Financial Literacy Trends, Problems, and Best Practices Presented By: Rob LaBreche

What did we learn from our student survey? 12,000 original respondents filled out one section 6,000 attempted several sections 4,095 filled out all sections Ages Median age = 32 Nearly 1/5 of respondents identified as being “unbanked” 31.2% were without a savings account Over 50% have a least ONE credit card 98% have student loans

Current Student Status

Educational Attainment

Types of Student Loans Borrowed

What is your current job search priority?

What caused you to drop out?

General Comments/Observations A significant portion of respondents indicated that their institution did not provide the guidance or direction they need to be successful Students enrolled entirely in online programs thought about dropping out and ultimately ended up dropping out more than their traditional campus counterparts

What keeps you in school/staying positive?

What do you want to know/understand about your future?

Recorded Response Will/Already is Affecting Me Might Affect Me Won’t Affect Me Unsure if it will Affect Me Years Young Years Young 46.3% 10.9% 32.7% 10.2% 47.5% 8.3% 27.5% 15.8% Note: Responses may not equal 100% due to rounding

Preference for Learning Tools

What motivates you to use iGrad?

Administrators were asked to rank a student’s knowledge and their own knowledge of the following areas: Money Management Investing Financial Aid ID Theft Scoring: 4 = Above Average 3 = Average 2 = Below Average 1 = Poor Can you guess what the scores were?

What else did we learn from our Administrator Survey?

Do you have a Financial Literacy task force? Not Sure, 11.5%

Do you have a Financial Literacy strategy or platform in place? Not Sure, 9.4%

Who “owns” Financial Literacy on your campus? Academics/Faculty Alumni Default Prevention Financial Literacy Other All Bursar/Financial Services Financial Aid FYE

Is your Financial Literacy program mandatory? Not Sure, 8.4%

Do you believe that Financial Literacy should be mandatory? No Yes, but only for borrowers Yes, but students should be able to test out Yes, mandatory for all 71%

If you have a Financial Literacy program in place, what percentage of the student population is using it? Over 50%, 16.2% 31-50%, 8.8%

What is your budget for a Financial Literacy program? > $1.50/student, 7.70% Less than $1.50/student,11.10%

Financial Literacy Best Practices

There is no singular or perfect operational model for a campus financial literacy program

Institutional Action Plan 1.Identify your advocates on campus and in the community 2.Start a task force 3.Involve students 4.Know your students 5.Start small, but choose engaging content and delivery methods 6.Learn from other institutions 7.Create a mission/goal statement and definition of success

AND the most prevalent and successful models are: Interactive Online Programs Classroom Based Programs Game Based Education Event Based Programs Individual Counseling

Research Will Unlock The Answers 1.University of Arizona study Multi-year study on how young adults develop and gain financial knowledge Research is based on behavioral economics and psychological aspects of decision making Hope is that study’s long-term results will unlock about what causes people to spend, save, take on debt, etc. 2. iGrad study Currently measuring impact of financial literacy strategies with regard to lowering defaults and increasing retention

5 6 Keys to a Successful Financial Literacy Program (5 just wasn’t enough!) 1.Make is ACCESSIBLE 2.Make it MANDATORY 3.Get Buy-In from MULTIPLE DEPARTMENTS 4.Make it RELEVANT 5.Make it REPETITIVE 6.MEASURE IT!!!

Questions/Discussion