Navigating FAFSA Deadlines Amidst Uncertainty

Amanda Craddock joins the FYI Podcast to discuss how her institution is finding enrollment success despite this year’s FAFSA Delays.

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Who is Amanda Craddock?

Samantha Hicks is an experienced enrollment management professional currently serving as the VP of Enrollment Management at Coastal Carolina University in South Carolina.

In this Episode

Amanda Craddock, Vice President for Enrollment Management at Coastal Carolina University, joins FYI host Gil Rogers to talk about the surprising outcomes of shifting college deposit deadlines and the FAFSA upheaval. Amanda’s insights promise a fresh understanding of the enrollment landscape that’s been reshaped by this disruption. From extending deposit deadlines to hosting FAFSA nights and personalizing financial aid communication, they delve into how Coastal Carolina is adapting to meet the needs of students and their families. 

Amanda and Gil discuss how this particular set of students have already undergone a significant set of challenges navigating through the COVID pandemic as well as these challenges now with enrollment. Tune in for an enlightening episode that speaks volumes about the power of adaptability and connection in the realm of higher education.

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Episode Transcript

Crafting Futures Amidst FAFSA Upheaval and Extended Deadlines with Amanda Craddock

Publishing Date: May 21, 2024

[00:00:00] Intro: Welcome back to FYI, the For Your Institution Podcast, presented by Mongoose. I’m your host, Gil Rogers. And today, I’m joined by the Vice President for Enrollment Management at Coastal Carolina University, Amanda Craddock. Amanda and I discuss all things May 1, yield, and the FAFSA fiasco. In the height of all of the challenges of this recruitment cycle, we hear from Amanda and how she’s been motivating her team, as well as tips for how to motivate yours. Let’s listen in.

Hey, Amanda, how’s it going?

[00:00:35] Amanda: Good, Gil. How are you today?

[00:00:36] Gil: I’m good. I think I might be better than you, given the current state of enrollment management, but we’ll see. For our listeners, you know, a little look behind the curtain. We’re recording this episode on May 2nd, so, day after May 1st, traditionally, the national candidate’s reply date for whatever that’s worth nowadays anyway. But obviously, there’s been some challenges this cycle. So, I’ll, kind of, ask again, I guess, how are things really going for you at Coastal Carolina?

[00:01:03] Amanda: Sure. So, you know, normally, on May 2nd, you take a little bit of a breath and it’s a time to celebrate, good or bad. And we made the decision back in April to push back our deposit date for first year students. So, it’s not until May 15th.

So, we’re still just waiting, hanging out, seeing what our numbers are going to look like. But right now, we’re holding steady. So, I think that that’s all we can ask down a little bit, but not too much. So, I guess the big test will be, was extending the right thing to do, and what are those numbers going to look like? So, it’s, kind of, just status quo. We’re still yielding students. We’re still sending out aid packages. We’re still communicating. So, May 1, kind of, came and went this year with a little bit of fanfare, but not as much as it would have been, you know, in the traditional, sort of, May 1 sense.

[00:01:51] Gil: Yeah, I got in some trouble a few years ago. I wrote an article for LinkedIn, titled The May 1st Myth was the name of it. And this was, you know, pre-COVID, pre-test optional, pre this, you know. So, I was, kind of, pushing the boundaries a little bit and saying to everyone, “May 1st, it’s more of a mile marker than a finish line in this marathon that is the higher ed recruitment cycle,” right?

And so, as you’ve been in this space for a little while, how do you feel like your team is doing? What are some of the things you’re doing differently now that we’ve, kind of, moved the goalpost a little bit when it comes to this cycle?

[00:02:25] Amanda: So, I think, you know, it’s, we have a pretty new young team in admissions. So, a lot of them, this has been their first cycle, so they don’t know any different. I don’t know if that’s good or bad that they don’t know. But I will say, Coastal has a lot of campus visitors. So, most of, you know, we entertained probably over 5,000 people between the middle of March to the end of April. So, they’re tired because of the visitors, the counselors are. But we’re not seeing as… I mean, we’re seeing small numbers right now. So, they’re actually getting to relax a little bit. Some of them were… they were encouraging vacations. We are encouraging time off before we pick up in June, July for orientation.

So, I think the counselors like having a little bit of breathing space right now. Now, financially, it’s a little different story. They are starting to feel it because we put aid packages out, people are calling, students are still having issues with their FAFSA we’re trying to work through. I want to say, overall, it’s good, but I think people are just still unsure, is, when can we really rest, when can we really relax? And can you really do that in enrollment anymore? Absolutely, you can. I think it depends on the institution you work for and whether May 1 is an important date for you all or not as an institution.

At Coastal, you know, it wasn’t as important a date 10, 15 years ago when we were more rolling and always admitting and having students come in. But now that we’ve changed a little bit, that’s more of a marker on what our class is going to look like.

[00:03:47] Gil: Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. And I think that, to your point, the mental health of your staff is important, and trying to find ways to give teams that opportunity to breathe is important. And I think, for many folks, that’s been a struggle for the last few cycles. For spirit of full disclosure for our listeners, Amanda and I have worked together over the years at different places, one of which was during the height of the pandemic, we were going crazy with virtual events and digital content, right? And now, we’ve got this experience with the FAFSA fiasco, as people are liking to call it, #FAFSAfiasco, and how that’s, you know, impacting cycle. So, I’ll ask you straight up, having been through both of these, what has the bigger impact, COVID or the FAFSA fiasco?

[00:04:33] Amanda: I would say right now the FAFSA. I would say the FAFSA fiasco, honestly. And I think there’s a few reasons for that. COVID, we didn’t know what was going to happen. It was uncontrollable in a lot of ways. You didn’t know if students were just going to stop out of the college experience, the uncertainty. And it was just, we just didn’t know. You went home in March and you thought you’d be back in a couple weeks. And it was a couple months. Students didn’t realize they wouldn’t have high school graduations. They wouldn’t be able to visit their colleges.

So, while it was very challenging, it was just uncertainty. This situation with the FAFSA, we know the power of the FAFSA. We know the power of financial aid. We know the importance of getting it out early. We know the importance of students understanding the cost. A lot of what has happened could have been prevented, in my opinion, if we maybe released a simplified form, but not updated the system that it lived on, so the schools could still get the data they needed.

And so, that’s been the frustrating thing. Now, granted, I know I’m not a policymaker, I’m not a part of education, but from where I sit, I feel that those that work in this profession know, man, it’s just critical we do these things and we’re stopped at every turning point because of a barrier that is just frustrating. So, that’s why I think this has been more challenging, because we know what we could have done better and differently. We’re in COVID, we were all just flying blind trying to figure things out.

[00:05:57] Gil: Yeah, and I think everyone is flying blind together because students were going through a global pandemic and institutions were navigating a global pandemic as well. Whereas, in this situation, I think students are looking for aid and support, and institutions are trying to aid and support them but enroll them and serve them through that process.

And so, there’s different dynamics at play that are impacting both sides. And unfortunately, in both situations, it’s outside influencers that are impacting whether it’s the COVID itself or whether it’s the Department of Education and its rollout in this process, right? And so, it’s a little bit tricky.

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[00:07:24] Gil: I will say, I think one of the things, and I’ve heard some folks say this, and I’d love your take on it, is, I feel like the FAFSA fiasco, we’re going to keep saying that the whole time, #FAFSAfiasco, I will see that on LinkedIn, as all the people are using it. It’s a fun thing to click and get into the weeds.

But in the short term, FAFSA is having a much more, kind of, direct impact. Whereas, I feel like COVID has, because of just the nature of everything outside of just the admissions process with isolation and with anxiety and separation that everybody had to have, it has a longer impact on learning and education in general. Is that something you would agree with?

[00:07:57] Amanda: I do. Yeah, I definitely agree with that. I think this FAFSA is going to work itself out. I’m optimistic that, next year on October 1, this new simplified form will launch. You know, it’s telling me maybe not, but I’m going to be a Pollyanna there. So, it’ll get worked out.

But you’re right, the longer-term impacts of COVID. I was in a discussion with some of my peers across the state on the mental health of our college students. That’s a concern in the student affairs world. That’s a concern on college campuses. But then, also, I think longer term, the learning loss, like you said, our students that have experienced this COVID in fifth, sixth grade, going to be ready to start college, what gaps do we have to make up? So, I think that’s going to hurt… not hurt, but impact K-12 and higher ed for still years to come.

And the FAFSA won’t, hopefully. Fingers crossed, it’ll work out. Students will get their aid, going forward. But we’re going to continue to deal with the impact of COVID on our students and even those that are becoming young adults. This COVID class is graduating. It’s hard to believe that, you know, the ones we were trying to work with virtually four years ago are getting ready to walk across their college stages right now.

[00:09:04] Gil: Yeah. I think that’s the key, right, or the key challenge with this cycle, specifically, that we can’t talk about enough, is that the students that were impacted by COVID immediately in their educational process in high school are the same students now that are coming through this application process with the delayed FAFSA issue, right?

And so, now you’ve got this, kind of, double whammy, and you feel for these families, where it’s like when they started high school, they were all remote education. They were all dealing with those challenges and dealing with social isolation, learning loss, etc. And now, when they’re trying to go to college, it’s, oh, by the way, this new process, which they’ve never experienced before, so they don’t know the old process. But now, the process is delayed. It’s glitchy. You can’t get your errors fixed until later. It’s a whole issue.

So, what are some of the ways that you’ve been… aside from delaying your deadlines, right, which is one method of supporting students. And I feel like a lot of institutions have been on that boat and should be on that boat, just to help with giving students the opportunity to make an informed decision. What are some other ways that you’re engaging with students, supporting students to help them be supported through this process?

[00:10:20] Amanda: I mean, we’ve done a lot of different things. So, I think it started early on with our financial aid team going to our local high schools in February and in March and doing FAFSA nights. So, we started with that. We have really ramped up communication to our admitted students and their family members.

And so, what we’ve done is we started communicating as early as February on we know it’s delayed. Well, first of all, I think I need to back up and say we had a website talking about the FAFSA delays in January. And so, we were able to prep them in advance, that this is some changes. We don’t know what’s going to happen. But we’ve prepped throughout the cycle, that as soon as we have the data, we’ll start packaging. But we just don’t know when we’re going to get it.

And so, we were doing texting, we were doing emails, we were doing the virtual nights with our assistant vice president of financial aid. We did sessions at all of our, sort of, yield events and in-campus things that were happening.

So, I feel like we’ve prepped as best we can. But I think we’ve, kind of, heard two things from our families, is, one, I think the loss of FAFSA filers is more in the uncertainty of the system. So, I feel like, now that this is in the news more and people are hearing it’s fixed, at least with schools getting the data and some of the issues with the FAFSA maybe starting to work out, I think more families are going to start working on it. And then with our students that already did it, we’re finding that, maybe, we did communication overload. They don’t seem to understand they have a financial aid package now. And so, we’re having to prep them a little bit on, no, let’s go into the portal. Let’s do this.

We’re getting ready to launch. We do personalized financial aid videos. So, those should launch next week. And I’m hopeful that that’s going to, sort of, be the closing-the-gap on watch the video, we do the math for you. It tells you, you know, kind of, what you owe, how to do payment plans. And that’s what families have missed. They want an accurate picture, and they want the math done for them. And we haven’t been in a position to do that until just recently.

[00:12:21] Gil: Yeah, I think that’s the point, is, like, giving families full information, but in a way that is easier to understand. I think that’s the best kind of summary that you could give, as far as the ways to support students through the process.

[00:12:34] Amanda: And then we support our own current students, too. So, you know, we’re trying to get them to do the FAFSA and go through this cycle. So, we’ve, sort of, been balancing both populations.

[00:12:43] Gil: Yeah. The last… to, kind of, round it out. I’d love for you to, you know, obviously, this podcast is going to drop after your deadline, right? So, we reserve the right to have you back on as a follow-up to see how everything lands, but if you could give advice to other people in the space who are, kind of… you know, we talked about this before we hit record. I’ll give the listeners the, kind of, foundational piece, right? There are some folks that are, “Oh, we’re fine. Everything’s great. We’ve got our numbers or we anticipate having our numbers.” Then, there’s people that are in your similar type of a situation, where there’s, “You know, we’re not freaking out quite yet because we know we moved the deadline, so we’re not comparing apples to apples.”

Carlos Cano, on a few weeks ago, and he had a similar sentiment to you, that, every cycle there’s something, whether it’s COVID or test optional or the U.S. Supreme Court ruling or this, right? Like, there’s always something to deal with. So, you’re a little more even keeled than some, right?

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[00:14:19] Gil: For the folks that are stressing out, right, what’s some advice, some tips you would give them to say, if I were in an institution that was freaking out, what are some steps I would look at immediately to say, okay, what can we do to right this ship from an expectations perspective?

[00:14:33] Amanda: I think it’s important, and if schools aren’t doing this, which I hope they are, but I think they have to look at, are they down in FAFSA filers? And also, where are they in their packaging, number one? Have you gotten your packages out? Because that’s critical. And if you haven’t, can you work paper packet? I would just say, try to figure something else. If you can’t… I press my financial aid team a little bit. They were… didn’t think they could do it. I’m like, “I know you guys can do it. I have confidence in you.”

So, I think, look at that, find out who hasn’t filed the FAFSA. And I think it’s important to reach out to those families. But also, I think there’s going to be some families that just aren’t going to do it, but they may have institutional money. Have you let them know about the institutional money? Have you had that conversation in light of not doing a FAFSA or for federal aid? What institutional money we’ve given you? How can we make this work to get you here?

And then, where are there opportunities, even within your current applicant pool? You always want to go back to your applicants, but you still might have incomplete files, pending files, students that never went through that, you know, never submitted a transcript. Try to get that transcript from them. Have a call campaign. Get the counselors on the phones. Call the high schools. Find out if those students have made a final decision on where they’re going.

Sort of those tactics we used to do, we didn’t fill our class, but I think they’re still out there for schools that still might be looking for students. And I also think we couldn’t, I hate to use this term, but poach students from other institutions. Not that we want to do that, but there’s still going to be movement over the summer, as students go through orientations, students may be committed to a school, not knowing the full cost, and then they may have some of that sticker shock. There may be ways that other institutions might become more attractive to them, or they might submit late apps. So, keep your app open. Don’t take it down if you still haven’t looked at your class, filled your class out, or you still have opportunities to get more students.

[00:16:17] Gil: Yeah, I have a bold prediction that a lot of these institutions that didn’t change their deadline, if they’re a regional, private school, tuition dependent type of an institution and they didn’t push their deadline back, they’re going to experience summer melt at a different level than they’ve ever had in the past, because people threw down the deposit because they wanted to secure their spot because it’s easier “to let go” of that $500 or $1,000 than it is to feel like you missed the spot, right?

And so, I think that that’s something that a lot of institutions are going to have to grapple with over the next coming weeks, as those students start to get packages from other schools, which is literally no different than any other recruitment cycle where students will reserve a spot and then they get a better offer and you experience summer melt.

And so, you have some just, like you said, “traditional tactics” that you do ensure that you’re filling your class. You just maybe have a more pronounced commitment to them. I will say, and this will be my last aside story, is, I remember back in the day I was working with a college in the Northeast and they were one of those institutions that, every year it happens, they accidentally sent the admit letter to their incomplete applicant pool because somebody in their mail house screwed up and clicked the wrong button. And it happens all the time, sadly. As good as CRMs are, apparently, that it’s just a thing that happens. And the provost there who oversaw enrollment made a really good point that the lemonade out of lemons scenario with that is it required the admissions staff to be more proactive and actually become admissions counselors again and not just recruiters or application processors, right?

And so, the lemonade out of lemons scenario with all of this is that, hopefully, what we’re returning to at many institutions is a commitment on counseling and supporting students through the process and not simply just getting aid packages out just to get aid packages out, but actually being responsive and being proactive with communication.

So, hopefully, that is something that helps for folks out in the space who are dealing with, obviously, I feel like every cycle we say unprecedented challenges. But these are unprecedented challenges. I’m waiting for the cycle where we have precedented challenges. That’ll be fun.

So, Amanda, I will kick it to you for final closing thoughts. And also, for folks who want to get in touch with you, they want to continue this conversation, what are some of the best ways to be able to do that?

[00:18:33] Amanda: So, I think, final thoughts, you know, check back on May 16th. See how we’re doing. See if we survived. But yeah, I mean, I think, as with anything that we have in the enrollment higher ed space, I read this article in the New York Times that we don’t even know what to expect because things have changed so much. We’re going to get through it. I tend to be an optimist, and I know that, as challenging as it is, at the end of the day, classes are going to be in August. You’re going to potentially have your class or not, but you’re going to figure out how to manage it. And so, this too shall end, this too shall pass, I really truly believe that.

So, I think that’s important, especially for those that are newer in this space that just don’t know, or they’re getting a lot of pressure from their administration, their VPs, their provost. I’m not here at Coastal, so that’s good, I appreciate that. So, I think that’s important to keep in mind, you know. We’re going to get through it.

And then, I would say people that, maybe, want to connect, LinkedIn. I’m very active on LinkedIn. So, always reach out to me there. But also, just find me through the Coastal Carolina website. I plan on attending NACAC this year, some other conferences, just to be able to, kind of, engage back in. I haven’t done much professional development, so that’s something I’m looking forward to. But I would encourage anybody to reach out to me through our website, through email, LinkedIn. I’m happy to chat. I don’t think I’m an expert but I feel like I got a pretty good grasp and can talk through or offer some advice to focus well.

[00:19:51] Gil: A smart person who’s good at making decisions. So, that’s a key skill that a lot of people need to have. So, awesome.

[00:19:59] Amanda: Sometimes, in this space, you just have to make decisions. So, yeah.

[00:20:03] Gil: That’s it. That’s it. You opened up my door to say I will be at NACAC as well, and I encourage anyone to stop by the Mongoose booth to be interviewed for on the trade show floor interviews on the state of higher ed and enrollment management. We’re going to have a really good time during those conversations. And I might have gifts for people that stop by. So, see you in LA, I guess. We both live on the East Coast and we have to fly to LA to connect and say hi. So, hey.

[00:20:28] Amanda: I don’t think we’ve actually ever met in person, so this will be…

[00:20:30] Gil: Hey, you know what? That’s crazy, but it’s true. And you know, a lot of the folks that I think many of us know in the higher ed space have met over the past four years or five years have not met in person. And hopefully, we start to remedy that as time goes by.

So, Amanda, thank you so much, again, for joining us today. Hopefully, this provides some good resources and some good insights for our listeners. And we thank you, again, listeners, for your time. And we will see you next time on FYI.

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