FA 4720 Living Through Lender List Laws Richard Lee Lead Systems Analyst Vermont State Colleges

Profile Five colleges Over 12,000 students – headcount Colleges serve students from rural locations; few industries; many are first- generation to attend college Roughly 2,000 employees Low funding levels Small IT staff

College Cost Reduction Act Requirements Reiterated student has choice of lender and school cannot refuse to certify based on students choice of lender School had choice of no preferred lender list or minimum of 3 preferred lenders School must provide information to student and parents on selection criteria School must provide comparison tools to student and parents PLUS loan auction is currently moving forward

Process Redesign Interpreting the regulations RFI process (looked at volume and lender request before sending out RFI – top 10) Evaluating consumer products (e.g., Simple Tuition) and developing our own consumer information Our Datatel Process

Prior Process ( ) The majority of our students selected state non-profit agency as guarantor and lender. IT staff programmed CommonLine exchange with them. ELM web entry, OpenNet, or manual certification with other lenders

New Process Under CCRA, permissible to assume prior borrower wanted to stay with prior lender New borrowers would need to select lender “New borrower” = “new student” = applicant Lender selection would happen on WebServices

4 Primary Activities Changed all the destination accounts receivable loans to electronic loans Modified web pages to give students a choice of 3 lenders (4 in ) Change electronic loans communication to flow through ELM. (We plan in to use EDX to send directly to state non-profit agency) Change default lender from location (school) to student

Loan Processing Setup Menu of screens needed to setup loan processing

Add New Recipient Codes We needed to add recipient codes for all lenders that were done by hand (destination accounts receivable loans). EDX fields must be (ELMO,ELMI,ELMA) We used the comment field to store web page information. (lender logo, lender web address)

Where to Validate Lender/Guarantor Codes Address of NCHELP web lookup page. ( oan_code_search.cfm) oan_code_search.cfm ELM net web site under certification Selection

Enter Guarantor Information We needed to add guarantor codes for lenders not sent as electronic loans before Note one lender ID for each college.

Enter Lender ID We needed to add one lender ID for each school for each Lender/Guarantor ID combination. We used Lender Comments to designate Lenders to display on the Lender Choice web page

List some of the lenders for Castleton & Johnson

Student’s Award Letter The student will see the award letter on the web and if he/she accepts any loan awards and they don’t have a student default lender then after they close out of this screen the lender choice screen will display.

Lender Choice Screen Directions to how to choose Lender Current Loan information Lender Comparison Information Lender choice buttons

Directions to how to Choose Lender Schools logo address and contact information Directions 1.Review the information about lender choice. 2.Complete Loan Entrance Counseling on Mapping Your Future.Mapping Your Future. 3.Return to this web page and select your lender. (Click the box next to your choice below) 4.Complete Stafford Master Promissory Note on lender's website. (web links listed below) 5.You must return to this page and hit SUBMIT button at the bottom of the page to record you lender choice

Current Loan Information List student loan activity for the current year

Lender Comparison Information Provides borrower with the lender characteristics evaluated by the schools and the method of evaluation.

Lender Choice Buttons Student selects lender by clicking radio button and hitting the summit button for the page. Last year we had the lender web site address on this screen. The problem was that students would go to the lenders site to fill out the MPN and did not return to this page and hit the submit button.

to Student sent to student after they choose lender. Link to lenders web site sent (so student can complete MPN) Link to Mapping Your Future

Next Page after Lender Choice Page that appears after student submits choice This pages gives student link to lender web page and link to Mapping Your Future

Update Lender Code Screen After student has made his/her choice the lender information is stored in the FIN.AID file in fields FA.LENDERS.ID FA.RECIPIENT.ID FA.GUARANTOR.ID Fields are then used as the students default lender

Screens Used to Send Files to ELM We send student loan information from our colleague server using Secure File Transfer Protocol (SFTP) to ELM. These are all new screens used in the process of sending files to ELM.

Datatel Document on FFELP Data Exchange Must read to use in setting up process.

Subscriber Definition Set this screen up just as it tells you in FFELP Data Exchange Manual Problem for us was that all 5 schools have to use the VTC Mailbox.

Starting the EDX Queue Action status must be “S” for start The status could be “S” on this screen and queue could be halted. Queue may need to be restarted. LAPX look normal if the queue is not started it just isn't send the files out. You can see if the queue has something in it in EDQS.

Problems Same old song 5 colleges using one software product: – Changes in loans going through ELM did not work when we started. – Problems with getting the EDX queue started. This process need to be restarted every day. – We had problems with Electronic Funds Transfer. – We had some problems with the hold release process sending back loans. Timing issues, this process takes longer than just sending the files directly to our biggest lender (VSAC).

Questions???? Pam Chisholm Director of Financial Aid Community College of Vermont Richard F. Lee Lead Systems Analyst Vermont State Colleges