Officials in SUNY-ESF’s Office of Financial Aid and Scholarships are working to make their financial aid award letter more informative and clear through a standardized system being implemented at SUNY schools across the state.

This system is a part of a campaign called SUNY Smart Track. The program focuses on making students and parents more aware of what goes into financial aid on each State University of New York campus and how they can best avoid debt from college expenses, said Patricia Thompson, assistant vice chancellor for the SUNY office for student financial aid.

The idea for SUNY Smart Track was sparked about a year and a half ago, Thompson said, when she and other members who work with SUNY’s financial aidstarted looking at some of the correlations behind why students default on loans in New York state.

“Smart Track is an innovative approach to a few issues that are facing students today,” she said. “What we really hope is that students understand what it means to be a student loan borrower and have the resources to answer their questions.”

The SUNY Smart Track system was implemented at six campuses last September, including Niagara County Community College and the University at Albany, Thompson said.

“So far, we have had really positive reactions because we work really closely with each campus to develop what we need for them specifically,” she said.

Ensuring there is a clear distinction in financial aid award letters between loans that need to be repaid and grant money is one of the main functions the standardized award letter will serve, Thompson said.

The biggest immediate difference for the State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry financial aid award system is that the award letter has been reformatted, said John View, the director of the Office of Financial Aid and Scholarships at ESF. The letter will now include metrics on the college’s graduation rate, median loan amount and repayment, as well as the school’s annual default rate, he said.

About 92 percent of undergraduates at ESF receive financial aid, View said.

He added that although these statistics have already been available to the public, it is the first time they will be included as a sidebar on the actual award letter.

The award letter will also include a more comprehensive breakdown of ESF’s cost of attendance, View said, based on his best estimates of expenses such as class supplies and transportation.

“I think, behind the scenes, it makes our job more difficult, but it comes with the territory,” View said, “We just want to do the best we can at allowing students to be successful.”

Daryl Harper, a sophomore studying environmental resources engineering, said he thinks ESF already has a user-friendly online resource for getting information about financial aid.

He said he took a seminar at ESF that showed him how to use the website to apply for grants and loans. He said since he took the course, he has been successful at applying and receiving financial aid on his own.

While Harper said he was fortunate enough to have help applying for financial aid, he thinks SUNY Smart Track could be an important resource for students who are coming into college with limited information about it.

Knowing more information about ESF’s financial aid system could help students make more informed decisions about what they can afford while in college and if ESF is in their price range, Harper said.

Said Harper: “It could be very helpful as far as money management and making sure your aid is actually helping you throughout the course of the year.”

Published on March 4, 2013 at 1:09 am

Contact Shannon: smhazlit@syr.edu