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Loan Counseling
&
StudentLoans.gov
Wood Mason
U.S Department of Education
Federal Student Aid
Atlanta, GA
770.383.9662
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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
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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”
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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/Unsubsidized, Direct PLUS Loan, or
Federal Stafford Loan previously
Parent PLUS borrower exempt
• Exit counseling must be conducted shortly before the
student ceases at least half-time study at your school
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StudentLoans.gov provides ALL Federal Student Aid
electronic loan counseling tools at one location and in
pretty much the same “format”
• Entrance Counseling
Subsidized/Unsubsidized/PLUS
• Financial Awareness Counseling
NOT a regulatory or statutory requirement
Can forego sending results to a school
• Exit Counseling
NSLDS will continue to provide detailed Exit Counseling
reports
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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
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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
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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
Authenticated 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)
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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
• Enhanced 150% subsidized loan limit information
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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”
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Initial logon
provides the
opportunity to
set individual
user
preferences
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Users can
notify an
additional
school(s) of
completed
Entrance
and
Financial
Awareness
Counseling
sessions
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Counseling
landing page
provides
students
with
information
on selecting
the type of
counseling
they wish to
complete
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The Exit
Counseling
module pulls
loan data from
NSLDS
including the
school(s)
associated
with a
borrower
completing
Exit
Counseling
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Financial
Awareness
Counseling
allows the
user to forego
school
selection
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“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
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“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
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“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
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“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
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“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
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“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
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“Check Your
Knowledge”
quizzes. “Did
You Know,”
and
“Remember”
side notes
appear
throughout
each topic
except when
viewing Demo
screens
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IPEDS data
pulled via the
“College
Navigator”
and applied to
the “Manage
Your
Spending”
screen
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Steps 1 and 2 tabs
must be completed to
continue
Step 2 allows entry of
expected assistance
for the upcoming
award year
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Entrance
Counseling
Summary screen
Summary Tools
allow e-mailing,
posting to social
media, exporting
to MS Excel, as
well as printing
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Exit Counseling
Summary
concludes with
current
indebtedness and
other information
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The conclusion of Exit
Counseling requires
the user to select a
“preferred” repayment
plan” that can be
changed at a later
date if so desired
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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
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State University
COD School
Options Page…
“Counseling
Response
Frequency” sets
schedule of
receipt of
counseling
acknowledge-
ments (Daily or
On-Demand)
As you want it to appear
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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 Entrance Counseling page
COD Batch Search
COD Counseling Response Request
COD Reports: Counseling Reports (CSV)
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Shane Williams Specter University
xxxxxxxxx 000000000S14G00000001
12/12/1970 ‘13-’14
The
response
identifies
the type of
counseling
completed
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“Award
Year” will
default to
the current
award year
“Date
Range”
window can
be up to
one week
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Batch Search by
date range, a
particular
Document ID, or a
unique SSN
Date Range
searches allow up
to a 60-day window
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Counseling
Response
Request
Date Range
up to 7 days
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Returned
Counseling
Request
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Steven Tyler
Jerry Garcia
Steven Stills
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
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New counseling type indicators…
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Wood Mason
U.S Department of Education
Federal Student Aid
Atlanta, GA
770.383.9662
