EX$EL
Financial Education and Repayment Success for Schools and their Students EX$EL Brochure
Get Results with EX$EL
• Help schools improve student retention and persistence to graduation
• Help students make intelligent borrowing decisions
• Identify and assist student in financial stress
• Enhance borrower understanding of repayment choices
• Guide borrowers in finding the repayment option most favorable for repayment success
• Assist in preparing borrowers for their financial and professional lives after college
• Help schools reduce their cohort default rates
Student Loan Issues Challenge Students, Colleges, and Universities
Focus on student loan issues and students struggling with repayment
The focus on student loan issues and students struggling with
repayment is at an all-time high—and still growing. As the cost of
higher education continues to rise, colleges and universities see
more students borrowing more money than ever before and, with that,
increasing defaults on federal student loans.
Many of today’s students invest in their education without a solid
understanding of the responsibilities and consequences of borrowing.
Too many undergraduates enter without basic financial literacy
skills. Transfer and graduate students often are already saddled
with student and consumer debt.
When it’s time for repayment, these students frequently are confused
by the multiple and complex loan repayment options. Without
guidance, they may automatically accept the standard ten-year
repayment plan, not realizing other options may offer terms and
conditions better suited to their situation. Simply put, students
facing these challenges need help from their college or university.
At the same time, your campus faces its own challenges dealing with
student loan issues, especially relating to loan defaults that can
subject your students and school to serious negative consequences.
The cohort default rate, which the U.S. Department of Education has
traditionally used to help determine your school’s eligibility to
offer federal Title IV financial aid, is increasingly viewed as a
measure of your institution’s administrative capability.
New proposals to hold institutions accountable for student outcomes
are also in the works, with students and parents being encouraged to
consider these outcomes in making college choices. Statistics on the
outcome related to successful repayment of education loans is one of
the key factors.
A quick response to regulatory and market forces, is critical for
your college or university. However, despite experience showing that
good financial education and repayment success are closely linked,
in times of tight budgets, demanding workloads, and competition for
resources, your school may lack the staff or time to educate current
students about finances or to help former students successfully
repay loans.
Even so, to fulfill its’ mission, your school must prepare your
students to succeed in their professional endeavors and personal
lives. And, of course, this preparation must be provided in an
efficient, cost-effective manner.
Meeting the Challenge
EX$EL helps you help your students efficiently and cost-effectively
EX$EL helps you help your students efficiently and
cost-effectively. With more than half a century of experience in
educating borrowers, the EX$EL team has proven that sound financial
education and consistent personal contact have a positive influence
on student borrowing and repayment of education loans. Providing
this service to your students can assist your institution in
retaining students and lowering its’ default rate.
EX$EL serves your students on your behalf—not as
a collector of loans, but as a guide, an advocate, and an educator,
helping your students find success.
By offering EX$EL, your school shows students you are on
their side. You send students the positive message that you know
they probably took on debt to enroll and that you want to ensure
their success while in school and in repayment.
It’s a message that resonates well beyond the financial aid office.
It’s a statement of commitment the whole campus can back, from
enrollment management to the development office, from student life
to alumni relations. Working on behalf of your institution, EX$EL
can assist your students while they are enrolled and your borrowers
after they leave school.
Each of the three services making up EX$EL establishes relationships
with students and borrowers through consistent regular contact via
text, email, social media, and telephone; easy access to material
through a user-friendly website; and, for schools, aggregate and
individual reports of student and borrower progress and status.
Four Services are available, separately or in combination:
• Financial Education, a modular, comprehensive online financial education course, with separate editions tailored explicitly for undergraduate and graduate/ professional student learners
• Regular communications, including links to timely articles and tips on basic money management skills, indebtedness, and the benefits and responsibilities of borrowing, all delivered directly to students.
• A student dashboard showing progress and providing links to additional resources, helping students measure their learning and understand their options
• A school dashboard that provides progress and financial stress reports, helping schools know which students might need additional support
EX$EL — First-rate
educational content and consistent contact
The essential tool in the
new higher education environment
For more information about EX$EL:
- Email us
- Phone 800-532-2832
- Rose Mary Stelma, ext. 2348
About EX$EL
About EX$EL
College Foundation, Inc. and the North Carolina State Education Assistance Authority have worked together for more than 50 years assisting students and families with paying for college. With this long and solid history and year-after-year cohort default rates only a fraction of the national average, these entities are proud to work with Decision Partners, a premiere provider of online financial education, to offer EX$EL Financial Education and Repayment Success services.