Differences Subsidized and Unsubsidized Loans Paper Cover Letter – Zach Who you are, professional affiliation University of North Dakota students Concerned

Differences Subsidized and Unsubsidized Loans Paper Cover Letter – Zach
Who you are, professional affiliation
University of North Dakota students
Concerned about financial literacy among UND students
Grant that you’re applying for
Proposed project
Plan to help students better understand financial aid
Formal presentation at orientation about financial aid
Will help students learn how to use and apply for aid
Will keep students in school
Amount of funding
Would be relatively inexpensive compared to other projects with similar goals
Executive Summary – Zach
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II. Introduction – Lorraine

What is the problem? Student Financial Illiteracy.
What does this mean?
How do we know that it is a problem? Both nationally and locally?

III. How will Solving this Problem help UND?

When students take a break from their university education, it is usually because of financial problems. If students know more about which financial options they have, less students will take breaks, and more students will be enrolled, causing an increase in revenue for the university.
One of the factors students look at when choosing a university is how much the average student is in debt after attending a given university – information which is publicly available on a myriad of websites. If student financial literacy is increased, debt upon graduation will decrease and more students will be attracted to the university, increasing enrollment numbers from out-of-state students, a goal which UND purports to have.
The faster students pay off their loans, the faster they will be able to make purchases such as a house and other large-scale items. If they have less debt, they will pay it off more quickly. Financial literacy will decrease the amount of debt they have. Large-scale purchases such as housing will increase tax revenue for North Dakota, and North Dakota is one of the few states that is actively increasing its state subsidies for higher education. That being said, there will be more tax revenue allocated to higher education the faster students are able to pay off their loans, and they will be able to pay them off more quickly if they make more intelligent decisions regarding their finances. In addition, alumni without debt are more likely to donate to the university.
There is more federal funding for schools with higher graduation and retention rates.

IV. Recommendation Report i.e. How do we accomplish this?

A. Make information about financial aid options (such as scholarships, the difference between subsidized and unsubsidized loans, important dates) and CLEP exams a central part of the orientation presentation ceremony.

a. Why? Students will be at a mandatory meeting where they will be forced to listen to this information, increasing the likelihood of them gaining some sort of knowledge about the relevant subjects.

b. Furthermore, at orientation students are forced to go with at least one parent, who will probably exercise some amount of pressure on their child to use these options to save money.

c. Finally, doing so would cost the university nothing since it would already be using a venue and time that are set aside for educating students about what they can expect at the university

B. Make this same information more readily accessible around campus via fliers, on social media, and easily accessed from the UND homepage. Have booths at relevant events for CLEP exams, and financial aid options.

Why? Students may forget about what they learn at orientation, but having access to it afterwards and being reminded of it will increase the likelihood of them taking some of the options they learned about at orientation.
Ease of access can very easily increase the likelihood of students putting in the time to save some money. If it’s difficult for them to find relevant information, they may just decide that it isn’t worth their time due to frustration caused by trying to find said information.
Again, doing so would cost the university close-to-nothing (not quite nothing like A, but it would be such a low cost that it’s almost negligible.)