Title

Paying for College

Status
Status:
In Progress
Start Term
Start Term:
Fall 2025
End Term
End Term:
Spring 2026
Project Leads
Project Leads:
Vice President of Student Affairs
Pillars of Success
Pillars of Success:
Student Success
Financial Sustainability
Strategic Plans
Strategic Plans:
Academic Plan
Project Purpose

Project Purpose

Implement a proactive strategy to reduce the number of students with outstanding accounts that can end up at collection agencies: 

  • Informing students at the time of enrollment that they are taking on financial liability
  • Providing financial resource information throughout students’ duration at M State
  • Assisting students with developing payment plans 
Deliverables

Deliverables

  • Develop a communication plan and timeline to inform students about their financial obligations and resources to help pay for college throughout their duration at the college.
  • Create a student financial lifecycle flow chart that outlines key decision points, processes, and responsible office to initiate the process from enrollment until end of term.
  • Reduce the number of housing and athletic students with outstanding accounts by ensuring financial obligations are understood and FAFSA is complete and/or they have proof of a payment plan prior to coming to campus or having a financial obligation to the college.
  • Embed paying for college information into the college’s online orientation and increase orientation completion rates.
  • Leverage student life to offer financial planning educational workshops.
  • Determine how to maximize work study opportunities.
  • Benchmark the costs of program-specific tools and supplies.
  • Survey students to gather feedback on their experience with applicable college processes and barriers for paying for college.
  • Define roles and determine processes to track metrics (e.g. create fields in the college’s CRM to track student interactions with staff, document plans for payment each semester and follow-up if students don’t have a plan, etc).
Project Scope

Project Scope

In Scope

  • Developing a timeline for proactive communications, outreach and activities for the entire student lifecycle.
  • Defining roles of staff who are impacted by the project.

Out of Scope

  • Processes outside of payment and collections.

Constraints

  • Collective bargaining agreements, no additional staffing, students’ follow through
Financial Impact

Financial Impact

Decreased uncollected debt and increased retention will have a positive financial impact on the college.