College Cost Meter FAQ's

No. We only use the data to send out the College Cost Meter correspondence.

No. 

Protecting our customer’s sensitive confidential information and Personally Identifiable Information (PII) is a top priority at Ascendium. College Cost Meter is a thoroughly compliant and engaging student loan debt letter.

Though Ascendium focused on the best method to actually reaching students, effectiveness was not its only consideration. As a longstanding FFELP guarantor, Ascendium complies with a variety of security and privacy and other compliance requirements and is subject to regular Department of Education audits.  Ascendium fully considered applicable legal requirements—including the Higher Education Act and privacy and security laws—when developing College Cost Meter, just as it does with all its offerings.

There is nothing in the HEA, NIST, or elsewhere that precludes the inclusion of the debt-letter information directly in emails or that requires the use of something as cumbersome as hiding such information behind an embedded link and log-in page (that students may well not take the time to pass through). 

Furthermore, the Department of the Treasury recently released a report with recommendations for higher education schools to offer financial literacy and resources to help students with decision making surrounding college costs and debt. They specifically provide best practices for issuing student debt letters. There's no recommendation or requirement to put the student's information behind a log in. And in fact it seems counter to their recommendation to "make it easy to find additional information and support."

There are a number of considerations in planning for and implementing a student debt letter. Our handy checklist gives you a solid head start in understanding the numerous components that go into getting started using a debt letter, starting with identifying whether it's better to build or to buy.

College Cost Meter provides the ability for your school to view open rates on your students' emails via the Dashboard.

We have an expansive list of financial aid categories to include and ability to easily update content to meet your needs. For example, some items you can simply include or not, like private loans, cost of attendance, and scholarships. Other items to customize include adding your logo, financial literacy URL, school contact information, school colors, and school URL.

A $2,500 annual subscription fee covers use of the tool, unlimited email sends, and detailed reporting via our 24/7 dashboard. If you choose to send paper letters, there's a $0.75 fee for each paper letter sent.

Yes, it's only for each paper letter sent. There is no additional charge for sending emails because it is part of the annual subscription fee.

We track who the email was sent to, when it was sent, if a bounce back was received, and who opened the email. 

Yes. A school can upload the NSLDS files themselves if they would like to.

If the school chooses to use the NSLDS School Portfolio Report then only information from your school will populate. However, you are able to provide the aggregate totals for all schools in the College Cost Meter file if you choose to.

If your school chooses to use the FAT file then we will populate Federal loans for all schools. 

Yes. We report consolidation loans in the detailed listing from NSLDS.

Your Ascendium Representative can provide the School College Cost Meter Detail File Layout and the corresponding Quick Guide for your state. The file layout is also on the portal in the support tab.

No. The fields can be left blank but a blank 'field' must be included in the spreadsheet.

The header row is required. The detail header row (gives the titles of the columns) should be deleted.

 

We typically ask for 5-10 students' data, to be submitted with the schools email address on the CCM file. We have a new "Test your file" section on the portal that is very easy to use and provides details on what is or is not correct on the file.  Once the file is able to be loaded, we will request the appropriate NSLDS file and then submit the test students to you for your review.

The data comes from your Financial Aid Management System (FAMS).

Please refer to your state's mandated legislation. For states without legislation, it's up to the individual school. 

Most states with debt letter legislation require the correspondence to be sent to all students that were enrolled for the academic year in which the school is reporting on. Depending on when the school reports, students may have graduated or withdrawn and they would also need to be sent in the school's College Cost Meter file.

We’ll use the NSLDS portfolio report to report any loans that were taken out at your school. But, depending on your state’s requirement, you may need to report on all loans the student borrowed, including while at other institutions. Information on loans taken out prior to students attending your institution is located on the ISIR report and can be included in your College Cost Meter file if you choose to include it. We (or the school) can request the Financial Aid History file (FAT file) which includes all Federal loans the student took out. The FAT file is the most inclusive and is recommended to be used if your state requires all Federal loans. 

The school will report on private loan information using data from your School College Cost Meter file. However, your state’s legislation may or may not require you to report on private loan data. If you’re not required to report on it you can decide if you want to include it in your file or not. 

If a student has borrowed a private loan elsewhere & you have no knowledge of it, it’s ok—that’s why the legislation mandates you include certain disclaimers.

State	Private Loan Data Required?
California	Yes
Florida	No
Illinois	Yes
Indiana	Yes
Maryland	No
Nebraska	No
Oregon	No
Pennsylvania	Yes
Texas	No
Utah	Yes
Virginia	No
Washington	Yes
Wisconsin	Yes, if the private lender or loan servicer has provided the information to the school.

 

Depending on the file type used from NSLDS it will either be loans from your school (School Portfolio Report) or aggregate totals and individual loans from all schools (FAT file). NSLDS only has Federal loan information (excluding the Health Profession Loans), so all other loan information that is required needs to be provided by the school.

Schools need to report on current year students’ prior year borrowing and only current year borrowing if funds have been disbursed.

Generally, we need student SSN, name, email address, dependency status, and anticipated graduation date. However, each state’s legislation may have additional requirements. Those data file requirements are noted in the Quick Guide for your state. To located your Quick Guide, log in to the Ascendium Education portal (where you access Attigo tools). The guide and other resources are located in Support > Student Success Support > College Cost Meter > Reference.

Yes.

Private loan data comes from your Financial Aid Management System (FAMS).

Ascendium will calculate it based on the information from the FAT file or from the information you provide to us for a 10-year repayment plan.

The aggregate loan information can be configured to be displayed or to not display at all. Currently, all of the information will be presented if the aggregate loans section is populated. 

The aggregate loan information can be configured to be displayed or to not display. Currently, all of the information is being presented if the aggregate loans section is populated. 

We recommend that if a student has received any federal student loans, the email be sent prior to the start of the academic year. Sending emails multiple times a year though is recommended to accommodate any borrowers that may enroll after the start of the year.

Please note there are states that require all students (not just borrowers) receive an email. Visit our Definitive Guide to Debt Letters or Resources page to locate your state and the Legislative Recap.

You can send it as many times as you like! If you're in a state with student debt letter legislation, it's best to review your state requirements to verify that you are sending them when required. Visit our Definitive Guide to Debt Letters or Resources page to locate your state and the Legislative Recap. 

Other than that, the only requirement is that you need to ensure the file you previously loaded to the system has been sent already. There's no additional cost to email students as often as you deem appropriate. Many schools send out emails monthly, but other schools choose to wait until after the start of the spring term. 

Yes.

State requirements are to deliver a student debt letter or email. There is no guarantee a student opens a paper letter, and there is no requirement to track if the email was opened in the current state requirements.

No. You need to document that you sent it but no additional follow up is needed.

In order to improve the student experience of receiving the student debt letter communication, we recommend that schools first inform students that it's coming and why it's important.

We've created customizable promotional communications (an email, text, poster, and TV ad) you can personalize and provide to students to help raise awareness. To find them, log in to the Ascendium Education portal (where you access Attigo tools). The guide and resources are located in Support > Student Success Support > College Cost Meter > Reference.

Student debt letters not only help schools retain the students they've worked so hard to enroll, they help empower students to achieve better outcomes including strategic degree choices, maximizing credits, and reducing borrowing. 

• A Federal Reserve study shows that a combination of debt letters and counseling can change student behavior related to borrowing and academic decisions. For example, high debt Montana State University students were sent letters informing them about their debt and encouraging them to seek counseling. In the next semester, on average, they borrowed one-third less, were 2% more likely to switch to a STEM major (associated with higher paying jobs), and had slight increases in the amount of credits taken and grades earned.
• According to Money, in 2012 Indiana University was one of the first to use annual communications to remind students how much they've borrowed to pay for school, and to estimate future monthly payments. Four years later, students were borrowing 18% less in student loans.

The U.S. Financial Literacy and Education Commission produced Best Practices for Financial Literacy and Education.  A few of the examples put forth in relation to supporting students are noted below:

• Make it easy to find additional information and support. The letter should contain a link to resources where students can find additional information. 
• Time sending it related to an event, such as before students register for courses and before the deadline to change their financial aid and borrowing levels fr the subsequent semester.
• Pair student debt letters with other financial literacy strategies to get the best results.

Additionally, we recommend first informing students that a debt letter is coming and why it's important. We've created customizable promotional communications (an email, text, poster, and TV ad) you can personalize and provide to students to help raise awareness that their College Cost Meter debt letter is coming soon, and why they need to pay attention to it.  To find them, log in to the Ascendium Education portal (where you access Attigo tools). The guide and resources are located in Support > Student Success Support > College Cost Meter > Reference.

There is no installation required. However, you may want to customize your letter based on:

• Whether your state has student debt letter legislation requirements
• Including your school branding, contact information, and financial literacy links

You'll also need to prepare a College Cost Meter file. We've created Quick Guides to help you quickly understand what's required in your file. To locate your Quick Guide, log in to the Ascendium Education portal (where you access Attigo tools). It is located in Support > Student Success Support > College Cost Meter > Reference.

 

Our high-touch support not only makes set up a breeze, but remains in place throughout our relationship with one another. We have dedicated staff that will work with you to test your process and ensure that we're helping you meet the state requirements.

Once you create your School College Cost Meter file we'll use it to send student debt letters to your students. As new students enroll throughout the current academic year, you can reuse your file by designating that only the new, additional, students are sent the debt letter. We recommend you do this multiple times a year to account for all students being sent the letter, regardless of when they enrolled in the current academic year.

Some states have student debt letter legislation and others don't. Visit our Definitive Guide to Debt Letters or Resources page to locate your state and the Legislative Recap. 

College Cost Meter is FISMA compliant using NIST protocols and is ADA compliant. Also, student data is protected in accordance with FERPA.

Yes.

Yes.

Yes.

Yes. College Cost Meter produces reports you can use to show auditors that indicate who the correspondence was sent to, the date, and whether it was an email or a letter.

You can access all of the reports within the College Cost Meter dashboard. Log in to the Ascendium Education portal (where you access Attigo tools). Note there is also an option to have an HTML or PDF copy of all of the emails sent to the school so you can retain the copies locally.