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Mapping Your Future
Preparing for Online Student Loan Counseling Version 3.0
Mapping Your
Future (MYF) is preparing to release Online Student Loan
Counseling (OSLC) version 3.0, which will offer enhanced
customized features for schools, new counseling types,
enhanced notification options, and changes to the
student form. The new version is available for testing
now, with a release in early May.
Schools
can meet federal loan counseling requirements and help
students understand education loan obligations with the
convenience of OSLC. In addition to enabling schools and
students to meet federal loan counseling requirements
conveniently, OSLC also enhances the loan management
education of the student by actively involving them in
the counseling - making OSLC an important default
prevention tool. It also enables schools to have an
opportunity to spend more time with those students
needing assistance in the loan process.
Online
Student Loan Counseling is a free service provided by
the guaranty agencies from around the country that
sponsor Mapping Your Future. Mapping Your Future is a
national, public service web site providing college,
career, financial aid, and financial literacy
information and services to schools, students, and
families.
Below is
a more information about some of the features MYF plans
to offer in the new release of OSLC:
Enhanced customization features, increasing
effectiveness of OSLC as default prevention tool
- Questions
customization: Schools will be able to select the
questions that students will answer during the
counseling session from a list. Schools can choose
to continue displaying the MYF-selected default
questions. If a school wants to use a specific
question not on the list, they will be able to
submit the question to MYF for inclusion on the list
and then select that question for their students to
answer.
- Student
form customization: The school will be able to
customize the student form, either requiring
students to complete only those fields that
regulations require, or requiring them to complete
all fields.
New
counseling types, including financial literacy
information
- Expanded
financial literacy content: Schools will be able to
choose standard or expanded counseling for each of
the counseling types in which they participate.
Standard counseling is the current version, which
includes six topics of text with related questions.
Expanded counseling will include a seventh topic of
financial literacy and money management tips,
including building good credit, budgeting, savings,
credit card use, and credit reports.
- Combined
Stafford and Perkins entrance counseling: Mapping
Your Future will offer a combined Stafford and
Perkins entrance counseling session, allowing
students to complete Stafford and Perkins entrance
counseling in one session and with only one student
form. Schools that wish to offer this counseling
type to students will be able to participate in this
new counseling in addition to, or instead of,
the separate Stafford entrance and Perkins entrance
counseling sessions.
New
fields, increased edits and validation on student form:
MYF will add new fields to the student form, as well as
using edits and validations so students are more likely
to enter valid data. Since schools share exit data with
guarantors for possible skip tracing activities, correct
data is important.
To sign
up for OSLC, complete the form at
https://mapping-your-future.org/fao/signup/.
If you have questions about the next version of OSLC or
wish to help MYF test the features, please contact
CariAnne Behr at
carianne.behr@mapping-your-future.org
or (573) 634-8641
The
local contact in New Mexico is Rachel Sutton, New Mexico
Student Loans at
suttonr@nmstudentloans.org or (800) 279-3070
extension 1374 and 761-2374 in the local Albuquerque
area.
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