Taryn Anderson
Many students and parents have questions about financial aid. One Stop Student Services is Baylor’s resource for financial aid, billing and payment. Earlier this year, they moved to a new location in the Bill Daniel Student Center. In this Baylor Connections, Taryn Anderson, Senior Director for Enrollment Services, shares insights into financial aid, scholarships and more, and invites students and families to utilize One Stop services.
Transcript
DEREK SMITH:
Hello. And welcome to Baylor Connections, a conversation series with the people shaping our future. Each week we go in depth with Baylor leaders, professors, and we're discussing important topics in higher education, research and student life. I'm Derek Smith, and today we are at talking about financial aid, paying for college and more with Taryn Anderson. Taryn Anderson serves as senior director of Enrollment Services leading Baylor One Stop. One Stop Student Services is Baylor's resource for financial aid billing and payment. Early this year they moved to a new location in the Bill Daniel Student Center providing concierge like services for students to get their financial questions answered and more. I know a lot of people have questions about these. And Taryn Anderson, thanks so much for joining us on the program today to discuss this.
TARYN ANDERSON:
Thanks for having me. I'm excited to be here.
DEREK SMITH:
Well, good to visit with you. And it's a topic I know as we're in the summer and parents of anyone probably between the ages of at maybe 14 or younger and up into their 20s are thinking about these kinds of issues these days. So we're excited to get your insights on that. Let's just start off by asking about One Stop a little bit. If we were to sit in on some of the conversations you and anyone on your team regularly has with students given a week, what are some of the more common questions we might hear students or parents asking?
TARYN ANDERSON:
So it does depend on the type of student that comes in and the time of year, so it's really interesting because it changes throughout the year. Right now, we've had the pleasure of talking to a lot of incoming freshmen with orientation, and those conversations are typically an intro to the whole process and letting them know what is it going to look like, our relationship with them in terms of paying the bill for the next couple of years. And so it's a lot of dates, sometimes it's a little bit of paperwork still that they have to do and just helping prepare them so they're not surprised when they get that bill. For current students, they just got their financial aid packages and so for them it's if something changed, either their financial aid package or their circumstance, they're usually calling to let us know, now's the time that we can help talk about what their options are. Sometimes they're planning for the future. Those are our favorite conversations. If a student comes in early enough to say, "Hey, I'm thinking about studying abroad, I'm thinking about graduate school, I might be a part-time student, what does that look like for my financial aid?" We can help guide them on what their options are so they can make good financial decisions on the front end. And then we're also constantly helping students just get through the process throughout the year. So whether that's applying for loans, applying for financial aid, or applying for scholarships, we're usually the place that they end up. And then once bills go out in July, it flips a little bit and it's really more targeted to the individual things on the bills, like changing a meal plan or making sure you're in enough credits. And then there's a certain time of the year where we talk to a lot of students who are on hold or stuck somewhere in the process to get that over the hump because our main goal is enrollment and what we really want to do is get students into Baylor and all the way through Baylor. And there's a lot of touch points throughout a student's career where they might interact with One Stop to get through those little hurdles so they can get all the way to graduation.
DEREK SMITH:
We talk a lot about retention and there's student life, there's the academic support side, but this is part of that too, that we're talking about.
TARYN ANDERSON:
Yeah. And we work with Case a lot and work with the Advising team and the Registrar through the enrollment process because sometimes if a student is having trouble paying, it's affecting them in a lot of areas, or they may be so concerned about paying their bill that they don't have enough money for food and that can cause an issue too. And there's a lot of resources Baylor has that our staff has to know about so that we can get students to the right place because if they don't have books, they can't be successful in the classroom and that's a different financial requirement that the students have to think about and we can help with that, but there's a lot of other resources that we help students take advantage of on campus.
DEREK SMITH:
Visiting with Taryn Anderson from Baylor One Stop. And Taryn, you said you like talking to students who are trying to plan ahead, getting ahead of things. I'm sure, do you get your students coming in though with their hair on fire sometimes things at the last second?
TARYN ANDERSON:
Yeah. The hardest part of the semester is the very beginning. That first week when there's students that haven't yet registered because they're on hold, it's not always financial, sometimes there's other reasons, or students that want to come back to Baylor, which is great. We want to welcome them back. But when they show up and classes have already started for the semester and we have a day or two to scramble and try and get them in, that's really tough. But if the student works with us, we will tell them what their options are. The longer they wait, the more limited the options are, and sometimes at the last second, literally you have to apply for a loan and get approved in the next 24 hours or else it can't happen and then they have to wait a whole semester. So definitely if they start early, we are not limited on just a loan being their only option.
DEREK SMITH:
Talking to Taryn Anderson. And Taryn, I gave a very brief description of One Stop at the top of the program. Could you unpack it a little bit more for us? If someone asked you, "Well, what is One Stop, how would you describe it?
TARYN ANDERSON:
So we deal with anything financial that impacts the student's ability to come to Baylor and graduate from Baylor. So that starts with applying for aid and we normally work with students early on when they are prospective students and thinking about Baylor, applying for financial aid through the FAFSA or the CSS profile. And then we really start engaging with students when they get their financial aid package because most students are not savvy on financial aid. They don't know what that financial aid package actually says. And so they want to be able to understand their aid so they can decide if they can come. And then once they come to Baylor and they get that first bill, that's usually our next touch point with them. And so we consider ourselves partners with the students and often with their family in getting them through each of those billing cycles and each of the financial aid cycles. And what our main goal is, is to translate all these complicated financial aid processes and terms so that the families understand them, and hopefully it's not a confusing process for them. Hopefully, they're making good financial decisions and they feel good when they start this semester that the bill is covered and they don't have to worry about that part. That's our goal. We want them to be able to pay their bill and then be able to be in the classroom and really enjoy being at Baylor for the rest of the semester.
DEREK SMITH:
So you talk to current and prospective students, and parents and family members as well. It's for everyone to call or contact.
TARYN ANDERSON:
Correct. And graduate students, we work with the Law students, the Nursing students in Dallas, the Seminary students, our online population, which is a growing population. And we do work with alums also as some of them are paying their loans back and sometimes we will work with them on that process as well.
DEREK SMITH:
Talking Baylor One Stop with Taryn Anderson. And Taryn, how has One Stop grown? I know you had the move within the last year, so take us inside how it's grown and how distinct is the One Stop approach?
TARYN ANDERSON:
So I came to Baylor in July of 2021, about two years ago, to launch the One Stop, so we did not have that concept prior. There are other schools that have a One Stop. The idea has been around for a while, and we thought it would be a good addition to the model that we have in Enrollment Management where admissions, financial aid and student accounts are all housed in the same department, but they had different frontline teams. And so the thought was that we could bring one frontline team together and cross train them to really focus on the customer service side and working with students that, that would be a good way to serve our students and let the backend teams really focus in on getting the aid correct and getting the bills accurate, getting everything out on time, and we would work in partnership. And so the model exists at schools. In fact, UT just launched one in 2020 and A&M launched theirs in 2021. And so we went and visited their One Stops as part of our understanding of what our model would be and looking at how a One Stop works at Baylor, which obviously is going to be different than how it works at other schools. So the idea is not new, but it was a new setup for Baylor. And in October of 21 we brought on a few team members from Financial Aid and Student Accounts that came onto the One Stop team. And then we've grown and as of this week we have a team of 15-
DEREK SMITH:
Wow.
TARYN ANDERSON:
... in two years, that focus solely on answering phone calls, emails, web chats, in-person interactions with students. We do presentations, we handle all the mail and payments that come in as well so that there's one place students go for all of that. It makes it a lot easier for the student to know at least where the starting point is in all of those conversations.
DEREK SMITH:
Well, I'm guessing by the fact that you've gone from zero to 15 staff members in two years, the answer is a lot, but how much demand is there for the help that you provide?
TARYN ANDERSON:
It's a lot, and we didn't even know how much it was going to be. We've added some services as we've expanded One Stop once we thought about what works for Baylor in terms of different things that we can offer. This summer we're going to be adding i9s for student workers for instance, and so making sure we have enough staff to be able to add services that make sense. When we started One Stop it was at the tower. That's really unfortunate because the tower serves great for an administrative site for Baylor, but it's a terrible location for students to get to and get things done. And so moving to the Sub this January was a huge move for us, but it increased our traffic, it increased our presence and students knew about One Stop, and we started really marketing in the fall what One Stop is and introducing the concept to our prospective students. So this incoming fall 23 class is the first class that was... They were told when they got their financial aid package to talk to One Stop, and we've started that relationship with them at orientation. We're in orientation meeting with those families. We were a stop on the scavenger hunt. So we do expect that we will have a really strong relationship with this particular class as we continue to build it with the current students as well. And so that increased our demand. Plus being on campus means we average at least 20 students a day that come by in person. And an in-person meeting can sometimes take a little bit longer than a phone call or an email, but we still also do a lot of email and phone call traffic, especially for our parents who aren't always in Waco, but we want to keep our hold times low both for in-person and on the phone. It doesn't do any good for a family to call and have to be on hold for an hour or an hour and a half. That's way too much of their day for sometimes what's a simple question about, "What document do I need to send?" And then also on the email response time. If that gets up to two or three days, which sometimes it does during our peak, peak season, but we're really hoping with this expanded staff that we just filled out with two brand new Baylor graduates a couple of weeks ago, that we'll be able to keep that turnaround time and hold times a lot lower throughout this summer, and hopefully it'll be a better experience for families if they do have questions and have concerns. So that's where the need was is the families were experiencing getting transferred between multiple departments prior to One Stop. They didn't know who they needed to talk to, and then also sometimes that delayed response time.
DEREK SMITH:
Yeah. Well, that makes sense. That's a great point. With the One Stop approach, I think we all know that feeling of calling for a technical support or an order issue and getting moved around, so that's nice for families for sure. Or the students in person, obviously it's in the Sub. Where in the Sub are you located?
TARYN ANDERSON:
We're on the third floor of the Sub, and there wasn't much up there before. We totally redid the space. So we have new floors, new lining, new paint, and then we outfitted an office and some really amazing private meeting rooms, so when students come up they're able to step into a room. We have a big monitor, we can project their financial aid up in these private rooms, and their family can be there as well or we can call their family if we need to. And that has been a game changer to be able to really show the student, "Where you apply for a scholarship or what you need to do, where you would find your financial aid." And so if they come up to the third floor of the Sub, we have a student worker in the lobby of the Sub right there at a table to greet them, and we get them signed in and then we can take them into one of those rooms. So we're really easy to find because we're literally waiting at the top of the stairs for you to come on up.
DEREK SMITH:
That's good. This is maybe a broad question because probably everything's a little bit different. I mean, I assure you get a lot of people who come and are just, "Help. I don't know what to do." But then you also find people who could come in, students parents with some specific questions, are there any ways this, I know this is broad, but that people can prepare, that's helpful to you and your staff to provide the best services if someone calls or emails or what have you?
TARYN ANDERSON:
So one of the things we did as we were launching One Stop this last year was we completely redid our website as well. So when you go to look for financial aid or student accounts or your billing on the website, it is also now branded One Stop. And that was really helpful because it mimics the service we offer on campus in person when you call. And the website has a really good setup up for self-service so that families can find information. And we tried to take the kinds of questions we got in person and mimic on the website what you might ask to get to that place like, what search topics would you use, what's the terminology that families understand that they're looking for instead of using financial aid jargon that not everyone understands? It's like, "Okay, if I'm looking for a loan, I'm searching the term loan and then all the information streams from there." So I think checking the website is a really good place to start because you might find the document or the policy that you're looking for, but at the bottom of every page it literally says, "Contact One Stop," if you have a question beyond that, we're definitely still willing to help. But the website is a great place to start, and if you haven't been on the website in a while, check it out. In March of 2023 is when we relaunched and we're still adding enhancements and adding additional resources for families.
DEREK SMITH:
I know if you Google Baylor One Stop, you can find it very easily.
TARYN ANDERSON:
Yes.
DEREK SMITH:
It's the first thing that pops up.
TARYN ANDERSON:
Yes.
DEREK SMITH:
This is Baylor Connections, we are visiting with Taryn Anderson, senior director of Enrollment Services at Baylor. She leads Baylor One Stop that we are discussing today. And I want to shift gears just a little bit and just talk about financial aid in general a bit because this is a topic that's certainly very relevant for parents of a high school or college students, and really it's becoming a common topic in the media. Where can families go to begin wrapping their arms around this topic? I think the website, you mentioned it, is one of them, but I'm sure you get parents who want to educate themselves, students who want to, how do you advise them to do that?
TARYN ANDERSON:
It is funny when families come in as a sophomore, a junior. In the past, they really wouldn't come over to financial aid. Again, because we were in the tower, if you're coming for a visit, we're not sending you over there. It's not the Baylor that we're typically showing off to families, but now that One Stops on campus, we have a lot more students early in their journey that stop by. So last week a family was visiting, I think they were from Ohio and they came in and they literally sat down and were like, "Tell us everything. That's our starting point. We know nothing about financial aid and we know this is going to be important next year." And it's a blank slate, but there are things that we always say, "Man, I really wish families knew that. I really wish they knew when to apply." And the deadlines are so important in financial aid. It is first come, first serve, there is money that runs out. A lot of it is allocated or it's too late in the game to get the paperwork done if you don't do it in time. And if you're a prospective student trying to decide which college you want to go to, you want to have those financial aid packages from all the schools you're looking at on the table at the time you make your decision. And sometimes families get to the point where they have to make a decision with incomplete information and that doesn't set them up for success in either choosing the right college or making a good financial decision. And so for families that start early and know what the deadlines are, I think that's a really good thing that juniors can do now, is go into the school's website, go to the Baylor One Stop website, and we have a timeline there for incoming students like, "Here's the things you need to be thinking about in July, August, September, October." Touching base with the admissions office is always a good starting point in building a relationship with them. They take care of the students on the Admissions Application side and then they transition them to us when they get to that financial aid piece. And then for the families to have conversations about who's paying for college and what is the expectation, that really helps them ask good questions when they do get to talk to someone like a One Stop. If the family is unwilling to borrow and the parents are not willing to pay for college, that's a very different starting point for making a decision of where to attend and maybe even where to apply versus a family that's coming to the table with a bunch of resources and maybe isn't concerned about need-based aid, but really wants to make sure that they are on the right scholarship track. And so we can guide them on what that looks like, but in both of those cases, it still comes down to the deadlines being the most important thing because if you don't meet the deadline, you can't be considered for those top scholarships and the financial aid might run out by the time you realize that you need it.
DEREK SMITH:
Visiting with Taryn Anderson from Baylor One Stop. The FAFSA, when should people or students apply for that and why?
TARYN ANDERSON:
Well, that is a complicated question for this year. Normally, the FAFSA opens on October 1st every year. And so prospective students, current students alike would fill out the FAFSA on October 1st. But the FAFSA is doing a complete overhaul and it's going to be a brand new application and a simplified experience for families. So this year the FAFSA is not opening until December of 2023, so it's just for this year. We'll go back to October 1st. So we've been talking a lot with our Financial Aid and Admissions office about how do we let students know that the timeline is different for this year and we'll be sending out a lot of information to prospective and current students to let them know, "Fill out the FAFSA in December." And so we can still meet the deadline, February 1st is still our priority financial aid deadline, and students will still have time to do that and the FAFSA will be an easier process. It is simplified. There will be less questions for a lot of students, so it shouldn't be as complicated to fill out. In fact, they have enhanced the connection between the Federal Financial Aid application, which is the FAFSA and the IRS data retrieval, so that some of that information's going to be pre-filled. Like if you confirm I'm Derek from Waco, they can go find your IRS information and it's two government entities and connect that, and that'll make it easier for you to fill out the FAFSA and less likely for you to put that information in the FAFSA. It's shocking sometimes the number of students that fat finger a number into a financial aid application and then they come back later and they're like, "I don't understand why I'm not eligible for aid." We're like, "Well, you make a million dollars a year." And they're like, "No, that's only a hundred thousand dollars." Well, that extra zero or extra couple zeros can negate any financial aid a student is eligible for. So by using information that's already been audited and verified on the IRS side, it makes the FAFSA easier to fill out and make sure that more of the information is accurate and it's less documentation that Baylor has to collect on the backend because right now we spend a ton of time asking families to send us supplemental documentation because of incorrect information or questionable information on the FAFSA, and it'll get rid of some of that process and make it smoother for them and for Baylor.
DEREK SMITH:
Visiting with Taryn Anderson. So there's the FAFSA, that's one step and obviously figuring out, as you talked about, how are we paying for this? And there's a variety of ways, scholarships, borrowing, and you find a lot of different opinions from people. Take us through the insights on borrowing right now for families who need to take those next steps.
TARYN ANDERSON:
So the hard thing about borrowing loans is that there's always interest that accrues and there's different opportunities on loans. Right now, interest rates are high and so I think families are even more sensitive to borrowing than they have been in the past because interest rates on everything are going up just like the housing market is suffering because of that. The other thing is loans are in the news right now because of the Supreme Court decision related to the federal debt and what are we going to do with federal debt in the future, and what are we going to do with debt that students or alumni currently have. And so families are really sensitive about loans, but a lot of Baylor families that is part of their experience. And it's okay to borrow, that may be what allows you to have a Baylor education or a college education in general, but we want to put students in a good position where they're not over borrowing. They're not borrowing to the point of achieving a Baylor degree and not being able to pay off their loans. Most of our Baylor alums are in a position to pay those loans off, and it does depend on what major you're going into. There may be a little bit of a bigger threshold if you're going to be a lawyer versus an elementary school teacher, and that's something that we can talk to families about, "What is smart borrowing, considering what you want to do with your Baylor education?" Is the parent borrowing? Is the student the one borrowing who's paying it back? And there are some good resources on our website and we can have that conversation in person. The thing that makes the biggest difference for students that over borrow is some families see the remaining gap of what they need to cover and they just go out and apply for a loan because they wait too long and they don't have that conversation early and it's their last resort. We talked about the students that show up on the last day, that's their only option. If we have that conversation early enough in the year or in the student's career, there are opportunities to apply for scholarships, or there may be an opportunity to get a job. A student with summer employment, for instance, that can make three to $5,000, that's three to $5,000 you have going into the next year and you may have already accepted a loan, and we are happy to have you come by and cancel that loan because you have the cash and that could save you thousands of dollars in the long run of paying that loan off over 20 years. Same with applying for scholarships, we have this amazing tool that Baylor launched last year that all students, once they're admitted to Baylor, have access to, including graduate students. It's called Scholarship Universe. It matches students with scholarships. They set up a profile and Baylor loads outside scholarships throughout the year into it. And it sends students notifications so they can keep track of scholarships they're interested in applying to, ones that they've received. We're working on incorporating Baylor Scholarships into it as well. So pretty soon it's going to be one place students can go to find all of the scholarships that they could be eligible for as a Baylor student. And if a student gets an outside scholarship that is filling in a gap that now they don't have to borrow for, but scholarships are something that have to be done early. If you're already in your senior year and you're like, "Man, I would really rather have a scholarship than a loan," wouldn't we all, it's too late often for those deadlines and to be able to get a scholarship or maybe even a grant, it's too late to apply if we're already into the senior year. Now, we can have a conversation about applying to that for grad school, but for your senior year, you're asking just a little bit late. And so asking that year ahead of time or getting into scholarship university now, I mean, every student at the university has access and we still only have a couple of thousand that have logged in and taken advantage of Scholarship Universe. So we're really hopeful that students will continue as we introduce it to them to get into scholarship Universe and that Baylor students, they show so well, they're amazing, they're doing great things on campus, and if they can write that down and find a way to explain it in an essay or a short answer, or on a resume, or in a recommendation letter, then they can earn scholarships and not have to borrow.
DEREK SMITH:
Well, that's great. A lot of opportunities out there, but like you said, get involved and jump in on those early. Well, Taryn, we're headed into the final moments of the program. We covered a lot of ground. What are some ways, I know probably the easiest way is just to Google Baylor One Stop and start looking through the website, but if families have heard something they're interested in, what are the easiest ways to get ahold of you and your team?
TARYN ANDERSON:
So our offices are open 9:00 to 4:00. So if you are on campus in the Waco area, come stop by the Sub. You can grab your Chick-fil-A or your common grounds and come on up to our space. If you're visiting the campus in an official visit, they'll let you know One Stop also does the financial aid presentation, that's part of the visit for prospective students. So you can find us over right now in Wiethorn and pretty soon in Hurd, presenting on financial aid and establishing some of those key terms that students need to know that'll help them as we have conversations. But calling us is a really easy way to get ahold of us. We do have live chat available throughout the year as well, and it doesn't matter who you contact, everyone on One Stop is cross-trained and we work everything as a team, so we are able to be available and be open to families, and you don't have to know exactly who you need to talk to. It's just contacting One Stop. And we are rounded at orientation as well for families that are visiting Baylor this summer. In preparation for starting this fall, we will be in foster meeting with families and doing one-on-one appointments, but we really would love people to come up and see us in person if they are in Waco because we do think that that in-person experience is the best opportunity for us to really show you everything and go through everything and answer your questions, and so that your student knows where One Stop is. So when they're on campus and you're not here and when the parent leaves, the student still knows that they can always swing by and get to meet some of the friendly faces at One Stop.
DEREK SMITH:
Absolutely. Check it out, Baylor One Stop. Well, Taryn, thanks so much for taking the time to join us today to share more about this, and for the solutions that you and your team offer to students and families.
TARYN ANDERSON:
Thank you so much.
DEREK SMITH:
Thank you so much. Taryn Anderson, senior director of Enrollment Services leading Baylor One Stop, our guest today on Baylor Connections. I'm Derek Smith. A reminder, you can hear this and other programs online, baylor.edu/connections and you can subscribe to the program on iTunes. Thanks for joining us here on Baylor Connections.