Money Matters

Supporting Prospective and Incoming Students with Financial Wellness Programming

Presented by Donna Su, Northwestern University; and Melissa Sersland, MS, Northwestern University Reported by Vincent Pellicone, Brown University School of Professional Studies

While it is important to support graduate students through all stages of admission and enrollment, it is equally important to nurture their financial literacy. In this spirit, Donna Su and Melissa Sersland, along with their Graduate Admissions & Financial Aid colleagues at the Medill School, developed a series of financial wellness workshops for prospective and current students. The presenters put into context the state of financial literacy among their students. Of those who navigated the financial aid process as an undergraduate student, some may not have been aware of the differences between funding opportunities at both levels of study, such as the fact there is no equivalent of a Pell Grant at the Graduate level. To effectively target these financial wellness workshops, Donna presented the idea of knowing your ARC, or rather, knowing your Audience, Resources, and Costs. The ARC at the Graduate Admissions level can be complex since people pursue graduate studies at different points in time, such as those who enroll directly from undergrad programs, adult career changers, and adult students who can only learn part-time. Financial wellness workshops may vary based on the populations and academic offerings at an institution. At the Medill School, there were 5 different sessions offered based on the student’s stage in the application cycle. Financial Aid Session 101 was offered in the Fall and Spring semesters to both prospective and admitted students to learn about Financial Aid from a birds-eye view. When a student was matriculated to a program at the Medill School, they were invited to Financial Aid Session 102, which was a one-on-one appointment with a counselor to discuss different loan and scholarship categories and to plan their personal financial roadmap. Finally, Financial Aid Session 103 was offered before Orientation to help students navigate their tuition statement, how to submit payment in the SIS and enroll in a payment installment plan. Often, these sessions included surveys to gauge the students’ concerns about their financial wellness.

Financial wellness workshops did not stop at understanding the various forms of Financial Aid. There were also sessions entitled Budgeting 101 and Budgeting 102, which allowed students to understand the difference between tuition and cost of attendance, as well as to examine what their personal expenses would look like and how to better manage them. Comparative data was also provided to students to help them put the cost of attendance at the Medill School in context with current market trends.

The decision to pursue graduate studies for many students is intrinsically tied to their financial wellness. Workshops offered by institutions such as the Medill School allow students to understand the assets available to them and make the decision in their best interest. n

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