{"id":9293,"date":"2012-06-07T15:38:53","date_gmt":"2012-06-07T19:38:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/new-hampshire\/?p=9293"},"modified":"2012-06-08T10:37:02","modified_gmt":"2012-06-08T14:37:02","slug":"to-make-college-shopping-easier-white-house-launches-know-before-you-owe","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/new-hampshire\/2012\/06\/07\/to-make-college-shopping-easier-white-house-launches-know-before-you-owe\/","title":{"rendered":"To Make College Shopping Easier, White House Launches &#8220;Know Before You Owe&#8221;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>It\u2019s not every day that the US Secretary of Education calls me wanting to talk, but on Tuesday afternoon that\u2019s just what happened.\u00a0 When I asked Secretary Duncan what he wanted to talk about, he said, &#8220;college affordability.&#8221;<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_9308\"  class=\"wp-caption module image left\" style=\"max-width: 200px;\"><a class=\"fancybox\" title=\"\" href=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/new-hampshire\/files\/2012\/06\/scrabble.jpg\" rel=\"\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-9308\" title=\"scrabble\" src=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/new-hampshire\/files\/2012\/06\/scrabble-300x225.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"200\" srcset=\"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/new-hampshire\/files\/2012\/06\/scrabble-300x225.jpg 300w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/new-hampshire\/files\/2012\/06\/scrabble.jpg 500w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><p class=\"wp-media-credit\">Phillip Taylor<\/p><p class=\"wp-caption-text\"> <\/p><\/div>\n<p>Earlier that day he, Vice President Joe Biden, and Consumer Financial Bureau Director Richard Cordray kicked off a new project to convince universities to adopt a universal \u201c<a href=\"http:\/\/www.consumerfinance.gov\/static\/students\/disclosure.pdf\" target=\"_blank\">Know Before You Owe<\/a>\u201d financial aid shopping sheet \u2014 designed to make it easier to compare college costs and financial aid offers. Too often, he said, families and students confuse grants and loans, aren\u2019t informed about the cost of housing and meal plans, and aren\u2019t able to accurately compare offers from different schools. The idea is that if all colleges were to use a well-designed, universal financial aid award sheet, fewer students would take out loans they couldn\u2019t pay back.<!--more--><\/p>\n<p>You may know already that New Hampshire students carry the highest student debt in the country. \u00a0The cost of attending the in-state university is almost $30,000. Is transparency about tuition really the most important issue for the Secretary of Education to consider?<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_9302\"  class=\"wp-caption module image right\" style=\"max-width: 200px;\"><a class=\"fancybox\" title=\"\" href=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/new-hampshire\/files\/2012\/06\/FonnaTasha.jpg\" rel=\"\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-9302\" title=\"FonnaTasha\" src=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/new-hampshire\/files\/2012\/06\/FonnaTasha-300x215.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"200\" srcset=\"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/new-hampshire\/files\/2012\/06\/FonnaTasha-300x215.jpg 300w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/new-hampshire\/files\/2012\/06\/FonnaTasha-620x444.jpg 620w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/new-hampshire\/files\/2012\/06\/FonnaTasha.jpg 640w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><p class=\"wp-media-credit\">Fonna Tasha<\/p><p class=\"wp-caption-text\"> <\/p><\/div>\n<p>While transparency may not be <em>the<\/em> problem, it turns out it is <em>a<\/em> problem.\u00a0Tara Payne of the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nhheaf.org\/index.asp\" target=\"_blank\">New Hampshire Higher Education Assistance Foundation<\/a> counsels families making college choices, and says she does see offers from schools with confusing \u2014 even misleading \u2014 award offers. \u00a0She suggested I ask three schools for their financial award letters, and see how well I could compare their contents. Unfortunately, UNH was the only school that agreed to share.\u00a0 Their letter listed all of the scholarships and loans the sample student was awarded, and totaled them. It wasn\u2019t misleading, but it wasn\u2019t very descriptive, either.\u00a0For example, it didn\u2019t list the total cost, only the aid awarded \u2014 and I had to Google SEOG to find out if it was a loan or a grant.\u00a0Compared to the federal template, \u2014 well, it really didn\u2019t compare to the federal template at all. <a href=\"http:\/\/www.consumerfinance.gov\/static\/students\/disclosure.pdf\" target=\"_blank\">Take a look<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><div class=\"related-content alignright\"><h4 class=\"related-header\">Related<\/h4><div class=\"links\"><h5>Posts<\/h5><ul><li class=\"link\"><a href=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/new-hampshire\/2012\/06\/01\/occupational-desegregation-declines-stem-stem-stem\/\">Occupational Desegregation Declines! STEM, STEM,\u00a0STEM.<\/a><\/li><li class=\"link\"><a href=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/new-hampshire\/2011\/11\/11\/after-unh-plymouth-states-class-of-10-had-highest-average-student-debt\/\">After UNH, Plymouth State\u2019s Class of \u201910 Had Highest Average Student Debt<\/a><\/li><li class=\"link\"><a href=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/new-hampshire\/2011\/11\/08\/student-debt-reaches-record-levels-and-nh-leads-the-pack\/\">Student Debt Reaches Record Levels\u2013And NH Leads The\u00a0Pack<\/a><\/li><\/ul><\/div><div class=\"topics\"><h5>Topics<\/h5><p class=\"topic\"><img class=\"alignleft\" src=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/new-hampshire\/files\/2011\/07\/IMG_0549-60x60.jpg\" height=\"60\" width=\"60\" \/><a href=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/new-hampshire\/topic\/manufacturing\/\">How NH\u2019s Building A New Manufacturing Economy<\/a><\/p><p class=\"topic\"><a href=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/new-hampshire\/topic\/higher-education\/\">Higher Education<\/a><\/p><\/div><\/div>The CFB award letter lays out how the cost of a school compares to others schools&#8217;, how that school\u2019s student loan default rate compares to other schools\u2019, the graduation rates, and the student retention rates.\u00a0With all that potentially condemning information laid bare, it seems likely only the best-performing schools would participate.<\/p>\n<p>A task force created by <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nasfaa.org\/advocacy\/award-letter\/Improving_Award_Letters_and_Consumer_Information.aspx\" target=\"_blank\">National Association of Financial Aid Administrators<\/a> assessed the government&#8217;s template and recommended that the comparative costs, default rates, graduation and retention rates be available not directly on the award letter but instead on a website designed by each university. While this may lessen the degree of transparency, it could increase the likelihood that schools will actually adopt the award letter.<\/p>\n<p>Are you a student or parent of a student who has recently decided on a college? What was your experience like comparing schools? Let us know by leaving a comment right here.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>It\u2019s not every day that the US Secretary of Education calls me wanting to talk, but on Tuesday afternoon that\u2019s just what happened.\u00a0 When I asked Secretary Duncan what he wanted to talk about, he said, &#8220;college affordability.&#8221; Earlier that day he, Vice President Joe Biden, and Consumer Financial Bureau Director Richard Cordray kicked off [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":9308,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[53],"tags":[324,325,493,545,323],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/new-hampshire\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9293"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/new-hampshire\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/new-hampshire\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/new-hampshire\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/84"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/new-hampshire\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9293"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/new-hampshire\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9293\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9323,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/new-hampshire\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9293\/revisions\/9323"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/new-hampshire\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9308"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/new-hampshire\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9293"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/new-hampshire\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9293"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/new-hampshire\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9293"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}