The College Affordability Academy: A Blueprint for Counseling Families

By Robert Morris University, Chris Howard, Arne Duncan and 4 more

The College Affordability Academy: A Blueprint for Counseling Families is for anyone involved in the college recruitment and enrollment process. The book provides information that high school and college administrators can use to advise prospective and current students and their families with unbiased information about enrolling in and paying for college. The book may be used as a stand-alone volume or to accompany the College Affordability Academy training modules.

In addition to Robert Morris University's staff, professionals from across higher education contributed to this book, including chapters by:
Katherine Cooper, Executive Consultant, Ruffalo Noel Levitz
Kim McCurdy, Higher Education Access Partner, The Pennsylvania Higher Education Assistance Agency
Rory McElwee, Vice President for Enrollment and Student Success, Rowan University
Amy Brashear Miranda, Director, Higher Education Services for the Middle States Region, The College Board

• Language: English
• Publisher: BookBaby
• Release date: Nov 16, 2018
• ISBN: 9780996586931

Book preview

The College Affordability Academy®:

A Blueprint for Counseling Families

Chris Howard

Amy Brashear Miranda

Jacquelyn Fraas

Kellie Laurenzi

Kimberly McCurdy

Katherine Cooper

Rory McElwee

Kristine D. Schaffer

Wendy Beckemeyer

Stephanie N. Hendershot

Arne Duncan

Edited by Kristine D. Schaffer

Robert Morris University Press

The College Affordability Academy®:

A Blueprint for Counseling Families

Copyright © 2018 by Robert Morris University

ISBN 978-0-9965869-3-1

The College Affordability Academy® is a trademarked and copyrighted work created by and for Robert Morris University.

For students and those who champion them.

You are our inspiration for writing this book.  We hope that our work will help those who advise you, council you, and advocate for you.  Your pursuit of higher education is a noble and worthy one.

If a man empties his purse into his head no man can take it from him. An investment in knowledge pays the best interest.

The Way to Wealth

Benjamin Franklin

1758

Contents

Foreword

Introduction

Chapter 1: Weeding through Financial Aid and College Pricing Data

Chapter 2: How Do You Measure Up?

Chapter 3: Counseling Families about Student Debt

Chapter 4: Financing Higher Education: Making Good Decisions on the Options that are Available

Chapter 5: Counseling Students and Families on Effective Debt Management: The Role of Exit Counseling

Chapter 6: Majors and Income: Determining the Value of a Degree

Chapter 7: Affecting Future Employment while Enrolled

Chapter 8: Landing Jobs over a Lifetime

Afterword

Conclusion

Bibliography

Foreword

Chris Howard

A college education is the most important—and most expensive—investment many families will ever make. It has also become among the most controversial, to the chagrin of those of us who work in higher education.

Make no mistake, a college degree still provides a considerable return on that investment: college graduates can expect to earn at least $1 million more in their lifetime than those without a college degree, according to the Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforce. Yet figures from the College Board show that college tuition has increased, on average, more than 150% in constant dollars over the past 40 years. The news media feeds its audience a steady diet of student-debt horror stories, which gives plenty of fodder to elected officials who think academia is out of touch and a college degree is not worth the price of admission. Surely these headlines heighten the economic anxiety of our nation’s shrinking middle class.

What are families to think? And what can we do to make college as affordable as possible while helping our students maximize the return on the investment in their education? The obvious answer is for families to save more for college, to start saving earlier, and to have a plan for paying for college. According to Sallie Mae, parents who have a plan for paying for college save, on average, almost double what other families save, and research from Washington University’s Center for Social Development shows that the mere act of saving has a beneficial effect: children whose parents save even a modest amount for college are more likely to graduate than kids whose parents don’t save for college.

Still, parents save on average $16,380, while the average annual cost of a four-year public institution is $9,650 with private school tuition running more than three times as high, according to the College Board. Many lawmakers would be quick to tell you that colleges and universities need to curb their spendthrift ways in order to make higher education more affordable. The reality, of course, is that net tuition, the actual out-of-pocket costs to parents, is decreasing relative to inflation at many institutions, often thanks to the generous contributions of alumni, corporations, foundations, and other donors.

Besides, lowering costs presents its own set of challenges: approximately 75% of college expenses go to pay salaries and benefits, including health care. Higher education is a labor-intensive industry, and improvements in technology have had only a modest impact on the cost of doing business.

There is, however, some good news. We can help make higher education more affordable by doing what we do best: teaching our students (and their parents) to make good decisions based on research and best practices. The consumers of our product have never had more information at their disposal, everything from college rankings to net price calculators to government scorecards. We can help them make sense of all that information and make the college financing system more transparent and less intimidating. Knowledge is power, and we can empower our families to make the right decisions to maximize their return on investment.

That is the philosophy at the heart of Robert Morris University’s College Affordability Academy®, which aims to distill everything families need to know into straightforward, easy-to-follow steps to make paying for college more manageable and less stressful. The brainchild of Wendy Beckemeyer, RMU vice president for enrollment management, the College Affordability Academy® is a collaborative, cross-campus initiative that has become integrated into campus visits for prospective students and their families.

The College Affordability Academy® includes a training component for our own staff, including student tour guides, who can share their own experiences and give new students fresh tips for keeping their education affordable. Our next step is to incorporate lessons from the College Affordability Academy® into a sophisticated new student retention and predictive analytics tool that we’ve adopted, so that we can give students real-time reminders and other tips to keep costs manageable.

Cost and retention are, of course, inextricably linked. Most students who drop out do so for financial reasons, and aggregate student debt in the United States grows higher and higher in part because of students who leave school with no degree and no meaningful career prospects. Students who graduate on time have less debt, pay it off more quickly, and are more likely to become loyal alumni. That’s good for them, and good for us.

That’s why we are so eager to share widely the lessons of the College Affordability Academy® and to offer it as a resource for all families—whether or not their children are interested in attending RMU—not to mention high school guidance counselors, policy makers, and, of course, administrators at other colleges and universities. Those of us who work in higher education have a fiduciary responsibility to our own institutions and a moral obligation to our communities to make sure students arrive, thrive, and graduate.

I know firsthand how daunting the cost of higher education can be, even for a university president: my wife, Barbara, and I have sent our two sons to college within the past six years. Many families need all the help they can get, and we hope this book and the lessons we’ve learned through the College Affordability Academy® make it easier for you to give them that help. It’s time to start rewriting those headlines, and give those horror stories about student debt a happier ending.

About the Author

Dr. Chris Howard is the eighth president of Robert Morris University in suburban Pittsburgh.  A decorated veteran of the United States Air Force, Dr. Howard previously served as president of Hampden-Sydney College in Virginia and vice president for leadership and strategic initiatives at the University of Oklahoma.  Before that he enjoyed a successful career in the corporate world at General Electric and Bristol-Myers Squibb.  Dr. Howard is a graduate of the U.S. Air Force Academy and earned his doctoral degree as a Rhodes Scholar at the University of Oxford.  He earned an MBA at the Harvard Business School.

Introduction

Amy Brashear Miranda

How do we help students and families realize that higher education is truly affordable? How do we motivate students to make smart financial decisions that will help them to enroll in college, complete their degree, and lead to future success? These are among the essential questions colleges and universities face today and are the focus of Robert Morris University’s College Affordability Academy® (CAA) model. This book, The College Affordability Academy®: A Blueprint for Counseling Families, serves as a guide to help others establish their own affordability academies, creating a culture in which students and families truly believe in the affordability of college and are set on a path to continued financial success after graduation.

Three years ago, I had the privilege of attending the first capstone presentation competition of the Robert Morris University College Affordability Academy®. The creativity and excitement exuded by the RMU staff were remarkable, and it was refreshing to see collaboration that extended without boundaries across departments as they worked in teams to create their capstone projects. I was impressed with their vision and purpose, as well as their commitment to removing roadblocks in order to help all students realize that RMU, and higher education in general, is affordably within their reach. The capstone projects were the culmination of weeks of hard work and dedication resulting in innovative methods and tools designed to help students and families conquer the challenges of paying for college. At the same time, students received guidance to help them make sound financial decisions for financial success in college and beyond. It was obvious the Robert Morris community understood that commitment to affordability translates beyond recruitment and admission goals to better student retention, academic success, quality of student life, and improved graduation rates. At a time in our society when attaining a college degree is ever more critical for success, this model for communicating affordability serves as a valuable resource in assisting students and families as they confront financial challenges, navigate confusion, and discover their best options for paying for college.

As professionals, we know that a college education opens the door to opportunities, leading to greater potential for employment and financial success. In fact, many professions are accessible only to those with specific degrees or certificates. Data show that the highest earnings, lowest unemployment rates, and access to the widest range of career opportunities correlate to earning a bachelor’s or graduate