500 or a thousand or whatever, even if it's $200, that may cover books that you don't have to take out in the way of a loan. It could potentially save twice that amount or three times that amount down the road. So it's just important to remember that every dollar counts. 
 
Next slide, please. Next slide, please. Sorry. I don't know if it shifted. And then next slide, and so I'll talk about our Grab Path tool. And so this is the tool that I talked about. We'll make sure to share the link with you, but check it out. It's a wonderful, robust tool, and I'm not just saying that because I work for the CFPB, but I think a lot of hard work, a lot of thought, and a lot of consumer feedback went into the development of this tool.
 
And essentially what it does, very short version, is it allows you to type in a college name. So it could be a college or it could be a two-year college or a particular certificate program. We pull data from the Department of Education. If a student doesn't have an actual award letter, what it does is it plugs in the average cost of attendance, and usually the data lags about one year. But it gives you a sense of total cost of college that you can plug and play with the actual financial aid portion, if you don't, again, have those real numbers. But what makes Grab Path so powerful, number one, it's free. Number two is that it actually shows a student before they actually make the decision to go to a particular college or start a particular program, gives them an estimate of the cost, and they get a better understanding of their needs. 
 
So let's say, for example, if a student, as they're working through the tool, there's like a ticker at the top that shows need or surplus. But when they finish, it shows that, you know, they maybe need $30,000, and they decide like, "Hey, you know what? I'm going to borrow this in a way of student loans." Before they even make that decision, they get a sense of what a repayment plan may look like, like a 10-year repayment plan or 20-year repayment plan. We also pull some data from the Department of Labor based on the degree they select. That gives an average of what a person makes in a particular area of the country, and they can see essentially once that, you know, bill is factored into their budget—it could be $300 over 10 years or what have you—if that's the optimal decision they want to make. And so I talked a little bit earlier about financial fit. So is the school a good financial fit, or do I need to check out another school? And then again, you can compare those offers with different schools like apples to apples and then print this plan out to take a look at it or save it on your computer or what have you. And you can always—there's a link, which is the last thing I'll mention that, you know, if you need more time or you want to come back to it, you just save the link and you can come back to it at a later time. 
 
Next slide please. And without further ado, I will pass it on to Elizabeth Coogan. Thank you very much.
 
>>Elizabeth Coogan:  Hi. We can go to the next slide. And so I'm sure you can all agree that figuring out how to pay for college is probably one of the biggest financial decisions that people make in their lives. So, hopefully, in the next 10 minutes, I'm going to show you how Federal Student Aid and our resources can help you during that process.
 
Next slide please. So, before I talk about Federal Student Aid, I'll just tell you a little bit about me. My name is Elizabeth Coogan. I'm the director of the Stakeholder Engagement Team, which is part of FSA's Ombudsman Office. Throughout my tenure at FSA, I believe I've earned the reputation for keeping the spotlight on financial illiteracy education and how good financial decisions can lead to good outcomes. We heard Gaby reference actually earning your degree or certificate and being good contributing economic citizens. So we think that we have a lot of good information that can help people during this very complicated time.
 
So now next slide, I'll tell you a little bit about FSA, and so we are part of the U.S. Department of Education. We're a department within there, and we manage sort of like the TRIO program. We manage the program dollars that provide money for students to go to college. We heard Brian reference grants, work study funds and loans. We distributed about $112 billion this past year. We manage the Free Application for Federal Student Aid, also known as FAFSA, which is a big part of anyone's financial decision-making process when they are going to college and also when they are in college. We deal with almost 6,000 schools who we provide the funds to, and they pass them on to students. We manage the portfolio of loans that are already out there. About 44 million people have found us and have taken out loans. We make sure that schools are judiciously accounting for those funds. And importantly, what I'm going to share with you is that we offer free assistance to students, parents, borrowers, and those people who are helping students, parents, and borrowers navigate through this process. So you should never have to pay for assistance, and we want to make sure that people are reminded of that. There's lots of people that are out there that say we're here and we can help, but they're also looking for a fee for that, and you should not have to pay a fee.
 
So let's move on and to find out a little bit more about FSA resources. So I'm going to share some of the front doors or websites that lead to these valuable resources that can help make the paying for college experience just a little bit easier. So first up is the financial aid toolkit, and so this provides Federal Student Aid information to counselors, college access professionals, mentors, and others, mostly for those people who are helping students and families make decisions about going to college and how to pay for it.
 
So, if you look on the upper left, it talks about learning about financial aid, and it starts with preparing for college, explains the types of aids, also talks about repayment basics. One of the things that I often tell people is really it's never too early to start talking about repayment, even before it's time to repay. It gives lots of information about preparing and deciding which college to go to. We're going to hear next up about the college scorecard. You heard Brian mentioned that as well. It provides career information as well, and it also allows for you to search by type of resource. For example, we have blog posts, we have presentations, we have webinars. It allows you to select the audience that you'd like to deliver the information. So we have something for parents, we have something for middle schoolers, we have something for people who are just entering school, people who are in college, so the audience and then, of course, the topic. Financial literacy is one of the topics. FAFSA could be a topic, loan repayment. So it's a great search tool, and that's on the far right-hand corner. But the financial aid toolkit should be something that's familiar to those of you out there who are helping students making decisions about attending and how to pay for college.

Let's look at the next slide, which shows the second very vital website that Federal Student Aid provides to students, parents, and borrowers. This is really more directly for students, and it starts by giving information about considering to go to school. It leads you to the FAFSA application, which is key to accessing federal funds.
 
Just a shortcut for those of you out there that might be looking for some Spanish material, a lot of our content is in Spanish, but if you go to studentaid.gov/resources, it shows you a list of the resources, and it indicates those specifically that are in the Spanish language.
 
So if we can go to the next page, and the next page references the famous FAFSA. When I say to someone I work at Federal Student Aid, they kind of look a little quizzically, and then they say, "Oh, you're the FAFSA people." So sorry to disappoint those of you who think that this is a  FAFSA webinar. It is not a webinar on FAFSA updates, but I would be remiss in not talking a little bit about it. So you can find a lot of information on studentaid.gov because there are big changes that are coming in December, and so many of you may know about the EFC, which is the Expected Family Contribution. That's going to be replaced with the Student Aid Index. So that's a fairly significant change. There's a couple of other changes that are listed there, but there's also a link that provides what's upcoming in those changes, and also, or more importantly, studentaid.gov will provide a lot of that information for you if you are interested in that.
 
So if we can go to the next slide, please. So I'm going to spend just a little bit of time on the Federal Student Aid Estimator, and so that is before the FAFSA, and that gives students an indication of what type of aid they may be eligible for. So by answering a few simple questions pertaining to Federal Student Aid eligibility, students and parents' financial situation, the tool calculates an estimated amount for what a student may be eligible in as far as Pell Grants, federal work study funds, and direct loans. 
 
Next slide, please. So where can you find it? You can find the Federal Student Aid Estimator on studentaid.gov. It's in Tools and Calculators under the Loans and Grants button. So it's slightly buried in there. So I thought it was kind of important to show you exactly where to find it, but there's a direct link on the next page that I can share with you as well. 
 
So if we go to the next slide, please. So talk a little bit about what it does and how it can be used. So it takes a student's and parent's financial and personal information to calculate the aid that they are eligible to receive. So this is for students who plan to attend college or career school, and so it's a really important tool for many people or whose families or they're telling themselves, "I can't possibly go to college because we can't afford it." So this is really good to get a preview and to make those people who think that college is not going to be a reality for them because of their financial situation to see that there is aid and they are eligible for grants, federal work study funds, and loans.
 
So this is in advance of filling out the FAFSA, and then we heard a little bit—Brian talked about the financial aid offer communication. So you use the estimator to find out what you're eligible for. You fill out the FAFSA. You'll get some information. You actually find out how much money you're going to get from a school in a financial aid offer communication. So that's really important that you sort of take these steps and you make a big effort to try to understand some of the terminology and so forth, because that financial aid offer is very key to understanding how you're going to pay for college and to understand the difference between a grant and a loan.
 
So there is no login information that's required. So you don't need an account, and it doesn't save your information. And it takes you about 10 minutes to complete. That will give you information about your eligibility.
 
So if we go to the next slide. I mentioned about the grants and aid and loans information that is provided by the Federal Student Aid Index—the estimator, rather. But there's reference a little bit to the Student Aid Index, which is new. So those of you that are hungry to find out sort of a little bit more about SAI, you can go in there, and it gives some definitions and some explanations about some of the upcoming FAFSA changes. 
  
There are other helpful links that are provided in the next step section. After it provides the information about your aid eligibility. Some of the next steps are to create an FSAID. It also tells students that they should go to the college scorecard. So we're going to hear more about the college scorecard coming up next from Brent. And, of course, it does make reference to filling out the all important FAFSA, which is the key to getting aid from Federal Student Aid.
 
All right. If we can go to the next slide, please. So I would be remiss in not talking about return to repayment, because the COVID payment pause, which was extended for many, many months has ended, and students have started repaying their loans since last month. So this information on the financial aid toolkit is a return to repayment toolkit, and it provides a lot of information for borrowers.
 
One of the big things that's linked on the top here is about scams. There's been a tremendous amount of third parties who have jumped in the space and are telling students that they can help them with public service loan forgiveness or other things related to managing their student loans, and again, to repeat, you should never have to pay for assistance on your student loans. Also gives great information about public service loan forgiveness and, of course, a lot of the new income-driven repayment plans, especially the SAVE Plan, and resources that can help borrowers who are returning to repayment who have spent many months not having to repay their student debt obligation.
 
Next slide, please. So this last page, FSA has increased their social media presence, and it's sort of incredibly complicated, changing quite rapidly. So I wanted to make everyone aware of the links and the latest and greatest information. YouTube, especially, we've kind of stepped up our game there, and so we do have a lot of videos on the new FAFSA, on return to repayment. So it's definitely worth checking that out. 
 
So I really appreciate the opportunity. I'm sure you all agree that it is incredibly complicated, and Federal Student Aid hopes that they're not only providing funding to help students to make college a reality but to provide information that is helpful to making those very important decisions. 
 
So we can go to the next slide, and I believe we're going to hand it to Brent to talk about the College Scorecard.
 
>>Brent Madoo:  I'm really thrilled to present to you this tool that I genuinely think can make a difference for students, parents and, college access providers, those that are helping students and parents navigate higher education. So let's get started. 
 
Next slide. Thank you. So let's start with getting a clear understanding of what College Scorecard is. In essence, College Scorecard consolidates vital information on various aspects of colleges and universities. This includes factors such as cost, graduation rates, student loan debt, even earnings of what students can expect post-graduation. 
 
Now, you might be wondering why such an effort. What are the overarching goals of College Scorecard? Well, its primary purpose is really to empower. We want to arm students and families with comprehensive data that can guide them in making informed choices. To facilitate this, we've crafted a user-centered website, which I'm going to talk about today, but it's really designed for students and families and counselors.
  
Secondly, it's just not just a tool for prospective students, but we think policymakers and stakeholders can benefit from the information that we provide. We provide a lot of data, over 2,000 data elements within College Scorecard.
 
Lastly, in the spirit of open data and promoting data-driven insights across the board, we're not just keeping this data behind gates. We are making this data widely available, and we do this through something called an API, which is an application programming interface. So, in other words, you might be able to see—it's another way for developers to kind of tap into our information. So you might see information from College Scorecard in your Google searches or other websites. So, in essence, College Scorecard isn't just the tool. It's a movement toward better and data-driven decisions in higher education.
 
Next slide, please. So let's talk quickly or a little bit more about benefits. So why should College Scorecard be considered as your go-to when you start to navigate your college search or university search? Right? Well, it can inform your decision-making. We like to think of it as you have a counselor or some more information in your back pocket. We provide some of the key insights that you need to make the best decision in your academic journey.
 
Secondly, you can plan your finances. With our data on cost, potential earnings, we think you can start to map out your financial journey, ensuring that you're prepared for things like tuition, loans, or whatever else comes after graduation.
 
Third, we make it easier for you to compare schools. Choosing college or postsecondary options is a huge decision, and we want to make it easier for you by allowing you to line up your options side-by-side and see which checks all your boxes. 
 
We also want to tailor to your needs. So we provide a variety of ways for you to search and find schools. So whether you're interested in a certain area of study or you want to know a certain degree type, we can provide that information to you. 
 
Finally, I want to wrap it up, wrap up this slide, with trustworthy information. In a world that is overflowing with information, it's super essential for you to know what is reliable. Rest assured, the College Scorecard data is vetted, it's credible, and it's regularly updated. A lot of it comes from Department resources, such as Federal Student Aid, the National Center for Education Statistics, and so forth.
 
Next slide, please. Okay, so let's walk through a little bit of College Scorecard together. So this is where we can see some of these benefits that I talked about come to life. So if you do have a mobile device or you can open up another browser, I invite you to walk through College Scorecard with me by going to collegescorecard.ed.gov, and we can just dive in and explore together. So I'll give you a second to get there. 
 
All right. Next slide, please. So welcome to our home page. At first glance, you'll notice it's designed with user friendliness in mind. That is what we're aiming to do. Let's look at some of the primary ways you can start your search; first, the school search. If you know the name of your school, you could just type it in right there. It's that simple.
 
Second, there's a field of study option. That's right next to school search. So say you're more focused on what area you want to study or maybe you want to dig in to a certain major that you're thinking about, whether it's biology, English literature, computer science, you can also pop it in right there, and you'll get results. And you can see what schools offer that. 
 
The last is the Show Me Options feature. So if you're not entirely sure where to start, this is a feature that gives you a broad view of potential schools based on various criteria. So this is a great way if you're starting your search and you're not quite sure.
 
Lastly, we have a Custom Options feature. So, you can refine your search by a variety of filters, and I'm going to show you a little bit about that on our next stage. But let's assume you use this option, right? 
 
You can go to the next slide, please. Thank you. So let's assume we've set our preferences, whether we've used the Show Me Options feature or the Custom Search feature. You're going to be brought to a page that looks like this, and it's essentially the search results. And once this page loads, you'll notice cards for each institution, and these institutions have matched your search criteria. But they aren't just any cards. They're compact summaries with key insights. You have graduation rates, which I'm going to dive in a little bit more about. You have average annual cost. You have median earnings for students that have attended that institution. But the customization doesn't just stop there, right? On your left-hand side, there's further room for refinement. If, say, after seeing the results, you want to further narrow down those schools. Maybe you're interested in a school that costs a certain amount. Maybe you're interested in smaller schools. Maybe you're interested in schools in an urban setting. It's all just a click away if you just use these filters. So, in essence, the Results page isn't just about presenting the schools. It lets you dive deeper and interact and hone in on what matters to you the most.
 
Next slide, please. So let's take a closer look. Assume that you've clicked on one of those institutions, right? You're going to be taken to our School Profile page. This is a very comprehensive page. And for our purposes today, we're going to hone in on a specific college. This is a fake college. So I do want to highlight the three metrics that we saw a little bit earlier but talk a little bit more about it.
 
So, first, you'll see on the left-hand side, graduation rates. This number tells us the percentage of students who achieve graduation within eight years. You want to think of that as an indicator of the school's success in helping the students cross the finish line. It can give you insight into the commitment and the resources the school offers their students.
 
Next, we have average annual cost. It's a significant investment, and this figure lays out the yearly financial commitment. And it's crucial for budgeting and assessing the value that you're getting for your money.
 
Next, below that, you'll see median earnings, and this one is very interesting. Imagine that you're looking 10 years into the future to see how students from a particular college or university typically fare in their careers. Are they earning a decent income? This metric gives you a sneak peek at that and helps you gauge long-term value of attending that institution. 
 
Beyond these metrics, you'll see at the top of the page, there's more information to give you a sense of the school's character. So is it a two-year community college, a four-year public or private? Is it nestled in an urban setting, or is it in a quieter urban, suburban backdrop? These provide context and color to the institution and help you envision the college or university experience that you're seeking to have.
 
Next slide, please. As we go down the page on the school profile page, you'll arrive at the field of study area. You'll see a little yellow ribbon here, and this is an important part of the school profile page. Let's say you have a particular subject in mind, like computer science or history. This tool helps you see if the school has to offer it. In this example, we're showing business administration. So we put a spotlight on the fields that are offered at each school. But here's the kicker. It's not about just what's popular. We're giving you sort of an inside scoop on the fields of the top earnings and also where grads tend to have the least debt. So, here, for each field of study, you're going to see the median earnings, and this is slightly different because these are the students that actually studied in this area and graduated. So you're getting a sense of what graduates make down the line. In this particular snapshot, this is four years after graduation. Then you're going to get the total debt after graduation, and that's specific, again, to this area of study. Finally, we give you a sense of the monthly loan payments. We think that's a little bit helpful to help students sort of contextualize and think a little bit more about what happens after. 
 
Next slide, please. As we continue our journey down the profile page, you might be wondering, is there more to see? Well, there is plenty. I don't have a lot of time to go through every piece. So I just wanted to give you an example of what we do show. You can look at all this information all at once, or you can take, you know, one piece by piece. And I'm going to just go through a couple areas that I think are important for us today.
 
Next slide. So we have the cost section, and that's essential to considering postsecondary education. We have average annual cost, and we talked a little bit about that earlier. But to make this clear, this is net price, and that gives you an idea of the average amount students generally pay after accounting for financial aid. So what are they particularly? So that's grants and scholarships and so forth, not loans. It offers you a clear understanding of the actual expenses beyond the sticker price itself. On the right-hand side, you're going to see a breakdown by family income, and this is important. So based on your family's income, you can see a more precise estimate of potential expenses. It's about ensuring that you have information aligned closely to your unique situation. If you go below that, there's a link to the net price calculator, and for those, this is for those who want a more personalized snapshot. It actually takes you out of the College Scorecard to the institution's website, where you can enter information and get a better sense of what the costs are. Our goal is transparency here. We want to ensure that when it comes to financial aid and planning that you have a great start and have the information that you need at your fingertips.
 
Next slide, please. So let's talk about financial aid and debt. This is very important as well. We've talked about this a lot. We want to lay this out in a way that we think will be straightforward and insightful. First, we show the percentage of students that have opted for student loans at the institution. Next, we show the median debt after graduation, and what we present is the typical debt that students have after they've completed their studies. It's essential for benchmarking, engaging financial obligations. Then we have monthly student loan payments, and that's at the institution. So that gives you a sense of what former students' debt might look like as well on a monthly basis.
 
Finally, we have repayment rate, and this is an interesting part of the page. Repayment rate is intended to paint a broader picture for you. It displays the repayment outcomes and we hope to shed light on how students have managed their financial responsibilities post-college. I do want to note that there is an icon next to each metric that we have where you can learn more about what the metric is. So we think if you're armed with this information, you can better navigate the financial landscape in higher ed here.
 
Next slide, please. So as we conclude our journey through Scorecard, there's one fantastic feature I need to spotlight, and that's our comparison tool. Imagine you've been exploring several schools, and now you want to see how they've stacked up against each other. Well, on each school profile page, you could designate each school to compare. So, essentially, you're building a list of up to 10 schools, and this offers you a side-by-side comparison. All the metrics that I've shown you before, you can compare up to 10 schools on that, and I'm visually showcasing just a few ways this could be used. So there's no need to flip through several school profiles. It's all streamlined for your convenience.
 
As we wrap up, I want to leave you with a thought. So the journey that we have in higher education is deeply personal for all of us, and it's often filled with a lot of uncertainties for students and families. But our goal at College Scorecard is really to equip students and families with the information they need to start to navigate this journey with some clarity and some confidence. So thank you very much for your time, and I'm going to turn it over to Leslie, who will be presenting on CFPB initiatives.
 
>> Leslie Jones:  Thank you. I do want to remind our attendees that if you are here with us in Webex that you can submit questions to us in the question and answer box that is at the lower right-hand corner of the screen. There's the little dot, dot, dot. If you click on that, you're able to bring up your Q&A box and then type in a question. We'll be taking questions at the end of my section of this, and I'll be talking about some classroom activities that you can use to teach to these tools.
 
Can you go to the next slide for me, please? So you've just seen some wonderful tools. My section is going to offer resources for you if you would like to help sharing them with your audiences. So, hopefully, one of our classroom activities can help you. This is our filter tool and our search tool for activities. So you can filter by a grade level—so, probably, high school is what we're looking for—the length of time that you are able to—[unclear]—to, so 15 minutes, 45 minutes, or 75 minutes. And then you can select topics like saving for college or paying for college.
 
Once you selected an activity that you're interested in more information on, you should click to the next slide, and what you'll see is a description of that activity. So, in this case, you'll see that you're able to find out the big ideas, central questions, the objectives, what students will do, and you can see that you can download the teaching guide for the activity to be able to use it. So it's fairly comprehensive and user friendly. Sometimes there's a student worksheet. Sometimes there's a student handout. 
 
You can go to the next slide. I'll show you one of these activities, and we have an activity called "planning your financial path to graduation." Hopefully, you recognize the value—you recognize the value of sharing the CFPB Grad Path tool with the young people that you work with. But instead of waiting until they have their own financial aid offer letter in their hand, what you can do is use the scenarios in this activity to guide them through the different sections, help them get familiar with the tool as a sophomore, as a junior, early in their senior year. And that way, when they finally get their own financial aid offer letter, it's easier for them to implement and use this tool. 
 
All right. If you can go to the next slide, please. The next activity is learning how the FAFSA works, and with this one—sorry, I'm trying to find it. This one, in this guided tutorial, students use the estimator using information, again, provided in a scenario. Like the Grad Path tool, it helps a student get familiar with how to use the tool without putting their personal information in in a public setting, and it provides a safe way to teach to it. 
 
Thank you. Keep those questions coming. This is wonderful.
 
Can you please go to the next slide? All right. So now the next activity I wanted to talk to you about reviews the College Scorecard tool, and it's called "comparing higher education choices." I've been recommending this tool for more than five years. I love this tool, and the activity that we have is students use the tool to research two schools that are near to their home to learn more about the fees, options, benefits through a guided tutorial. At the end of the activity, the students reflect on what information surprised them about the two schools they researched and what school would they like to learn more information about. It's a great chance to have that aha moment through guided instruction.

And then, if we can go to the next tool. With this one, this focuses in on repayment of college, the money that you have gotten in loans for college, and what we like to do is emphasize the benefits of prepayment, something that can help anyone pay off their loans faster. I realize that prepayment is not an option for everyone, but it certainly gets them as high school students thinking about the fact that they'll need to have a repayment plan and be planning that out ahead of time. And as you can see, there's two different tools that we're having them use during it, finaid.org and studentaid.gov.
 
And if you can go to the next slide, please. With this activity, this is talking with your family about paying for postsecondary education. One of the things that we've learned is that when families wait to plan until late in high school how to pay for college, there's not as much time to prep properly. So we want to help people start earlier, if at all possible, and this activity gets you a chance to have that guided question for the young people to think about some ways to plan. Like, for example, they identify why they want to go to college. Why is postsecondary education important? Why is it worth the cost? Think about what kind of questions the adult will ask them and what kind of information are they going to need to answer those questions. It's probably all stuff that you easily would think about, but instead of having to come up with it on your own, it's just being presented to you in a guided list of questions and a handout for the student.
 
You can go to the next slide, please. The other thing I wanted to mention is that CFPB has bulk publications that help to teach a variety of things. We have posters. We have story booklets, different things that can help you, and some handouts for the student aid and student loan process. So, please, if you haven't visited our book publication site, please think about doing so.
 
And next slide. We are also—next slide, please. We are also available on social media, and we have two mailing lists. One is to our educator tools, and one is to our student and young consumer resources. So if you're interested in receiving mailings about either of those two topics, please sign up for those mailing lists. We'll send out important alerts and information as they become available, or you can email the students team about student loans at CFPB_Students@cfpb.gov.
 
We really want to thank you for listening about these tools, and now we have time to answer some of your questions. We appreciate it. You can go to the next slide, please. I'll turn this over to my colleagues, Lyn Haralson and Scott Filter to lead our Q&A. Thank you.
 
>>Scott Filter:  Thank you. Leslie. We did get a couple of questions. Before we jump into those, though, I just wanted to alert everybody that they will receive a copy of this slide deck. We will send that out afterwards. So you do have access to that.
 
Our first question today is for Elizabeth, and specifically, someone asked, when should a student fill out the FAFSA?
 
>>Ms. Coogan:  So the 2023-2024 application is available and open through June 30th of 2024, and then next year, June 30th is the deadline as well, will be 2025. So those are the deadlines. So it can be—and so the new FAFSA application will be available sometime this December, but the date is not specifically known, but the deadline is June 30th. 
 
>>Mr. Filter:  Great. Thank you so much, Elizabeth. 
 
>>Lyn Haralson:  All right. And our next question is for Brian. On one of the slides, it said target schools where your child is above average. I've never heard this advice before. Why is this advice given, and how does it benefit them?
 
>>Mr. Stone: Thanks, Lyn. That's a great question. So I'll give a quick summary. So you have reach schools, target schools, and safety schools and the target school category is going to be one where students' academic credentials make them competitive for admissions. And so you can think about their GPA test scores and class ranking and how it falls within the average or above the average for that particular school. And then I'll also mention it's important to remember the other factors are also considered in the admissions process. So it's not purely numbers. 
 
Sorry, I don't have my camera on. I think it's on now. Sorry about that. There we go. Okay.
 
And just to sum it up, so broadly, it would increase their likelihood of acceptance to the school, number one, but it also would make them more competitive for any type of school aid being offered. Thank you. And I'll hand it back to Lyn.
 
>>Mr. Filter:  I'll stick to it for the next question. Thanks, Brian. The next question is for Brent. Brent, we got a question that asked if in the College Scorecard, is there a filter for support programs for individuals with autism or other types of disabilities?
 
Brent, could you speak up just a little bit? You were a little muted on that answer. 
 
>>Mr. Madoo:  Okay. Can you hear me now? Hear me now? 
 
>>Mr. Filter:  Still very muted. 
 
>>Mr. Madoo:  And I apologize. Can you hear me now? 
 
>>Mr. Filter:  A little better.
 
>>Mr. Madoo:  Okay. The answer is no, we do not have that. We will take it back. However, it's a lot of—it has to do with having a reliable data source for every—for the majority of institutions to provide that information accurately.
 
>>Mr. Filter:  Thanks, Brent. 
 
>>Ms. Haralson:  All right. And another question for Brent, why was the graduation rate metric changed from six years to eight years? 
 
>>Mr. Madoo:  So acknowledging that there are multiple graduation rates, what's displayed on the Scorecard is eight years with graduation rates for students that graduated within eight years of entering the school for the first time. Scorecard and the Department is acknowledging that many students don't follow the traditional graduation timeline, right? So students could stop out, right? The schools could have a population of part-time attendance. Students have work commitments. It might take a longer time. And so we wanted to give the benefit of the doubt to many institutions and provide that information with a longer sort of time frame of eight years.
 
>>Mr. Filter:  Thanks for that. We have time for about one more question, but before I ask it, I will let everybody know that if you've put a question into the chat and we have not been able to respond to it, we will do our best to try to reach out and get you an answer afterwards.
 
And our final question today is for Leslie, and, Leslie, this is a detailed question, but someone missed exactly where they could get the youth financial literacy materials that you mentioned in your first slide. Could you again provide that information again?
 
>>Ms. Jones:  Thank you. Our activities database are located at www.consumerfinance.gov/teach/activities/.
 
>>Mr. Filter:  And again, that will be in the slide deck that we send out to everybody as well.
 
>>Ms. Haralson:  And the recording for this will be available within a couple of months. So please come back and look for that.
 
>>Mr. Filter:  Thank you, Leslie.
 
>>Ms. Haralson:  All right. Thank you guys so much. This is Lyn Haralson, and I'm a financial education analyst in case I didn't introduce myself, and I'll be closing us out today. Reminder. We will provide the slides to you at some point as well as the as the recording. We will also curate any questions that are in this Q&A that did not get answered, and we'll provide answers to those as well.

When you get the slide deck, you will have contacts in both the—[unclear]—as well as all of the presenters today. So, if you have a question, please feel free to reach out, and that will be it for us today. And we sincerely appreciate everyone in attendance. Feel free to share the recording once it's provided to you with others that may not have been able to attend. Thank you.
 
[End of recorded session.] 
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