MEFA Institute: Summer Loan Training for College Admins

Please note that this transcript was auto-generated. We apologize for any minor errors in spelling or grammar.

Shawn Morrissey: [00:00:00] Good afternoon, everyone. Thank you so much for joining us. Um, welcome to the MEFA Institute Summer Loan Training for College Administrators. My name is Sean Morrissey. I am the Director of College Relations here at MEFA, and I'll let my colleagues introduce themselves as well.

Stephanie Wells: Hi, everyone. My name is Stephanie Wells here at MEFA.

I am also Director of College Relations at MEFA, and I've been at MEFA for a little over 23 years. Happy to be here today with our annual training.

Darina Barreto: Good afternoon. My name is Dorena Barreto and I am the assistant director of college relations here at MEFA and I've been at MEFA for almost five years.

Thank you for joining us today.

Meg Villavicencio: Hello everyone. I'm Meg Villavicencio. I'm a senior associate on the Originations team and I've been at MEFA for about 23 years as well. Hi everyone. Thank you. So a little bit about logistics [00:01:00] for behind the scenes. Um, the chat has been disabled, but please, if you have any questions, you can use the Q and a button at the bottom of the screen at your question there, and we'll be answering those, um, behind the scenes.

And we can answer some of those questions live as well. If we think that, um, that will be the best. way to um, answer the question for you. If you want to use the closed captioning, you can use the live transcript feature and there you can see closed captioning as well on that. And the audio settings will allow you to adjust the volume as needed.

Stephanie Wells: Thanks, Sean. And we'll also be recording and send the slides probably tomorrow.

Shawn Morrissey: So a little bit about MEFA. So I really like the way that MEFA was created. Um, a group of colleges in Massachusetts. [00:02:00] Went to the state legislature and petitioned that they create a body that would provide low cost funding to students in Massachusetts to help fund their education. So that is how MEFA began.

Um, and originally our loans were available only to students that had some kind of connection to Massachusetts. But now we're really proud that we could offer these loans nationwide. Without any type of connection to Massachusetts and students can take, um, advantage of our loans nationwide. And we've since grown from just providing loans, um, to students, to providing guidance, savings plans.

Um, we start with students right from the time that they are born with. A baby steps program where we help, um, students start funding their college savings plans, um, and communicate with them throughout all of their, um, grammar [00:03:00] school, middle school, high school with different. Types of curriculum to help them learn about paying for college education.

So this afternoon, we're going to be going over the new 2425 interest rates and some details about the loans, the loan guidance that we share with students and families, different certification options for our loans. We'll be going over both elm and portal options for loan certification. We're going to review some common Frequently asked questions that we've received and also how to deal with loan refunds and reductions in the loan processing.

So first of all, I want to talk a little bit more about MEFA's comprehensive approach. I talked a little bit about this. Um where we start very early. Promoting early awareness about planning, saving and paying for college, um, with our savings [00:04:00] plans and with, um, curriculum that we have available to families.

We have live webinars. We have a lot of information, blogs on our website. We have, um, a podcast on our website for families to help learn about planning, saving and paying for college. Um, we also have. A lot of college planning information and, um, and trainings for college admissions and financial aid administrators.

We have, this is part of the, um, MEFA Institute, but we have a lot of MEFA Institute trainings. Last year, it seemed like we were doing a training just about. Every couple of weeks on FAFSA Simplification, as we learn new information about that, we try to, um, share this information with both families and, um, college administrators as soon as we have updated information.

We also reach out and. Do training with high school guidance counselors that help [00:05:00] students, um, with planning, saving, and paying for college. So we try to cover as many bases as we can to get information to families and those helping them to pay for college. Um, and we do this education on a grassroots level and we try to support the education community as much as we can.

Um, in addition to our low cost loan, we do have savings plans, and we talked to families first about all the different financial aid options that are available to them and talk to them about, um, borrowing as a transcript. Last resort for them and try to come up with other options for them to to pay for their college

So an example of some of the upcoming webinars that we have for families and we have these throughout the year So right now we're in our um We try to do them in a timely manner for [00:06:00] what is right on the forefront of families in their thought process and where they are in the college process at the time.

So right now we have an upcoming webinar on comparing loan options for families and This is to try to help families differentiate among the different college loan options and try to understand the real cost of borrowing and what some of the other options that they have available to them, um, so that they can borrow the least amount in order to get to their college goals.

So we talked to them there about, um, different payment plan options that may be available to them, how they can take advantage of savings and other options so that they can borrow, um, The in the most intelligent manner to go to college. Um, in addition to that, we have a college admissions. Um, webinar that we recorded [00:07:00] recently that's going to be available after, um, 626.

And this is learning what admissions offices are really thinking when reading students essays, evaluating transcripts, and making decisions on applications. We have an upcoming webinar about learning about public service loan forgiveness. And, um, How they can take advantage of that in managing student loan pay repayment for graduating college seniors.

We have that one coming up as well. Um, all of the webinars that we have, we record those and then they become available on our website that, um, families can then view them when, when needed. So we have a whole website that's filled with all the different webinars and recordings that we have in the upcoming webinars.

Are there as well that families can, um, use these QR codes to register for those. We [00:08:00] also have MEFA Institute webinars for college administrators. Um, the one that you're on right now will be available after 6 26. On our website as a recording. Um, we'll also send that recording out to you with these slides as well And we are repeating this on july 17th So if you have colleagues that would like to view a live webinar, there's another one coming up on july 17th We also have a an upcoming webinar on financial aid for college admissions professionals.

So here we have a panel that will discuss what college admissions professionals need to know about financial aid so they can learn from the experts exactly what they need to know. And then we have another one On FAFSA simplification for college, um, officials that is recorded, um, that talks a little bit about what the, the [00:09:00] FAFSA simplification and how that affects other offices on campus in what upper administration needs to know about FAFSA simplification.

And we have a whole host of FAFSA simplification webinars recorded on our website and you can access those, um, if you need to.

So I want to talk a little bit about our MEFA loan rates for 24 25. Um, for undergraduate loans, our fixed interest rates are between 5. 75 and 8. 95%. We are really happy that the MEFA loans are once again under the plus loan rate for this year. Also that they're in such a narrow range. So, um, borrowers. are not going to be hit with a really low, um, teaser rate, and then their rate may go really high with our loans.

There's really a narrow [00:10:00] margin there with, um, what our loan range is. For graduate loans, those rates are between 7. 15 and 8. 95 percent. Once again, that's under the plus loan rate, and we're really proud of that.

We have a great website for college administrators. We just revamped this within the last year and we tried to put all the information that you may need in one site. So let's take a look at what some of the information is that we've put on there for you. Um, The first thing that we added on here for last year was all the information about FAFSA simplification.

We tried to put those resources right up front for you, um, as those changes were going through. Um, and we have a whole page about, um, For families about how, um, they can go about doing their FAFSA. That [00:11:00] is very helpful for them. Um, we have some on demand webinars there that you have links to, and we also have a great PDF of who needs an FSA ID and there are.

It's a three page, um, PDF that you can download and send to families as needed. It's available in English, Spanish, Portuguese, um, right here on the website. And you can download those as needed for families. Then we have, um, information about online loan certification. And there are two options. You can certify those through Elm or through our online portal.

If you are. Certified through our portal. You can log right into the MEFA online portal right here on our website And we also have um frequently asked questions here for both elm and the portal [00:12:00] Um, so you see that there will be different links for those to help you if you have questions about how to certify within Those different areas.

Also, if you are new to the MIPHA online portal and you want to watch an online processing demo, you can click that link and there is a demo there right online to bring you through how to certify as well. If there are new users in your office that you need to add on there You can use this link right there to fill out a quick form To add new users that's sent directly to us and we'll set those up very quickly for you um, if you need to modify your current user access or Stop the access for someone that's left your office.

You can use the modify current user access Link right there If you are needing to set up disbursements for a wire transfer and [00:13:00] you're a portal user, you can use that link there. And also we have a school refund EFT transmittal form that you can fill out if you need to send in refunds. Um, and it has all the information about how to do that.

That once you click on that form and see that we also Combined all the information about our loans right here on one page So you can see there that for the undergrad loan, you can see all of the different rates based on what the Different repayment terms that the family may have chosen. So based on those different Repayment terms there are a little bit different interest rates Um, ranges and the same for the grad loan rates.

You also can see the loan eligibility here. Um, what the criteria that the students need to be made that they do need to be making satisfactory academic progress and they need to be at least half time except during the summer semester where they may be less [00:14:00] than half time if they are, um, going at least half time during the rest of the academic year.

You can see we have loan details here. Um, about the loan that the minimums here, the maximum amounts, and that they're for one academic year at a time, and that most undergraduate students will need a co borrower on our loans. And there are never any, um, fees on our loans as well, and that's listed there as well.

This also lists all of the loan repayment options, which are immediate interest only, deferred. Or deferred with COBOL or release and we also have all of our disclosures and fact sheets right here. Easy to click through and see what those, um, disclosure statements look like. And Stephanie will be talking a little bit more in detail about those disclosure statements in just a moment.

And here's our [00:15:00] phone number and our email address to contact us and our direct information for the whole college relations team as well. There's also a link to our MEFA Institute for College Administrators with the upcoming training on here and some recorded webinars for you, um, so you can take a look at all of those that we've had in the past couple of months.

And here is where we have all of our frequently asked questions, um, and And you can find answers to all of those like the summer enrollment and our prior balance policy, which we'll be talking a little bit about in a few minutes. But all of that information is right there on the website for you. Um, and we tried to compile that in an easy to digest and quick to get to so you can have that all in one spot for you.

Stephanie Wells: Thanks, Sean. So I'm going to talk a little bit [00:16:00] about. the guidance that we provide to families, which can also serve as a mini loan training. Um, because we definitely are always about trying to get families to look at a comprehensive solution, combination strategies that go above and beyond just loans.

So let's talk about that a little bit. I'm not going to get into every fine detail because I know that most of you know, at least some general information about loans, but It's important for families to look at that interest rate that's obviously going to drive the cost of the loan, whether they want a fixed rate, stable monthly payments, a little bit more security and knowing there will be no changes, or if they want to ride the market and go with the variable rate, they can afford.

and accommodate changes in monthly payments that might be best for them. But we always make sure that they look at what the cap is if they're looking at a variable rate and let families know that their rates with most lenders is tied to their credit as well [00:17:00] as the repayment option that they choose.

So in general most lenders operate that way these days. So it's important for families to know when you see a range of interest rates You know, don't just look at that lowest, uh, lowest rate because it usually is a range. So I'll, I'll talk more about that in a second because we don't want them just focusing on that lowest advertised teaser rate.

The repayment term has a direct impact on the cost of the loan as well. So we want families to understand that if they defer a loan, that's great. They can do that if that's going to work best for their family, but it's going to cost them a little bit more. It's going to cost them a little bit more in a higher interest rate.

Slightly higher interest rate, as well as the fact that they're not making payments of principal and interest while the students in school, that's going to drive up the cost of their loan. So they really want to look at their affordable monthly payment, see if they can swing a year or two on an immediate repayment loan or interest only to make some payments on that loan.

And then maybe later on, um, when the student's a [00:18:00] junior or senior, maybe if, Money's a little tight, then go with a deferred option. But, you know, we do try to guide them through all of this online as well as when they call or email us. But we, it is important to know that most lenders have multiple repayment options, um, but pushing out those payments, while it might be convenient, it is going to cost them a little bit more.

In some cases, a lot more. Also, one of the biggest questions I get when I'm talking to families, or I guess one of the most common comments is from parents, particularly. Well, it's I'm just co signing loan. It's not my loan. It's the student's loan. And I always have to remind them that anybody who signs a loan agreement for any type of loan.

is equally responsible for that loan. So we really look at the COBAR as the primary borrower on the loan. Uh, but the student is always a student borrower on the loan. So they have access to the loan information. They can help, you know, maybe their parents took out the loan and they're helping them make payments on the app.

In [00:19:00] addition to the minimum payments, whatever the case may be, COBARs have equal responsibility. And for the MEFA loan, for the undergraduate loan, 99. 9 percent of making up that number, a very high percentage have a co borrower because most undergraduate students don't have established credit or don't have, you know, a full time income.

Um, they might, you know, Not be ready to take on payments. So we feel like they have their federal student loans. Um, and then students, you know, they, they usually will need a cosigner. So it's good for them to just start with that up front. Uh, in addition, sometimes families, maybe they've had credit issues.

Uh, so we know that the plus loan is easier to get the most, uh, alternative or even state based loans. Um, but it's not always the most feasible cost wise, you know, the plus loan is more expensive than MEFA loans, for example. So sometimes adding grandma or grandpa that has an 800 credit score, [00:20:00] uh, can help not only increase their chances of approval, if maybe the parents have had some credit issues, but it also will lower the interest rate.

So at MEFA, what we do when we're looking at the approval to instant credit decision, is we look at the borrower on the loan, and sometimes it could be the student, But who has the highest credit score? And we'll use that credit score to determine the interest rate. So they always know we're taking the highest credit score to get them the lowest rate.

So that's always, always good. It makes the process a lot easier. And some loans do have COBAR release options. So we do have a deferred loan with a 48 on time payment COBAR release option, but that's four years into repayment that the parent or the COBAR would have to wait. So I really, and that rate is a little bit higher.

So I always am trying to You know, talk to families about looking at the lower interest rates, even if they do defer, that might not have that COBAR release option because the student, if they want to take over the loan, or if they're able to, they can always [00:21:00] apply for refinancing loans somewhere down the line.

So that's also another option to get a COBAR off the loan. But those are just some of the things that families need to think about when it comes to the COBAR and what their responsibility is. Now, I love this, uh, chart here because it really shows you graphically. The range of interest rates and how important it is for families to look at the full range of the interest rates, not just that lowest advertised rate.

Also, are there any fees attached to the loan? Is it a fixed rate, a variable rate? They need to know all that before they even apply. Now, usually when families apply for the loan, that's when they get their actual interest rate, but they can get a good estimate just by doing some research. So here you see MEFA with our, you know, rates for this upcoming year.

And we have PLUS, which is, you know, as we mentioned, a little bit higher than the MEFA's highest interest rate. Uh, but then you see a few private lenders here that have a very wide range of interest [00:22:00] rates, very wide margin. So their lowest offered rate is excellent if you have You know, maybe a credit score 850 credit score making up that number.

I don't know what their credit criteria is, but you do for most loans to get that lowest advertised rate. You need a very high credit score. So most families are really going to fall in the middle. Um, so even just by looking at this, I should be able to see quickly. Well, kind of where, where might I land and maybe I'll be a little bit higher or lower.

So here we can see. What the mid range point is this isn't the average interest rate. This is just the mid range point based on these, these, uh, tears. So with me for the mid range is 7. 35. Okay, plus does not have a tiered rate. So it's always going to be 9. 08. So still, you know, much higher than the meat alone.

But then if we look at the private loans that have You know, a little bit higher range. You're not looking at a 4 percent rate. You're really looking at maybe [00:23:00] double digits or almost 10 percent interest rates when you start looking at that middle of the range here. So just by looking at it in this way, families can get a better sense of the true cost of that loan and what they're looking at, um, versus just the lowest advertise rate.

And we also encourage families to look at the disclosure statements, all that fine print, um, yeah. There's a lot of good stuff in these disclosure statements. So every lender is required to provide this disclosure statement application solicitation disclosure on their website before the family even applies.

Once they apply, they'll get a new disclosure statement with their actual rate and payments based on the repayment option they choose. A few things for people to think about colleges and families. Is that easy to find? Um, here I'll just show you the MEFA. Disclosure. It's right on our loan page. It's also on the College Administrator page so you can easily find it right here.

Click and there's our [00:24:00] PDF. Now, every lender is required to show families and borrowers the range of interest rates for fixed and variable rates. As well as the 10, 000 example at the highest rate for each repayment option. What is that total cost going to be? What is the, um, interest rate going to be so that they know kind of the worst case scenario by law?

We're required to show them the, um, the federal. Information as well as, um, and this you can see it shows the federal rate because the plus one hasn't doesn't change till July 1st. So that will go up to 9. 08 as well as the undergraduate loans. And if there's any other details rates. fees, things like that.

So here's an example of a, the MEFA disclosure, just zeroing in on this little section here that shows the total cost of each repayment option at the highest interest rate that a family or a borrower might receive. And then we have Lender B, [00:25:00] which also has multiple repayment options, but you can see at their highest rate at over 16 percent, that total cost is going to go way up.

So if we look at an immediate repayment, 10 year loan with MEFA, a 10, 000 loan if they make minimum payments for the full term of that loan, it's a little over 15, 000. With Lender B for a 10, 000 loan, it's a little over 27, 000. Big jump in numbers just by choosing a different lender. And again, these are at the highest rate, so this is worst case scenario, but then if we look at the deferred payment, because that's what a lot of families love, that deferred repayment option with MEFA, if you make minimum payments, it's a little over 21, 200.

with lender B, again, a 10, 000 loan is going to cost them over 47, 000. That's an astronomical amount of interest. Again, I'm talking worst case scenarios, but even if you cut [00:26:00] those amounts in half, that's still a lot of money to be paying an interest just by choosing Maybe a popular lender that they've heard of versus, you know, a lower cost, um, loan.

So it's just something for families to think about. We know that colleges aren't going to be recommending, can't recommend lenders, but it is these types of tips and guidance are good for families to understand and to be looking at when they're researching their loans. So just digging into a little bit more into the disclosure statements.

I love my disclosure statements because they have so much good information here. And the nice thing is that every lender is required to provide that. So these are other lender disclosures. These are not MEFA and I don't even think these are both the same lender. Um, but if you look at a fixed rate, it's going to show you all the fees, what the rate range is, that total costs for that 10, 000 example.

You can see that total cost there. And then if we look at a variable rate, which has a couple other things I might want [00:27:00] to look at, of course, the range of interest rates, but also any fees that are attached with this one. There's a late payment fee, NIFA has no fees, no late payment fees, no origination fees.

And then if it's a variable interest loan, you want to know what is the, uh, What is the loan tied to? So how is that rate determined? So these are things that, just general guidance that families should be looking at. As well as that cap on the variable interest rate. They want to know, you know, how high can that go?

So that affordable monthly payment option is key. to how MEFA guides families to try and get them to maximize what they can out of pocket to maybe, you know, borrow a little bit less. So our monthly payment calculator, our loan payment calculator can be really helpful just to run numbers. And I use this all the time.

Um, so if I have a family who, let's say they owe 20, [00:28:00] 000, I'll just do a quick demo here. And it's a freshman. So we're going to put in four years before graduation, and I have very good credit. So I'm just going to put myself in the middle. So we'll look at our mid range rates as we're talking about those and hit calculate.

And that gives you an estimate of what the monthly payments will be in school. And after the student graduates for each repayment option for 20, 000, as well as that third row, which I like to zero in on when talking to families, maybe scare them into borrowing a little less. That's what that total cost of the loan is going to be if they make minimum payments for the full term and of course the interest rates are key, critical thing for them to look at.

So I'll look at the amount they owe and then I might say, okay, well you have a little bit in savings. So let's take, you know, let's take 5, 000 off the loan bar 15 instead of 20 and recalculate. And then let's look at, oh, geez, look, your monthly payments have dropped that total cost of the loan has dropped [00:29:00] across the board.

So these are really, it's a good activity and good exercise for families to look at. And we count, we, uh, counsel families this way whenever we're speaking with them. And last but not least from my little section here before I turn over to Darina and Meg to talk about the actual loan processing, we get asked all the time.

How does MEFA compare to PLUS? So we have this little chart that we put in our comparing loan options webinar for families that really breaks it down. What are the interest rates? What is the APR? PLUS loan does not disclose in the APR. Is the student on the loan? Obviously, most of you know with PLUS, the answer is no.

Who's responsible for that loan? And can the cosigner, can, you know, the PLUS loan be transferred to the student? It cannot because they're not a borrower on the loan. A student can't consolidate their parent's, um, federal PLUS loan, for example. And what [00:30:00] is the credit standard? So with MEFA, you have to have a 670 credit score or above to get approved.

And we have multiple repayment options. Now with the PLUS loan, we have 10 and 15 years with MEFA, but with the PLUS loan, they're going to be started out on a standard 10 year repayment, immediate repayment while the student's in school, but parents can call the loan servicer to get those payments deferred if they want, you know, there's consolidation and repayment options that.

They can look into to extend repayment beyond those 10 years if that payment is not affordable. With both of these loans, students need to be enrolled at least half time. There is death and total disability loan forgiveness for the student on the MEFA loan, as well as for the parent and the student on the PLUS loan.

So that can, that is a question that we get from time to time. Now, although families do need to file the FAFSA for the PLUS loan, They do not have to file it for the MEFA loan, but we always encourage families. File that [00:31:00] FAFSA, regardless of how difficult it might have been this year, it's going to get better, hopefully, knock on wood.

Um, but definitely file it to make sure they're maximizing what they can get in federal, state, and institutional aid before borrowing. So I'll just stop real quick, see if we have any questions. I don't see any in there. And I'm going to turn it over to Darina to talk about NIFA loan processing.

Darina Barreto: Thank you, Stephanie.

Um, so we're going to switch gears and get into the me for loan processing section. I'm going to start off talking about how you can certify me for loans and how the disbursements are sent to your school. So to certify me for loans, you do have the option to certify via Elm, and we will disperse to Elm as well via Elm and DN.

And we just want to do a quick reminder for our Elm schools, as it is a majority of our schools [00:32:00] that use Elm that for our me for undergrad loan as Stephanie mentioned, it is. Mostly like we consider a family loan because the student will need a co borrower on the loan with them. So it should be a process as a parent or sponsor loan with both the student and the co borrower's information.

And I just want to highlight that we do have an FAQ page for our ELMS schools. There's a lot of great resources on there with the common questions that we get throughout the year. Um, so it is a great reference page. Our second option for certifying MEFA loan is to our MEFA online certification system.

Um, and Sean did a little demo in the beginning. Um, so to get access, you would just need to visit MEFA. org slash certify. And as Sean showed earlier, you just want to click on add new school or users. And once we receive that request, we will [00:33:00] authorize that person access to our online certification system.

And so in terms of payment for the schools that use our online certification system, we have two options. Uh, the first being the EFT disbursement, um, which we would highly recommend. Um, if you're not already set up for EFT, please, uh, consider getting certified. I mean, not certified, getting set up. Um, and to do that, you would just need to complete a wire transfer authorization form, which, um, was, uh, demonstrated earlier.

And again, once we receive that, we will set up, um, the wire EFT for your school. The second, uh, payment option, which is the default payment option, if you don't get set up for wire EFT, which is a paper check, uh, that will be sent directly to the school. We also have a, uh, FAQ page for schools that use our online certification system.

Again, [00:34:00] highly recommend checking that out. And if you notice, uh, there's a question that you would like to be on there for you to be able to reference later on in the year, just email us at MEFA certify at MEFA. org and we would be happy to add that to the page. Um, and before we move on, I do want to, um, I just want to acknowledge that we do have some schools that currently utilize our online certification system that uses calling it and I just want to state that.

Unfortunately, at this moment, we don't work with calling it for loan certification and disbursement. But it is something that we continue to advocate for the future and as soon as we have some updates in regards to that we will definitely share it with you all.

All right. So now that you know how to certify and how to expect payments from MEFA, I just want to get into what you will need to certify [00:35:00] when you are completing the certification for the student. So when certifying, whether that's on Elm or on a MEFA's online certification platform, you are certifying and ensuring that the student is.

In bold, at least have time and an accredited degree granting program and that they're making satisfactory academic progress as defined by your institution and that the amount certified is equal to or less than the cost of attendance. Um, and that is less. Less other financial aid received for the academic period that the loan is being certified for and before we move on to the second part of our eligibility requirements, I do want to address some common questions that we get.

And the first one is our international students eligible for me for loans. And the answer to that is no. All bars for me for loans need to be US citizens or permanent [00:36:00] residents of United States. And the second question is, can certificate students be eligible for a MEFA loan? And unfortunately, we do not have a loan program for certificate students.

And the third question, uh, it's kind of a second parter, is what is our minimum requirement? And that is That's 50 minimum loan amount requirement, and that's 1500. And we get asked as a second part to that is, can we certify for less than that minimum amount? And the answer is yes, we can disperse up to 750.

And that is the most common questions we get usually for certification. And if we can just move on to the second part, Stephanie, next. And the two most common question that we get usually during this part of the year [00:37:00] is what is our summer loan policy and Sean did touch base on this, but I would just go over it fairly quickly is if a student is currently enrolled at least half time during the academic year, they may borrow a loan for the summer term term.

If they are less than half time for the summer session, when you are completing the certification, you would just need to use their enrollment status for the academic year instead. And then in regards to our prior balance policy, a MEF alone can be used to cover a prior balance for the previous semester.

At the time of certification, the student needs to be enrolled, intending to enroll or have completed a degree. Thank you.

And then lastly, before I, uh, hand it over to Meg, I just want to go over a few of [00:38:00] our ELM processing guidelines, um, for things that we just saw. Well, like for all of our own schools, just to keep in mind when certifying me for loans, as I mentioned earlier, um, NIFA loans for our undergrad students should be processed as a parent or a sponsor loan.

Um, and when you are certifying, uh, A MEFA loan, the certified amount should not exceed the cost of attendance minus other financial aid received. And when you are reporting the value of other financial aid received, it should not include the MEFA loan. It should only be a federal aid or any scholarships that the student is receiving.

And then something new that we're seeing, and we just want to make, uh, the schools mindful of this, and it's a very small case, is where one student has multiple applications that they completed on the same day, and the certifications are sent to the school, and the schools also [00:39:00] process all the certifications at the same time.

We're seeing an era where the information causes a mismatch between the existing certifications. So we've worked with Elm and they've provided some recommendations that we just want to highlight today. So if you do see a case where a student has multiple certifications, we would just recommend the following.

Manually certify the loan on Elm 1 if you're able to do so. Certify the oldest request first, uh, and make sure that goes through before certifying the newest request. Or, um, certify using the lender communique ID from the initial request if you are able to do so. And lastly, um, if you do process it all at the same time, just check to make sure that it reflects correctly in ELM.

And if it doesn't, please get in contact with us so we can help make the [00:40:00] correction. And lastly, um, this is not something new. This is a common line, uh, error that I believe all schools are familiar with by now for ELM is that you cannot enter a value that is over a hundred thousand, um, whether that's the cost of attendance, other financial aid received or loan amount.

Um, so our work around is for the small amount of schools that find themselves in this situation is to use our MEFA portal, um, to certify those loans and the information will, uh, flow into ELM with no issues and we will still disperse the payment via ELM and DN.

And I will go ahead and pass it on to Meg for, uh, loan amount and changes.

Meg Villavicencio: Great. Thanks, Darina. So, um, we're going to talk a little bit about making, [00:41:00] um, changes, uh, to the loan amount. So before disbursement, decreases, um, can be made up until three days before the, um, disbursement goes out. We're going to talk a little more about the timing and when things get locked, um, on the next slide.

Um, in terms of increases, uh, you, you can request an increase up until the final disbursement. Then once after disbursement, a decrease in the loan amount would need to be handled by a school refund, um, and again, an increase, um, can be requested up to the original amount the borrower requested, um, up until the final disbursement.

Once the loan is fully disbursed, even if the borrower had requested a higher amount than was certified, um, the student would need to apply for a new loan if they need to make an increase. One other thing about the increases that we wanted to point out is that it's a manual process on our end, and we need to update the cost of attendance and estimated financial aid.

So, if you're trying to increase after the [00:42:00] initial certification, it's best to reach out to MEFA directly so that you can provide that information, and that's the fastest way to get it to go through. Thanks, Meg. One

Stephanie Wells: thing I wanted to mention that, We didn't put on the sides, but is that our minimum loan amount is 1500.

But we can process as low as 750. So if a family applies for 2, 000, and they're only eligible for, let's say, 1, 300, which is 200 below our minimum, you can certify it for that, but our system won't accommodate anything below 750. So, so just know, because I've had a few of those questions lately, too.

Meg Villavicencio: Great.

Thanks, Stephanie. So this is what I was referring to, um, in terms of, you know, we get the question a lot, when's the first available disbursement date? And it's a little bit of a different process, um, in Elm versus in the MEFA portal if you're getting internal MEFA disbursements. [00:43:00] So first here we will talk about loans that are certified in the portal, um, and disbursing internally, um, either by wire or check from MEFA.

So after the certification is completed, um, for this example we're looking at this chart, we'll say it's completed on a Monday, June 24th. Then that starts the borrowers, um, right to cancel period, which lasts three days. Um, and then for internal MEFA disbursements, um, there's a one day predisbursement lock for funding purposes.

And so that would happen on Friday. And since NEFA only disperses internal disbursements on Friday, the first available disbursement would be the following Friday. So in one thing to, um, to note about the lock period, if sometimes if you're looking to make a change, um, like say you're looking to reduce the loan, um, but it's already locked.

There are, um, situations where we're able to pull it off of the, um, off of the lock, and then we could reduce [00:44:00] it as long as you are okay with it going out like the following Friday. So if that comes up and you'd rather, you know, let the, get it corrected, um, and then go out later, you can certainly contact NIFA in that situation.

Stephanie Wells: Yeah, I would definitely recommend giving us a call in those situations because it's a matter of hours sometimes right Meg. Right, exactly. But we can do it, just call us. Right, let's talk about Elm.

Meg Villavicencio: Okay, so Elm, um, is, there's some things that are the same in terms of, you know, on this chart we have, uh, The original certification is completed on a Monday.

Then the same thing in regards to the borrower's right to cancel period, uh, that last three days. And then with Elm and Yen, because of the way the funding works, um, there's a two day lock. Um, so that would, that period has to go by and then would be the next available disbursement date. And of course, [00:45:00] with Elm and Yen, um, we disperse every day.

It would be based on your school's, um, you know, disperse, disbursement frequency. when the first disbursement would be.

Stephanie Wells: And this happens, um, frequently with Elm users. You might be able to go into Elm and make a change. Elm will allow you to reduce the loan, for example, but if it's in that lock stage, the change is not going to go through.

So it might seem like you made a change to the loan and that happens, that's where we usually get questions, um, because our portal won't allow you to make changes during those lock periods. So it can be a little, a little tricky. So just, if you need to reference this, Hang this slide on your on your table.

Um, and, uh, hopefully this will help reduce those.

Meg Villavicencio: That's a great point. And actually, Stephanie, one other point on that, um, similar to the portal, um, the NDN has this two day lock. Sometimes we're able to, depending on the situation, pull it on the first day of the lock. On the second day, it's already been funded [00:46:00] and like on its way.

But so again, um, you know, as Stephanie mentioned, yeah, you could make a change, but if it's something you really want to check on, the best thing to do if it's right up next to that. Lock period is contact us and we'll see if we can do something right away about it. Thanks. Stephanie

Okay, so refunds. Um, you know as we talked about um after the funds go out if there needs to if the loan amount needs To be decreased it would be handled by a school refund um Refunds can be sent the same way that disbursement goes out. So elm schools can send refunds through elm ndn um one thing NIFA processes refunds once a week on wednesdays We have had some situations where you know school might Um, enter a refund request on a Thursday and then maybe they don't think it's gone through because it doesn't get processed for a couple days and then they enter it twice, which causes a duplicate.

Um, so, you know, we, um, encourage you to check with MEFA if you're not sure if it's been received and just know that we process them once a week. And then, so for funds that are dispersed directly from MEFA, [00:47:00] whether by check or wire, um, you would send it back to MEFA directly. We have, uh, Electronic refund process, which Sean went over, or you can send a paper check to our office in Boston.

And again, all refunds, uh, processed on Wednesdays, and the interest will be reversed on the refunded amount.

Stephanie Wells: Thank you, Meg. That was great. And thank you, Darina. Just wrapping up here, we'll go over a few, just a couple more things. But if you have any questions, please type those in the Q& A. We haven't had one question. All webinars, so either we're doing a really good job or we're making making you more confused.

I think it's because it's pretty easy to understand. But, um, we have, we'll send you the slides. So you'll have all these links. But MEFA has a really great podcast connect with us on social media. Encourage your families. Um, you know, and now that you've registered [00:48:00] for a MEFA webinar, if this isn't your first one, you're in our loop.

So we'll, you'll find out about other programs that we have coming up, but we always like you to know everything we're doing at MEFA beyond the loans. We do one on one Zoom appointments with families where they can share their financial aid offers and we can help, help them create a strategy on how to pay that bill.

And the amount of FAFSA questions and webinars and one on one. Meetings we've had this year has been through the roof. So we've been really been able to make a dent in FAFSA completion here in Massachusetts. We're really proud of that. Um, so we do a lot of things beyond loans, which just want to let you all know about that and please connect with us.

Uh, if you're on social, any of these social channels and our numbers here, press one for college administrators and the best email to send everything to is MEFA certify at MEFA. org for loan processing, or you can always just give us a call, whichever is easiest for you. And with [00:49:00] that, we're going to open it up for Q and A.

And we have a question here. Sean's going to type in the answer, but I'll answer it again because we do get a lot of questions about it. It's about ScholarNet. So we were just at NASFA last week. I think we saw some of you on that at NASFA, saw some familiar names. And it is something we went live with Elm in 2020.

So we're somewhat new to working with an outside process, like an Elm or ScholarNet. And we just went. National 2019, so we're still fairly new using elm, but it's going great and 80 percent of our loans are through elm. However, with that said, we know we now that we're national and meeting people all over the country at conferences and scholar net reps are always emailing us.

They're coming up to our table as well, letting us know that. Their college, their colleges want me for to go through schooling and we as a college relations team do advocate for that each year. We're definitely not going to have it in place for loan [00:50:00] season this summer. Um, but it is something that, you know, that we look at each year in our, our senior administration has to, uh, you know, make a decision on that, but it's, uh, it's something that as soon as we're ready to do that and it's not off the table, um, we still advocate for that each year.

So we'll let you know if that changes. So, Meg, we have one here that I think this is a good one for you to answer. What is the credit expiration period for approved undergraduate loan applications?

Meg Villavicencio: Yeah, we do get that a lot. Um, so once the loan is approved, um, and the borrowers completed their paperwork, you know, so say now we're in June, we won't withdraw any applications until post peak.

So there's not a rush for you. I know some schools don't certify until later in July or August. Um, You know, once the borrower is all set and it's awaiting school certification, you're good, and then we'll do a clean up in, you know, late September, for loans that haven't been certified. I don't know if that

Stephanie Wells: helps.

Yeah, that answers the [00:51:00] question. Then for loans that have been certified, that credit is good until the loan fully disperses. Exactly. Yeah, because I've gotten that question to before. Okay, great. All right. I don't see any other questions coming in. So we will wrap up the webinar. We'll send you a link to the recording, as well as a copy of the slides.

And we're looking forward to hearing from you this summer. Have a great summer, everybody. And don't be shy about connecting with us. Give us a call and we hope to hear from you soon. Have a great day. Bye, everybody.