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Creating Consistency in Educational Finance: A Training Curriculum

Module 4: Entrance and Exit Counseling

Introduction

Entrance and exit counseling serve as two of the most important tools in default aversion. Some financial aid offices choose to provide the counseling in person versus online.

While providing counseling in-person may be more effective, it may not always be possible for schools with large student populations to meet with students face-to-face.

The purpose of this training module is to establish a curriculum to assist financial aid officers with a knowledge base for conducting in-person entrance and exit counseling sessions at their school. Also, this module may serve as a training tool for new financial aid officers.

Since schools bear the responsibility to ensure that every borrower completes the required entrance and exit counseling sessions, it is of utmost importance that financial aid administrators be properly trained in meeting all statutory and regulatory requirements. Additionally, it is important to remember that the Higher Education Opportunity Act does permit lenders and guarantors to perform in-person, school-required entrance and exit loan counseling sessions, but only under certain conditions — school must be in control of the session and the lenders are prohibited from promoting their products and/or services.

The module builds on the premise that the primary purpose of entrance and exit counseling sessions is to inform students about their rights and responsibilities as borrowers. Since students may ultimately borrow from different lending institutions, it is imperative that all persons conducting the session have a common knowledge base of borrower rights and responsibilities. Also, it is imperative that the session be conducted in a positive, ethical atmosphere. The last section of this module presents a set of principles of ethics.

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