There is a Federal Regulation that students who have completed more than 150% of the credits required for their program or their program is less than 24 credits must go through a Maximum Timeframe(MTF) or Short Program appeal process before they can receive Financial Aid(FA). Due to limited SIS technology, that has been a manual process for the student, Advising, and Financial aid since EMCC became a college in 1992. Since the process requires information from the student, Advising, and FA it has been a long, complicated, manual, and complex process for both departments and the student. The purpose of this assessment was to identify a way to simplify/streamline this process for students as well as Advising and Financial Aid.
Students will be able to more easily complete the MTF process and receive FA.
Manual form completion and additional student meetings will be eliminated or reduced for Advising.
FA will have the information needed to process the MTF and disburse FA.
A few years ago automation was added to SIS that provided some data to facilitate a more automated process. By 2023/24 EMCC FA had enough information being provided in SIS to simplify the process.
The MTF and Short Program form were changed to simplify/streamline the process. With the new process the student is not required to meet with Advising and Advising is not required to manually complete the form. Students submit the MTF and Short Program form directly to FA. FA utilizes data now in SIS to process it. This has been successful in eliminating form completion/student appointments for Advising and simplifying the process for students. This has also been presented to all MCCCD FA Departments as a District-wide initiative/change. EMCC has received multiple requests from other MCCCD to share the EMCC process and help them make similar changes at their schools.
- The percentage of MTF that have been completed went from 17% in 2022/23 before the change was implemented, to 19% in 2023/24 when it was implemented effective Spring 2024, and 24% so far for 2024/25
- 2023/24 - approximately 25 required student/Advising appointments and Advisor MTF form manual completions were not needed
- 2024/25 - 68 required student/Advising appointments and Advisor MTF form manual completions were not needed so far
This documents more students are able to complete the MTF process now that it has been simplfied and receive FA.
- Continue to review processes and look for ways to simplify/streamline whenever possible.
- When there are continual pain points, challenges, or overly complicated processes use that to identify a solution. Put your time toward finding/creating/requesting automation to improve the process. It will take additional time in the beginning to determine and implement a solution. Once the solution is implemented it will make up for the extra time it took to identify/make the changes.
Comments
This is a wonderful example of having a growth mindset to assess and make changes to a process, all with the student experience in mind! Not only is it easier for a student to submit an MTF, but we are utilizing technological applications in a way that streamlines the process and experience for all. Thank you for sharing!