New NASFAA Report: Recommendations to Bolster Financial Aid as a Chosen Profession
By Maria Carrasco, NASFAA Staff Reporter
A NASFAA thought force has unveiled a new report making several recommendations seeking to change the perception that the financial aid profession is an accidental career and instead highlight the ways in which it can be a chosen professional pathway.
Despite being pivotal to the success of postsecondary institutions, NASFAA acknowledges that the role of a financial aid administrator is often perceived as something other than a distinct and viable career path for would-be future professionals. The role of a financial aid administrator is frequently perceived as a position that talented individuals "fall into" by happenstance and then learn to love, grow, and find success in.
The Career Path Awareness for Financial Aid Administrators Thought Force was created with the mission of analyzing this perception, and awareness levels of the role of financial aid administrators among prospective candidates – which includes college students and professionals looking to switch their career path. Additionally, the thought force had the goal of developing a framework to amplify the visibility of the financial aid administrator as a career, and collaborating with other higher education associations to promote the profession.
Heidi Carl, chair of the task force and NASFAA’s national chair-elect, shared her mission for the task force last December in a Q&A. Carl said one of her main concerns for the financial aid profession was visibility, since it’s not really seen as a career path.
“I always joke that the financial aid profession doesn't have an appeal — it doesn't have all the jazz of working in residence life and interacting with students day-in and day-out, or working in student life and doing activities and fun events,” Carl said. “But financial aid does have all the jazz, because it's about students and helping them find the pathway to higher education so they can have all the fun in residence life, and participate in student activities. And if it wasn't for the assistance from dedicated financial aid staff, they wouldn't even get on our campuses.”
The thought force began their work last October and convened in April. Their new report and recommendations were made available this September.
The report includes 10 recommendations for both NASFAA and institutions:
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Institutions should develop two types of awareness campaigns for different populations on campus, one that is internal/cross-departmental and another that is external/student-focused. The cross-departmental campaign would aim to ensure that other campus offices know how the work of the financial aid office impacts the entire campus. The external campaign would aim to increase exposure of the financial aid profession to students and interested job seekers, so they could consider pursuing it as a career option.
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NASFAA should add messaging to its association description to include language regarding the importance of financial aid administrators' work. The thought force wrote that additional information would provide greater context regarding the work NASFAA members perform. They also recommend that NASFAA presenters, including staff and board members, incorporate this messaging into their remarks during conferences and other presentations.
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NASFAA should broaden its student membership option from “Graduate Research Students” to the more general “Students” for interested students at non-member schools.
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NASFAA should form a new task force to create a career awareness toolkit and pull together sample internship templates.
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NASFAA should consider creating a “Tips for Reclassification” document and publishing a series of white papers that outline successful reclassification efforts among various sectors. As the thought force noted, “reclassification is the process undertaken by a department or division on a campus to examine current job titles and/or salaries and determine if there are any inequities as compared to peer departments or divisions.” Some financial aid directors have expressed interest in initiating a reclassification but are uncertain where to begin. The thought force listed several tips for reclassification institutions can take.
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NASFAA should focus on adding financial aid as a profession to the O*NET Resource Center.
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NASFAA should form a task force charged with the creation and implementation of a higher education course on financial aid.
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The thought force identified two types of higher education association stakeholder groups – associations whose membership may be interested in a career in the financial aid profession themselves and associations whose membership worked with individuals who may be interested in a career in the financial aid profession. The thought force recommends and details different ways NASFAA can collaborate with these associations to amplify the financial aid profession through partnerships that could result in the recruitment of new financial aid professionals.
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NASFAA should explore a way to have higher education association career centers collaborate and show job seekers positions from multiple office types.
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NASFAA could bring together a working group of higher education associations that have identified competency areas for their profession — along with National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE), which has existing Career Readiness Competencies — to create an overall higher education competencies map that could highlight overlap between offices.
NASFAA is exploring the recommendations outlined in the report. Members can access the full report online.
Publication Date: 10/4/2024
Susan B | 10/10/2024 5:18:16 PM
Thank you for this. I am that rare person who sought out financial aid as a career. We do important work. We counsel. We crunch data. And we are misunderstood. Point #5 hit very close to home as my institution recently went through a lengthy compensation modernization project--which yielded lower salaries for financial aid positions than for similar functions such as admissions and registrar.
Armand R | 10/9/2024 1:28:44 PM
Financial Aid is an accidental career. I've never met a colleague that had aspirations of becoming a financial aid counselor. But, according to a study from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, only 27% of college graduates work in a field related to their major (think of what common knowledge of that statistic would do to college enrollment numbers). In other words - most careers are accidental.
Jennifer S | 10/4/2024 1:10:14 PM
I 100% support this and thank the task force and Heidi Carl. Too often, in my state, we bemoan that we don't have sufficient applicant pools for jobs (including entry level positions), but we aren't doing some easy things to encourage others to enter the profession. I'm excited to see where this goes in the coming years. Fantastic work team!
Crista G | 10/4/2024 11:18:56 AM
I personally love that this is often an accidental profession. When my degree path didn't pan out how I felt it would, I felt like a failure. Falling into financial aid and having financial aid choose me allowed me to meet tons of really smart, successful leaders who turned out more than "just fine" after things didn't go to plan (or a stint as a student worker showed them a passion they didn't know they had). I felt much less alone and less afraid of my future. I think a mix of chosen and fallen into is great and I'm not against these initiatives. However, sometimes the best things in life are planned and sometimes they are not, but they are the best things in life no matter which way it happened. :)
Brenda B | 10/4/2024 8:53:13 AM
Thanks for this report. I agree, that there is much to be done in this area. I also connect with our Masters in Higher Education Faculty to provide experiences, capstone projects etc. to encourage and hopefully build a pipeline of professionals interested in a financial aid career.
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