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Recent discussions on enrollment in higher education have centered around the "Enrollment Cliff." The notion holds that due to changing demographics, colleges and universities across the U.S. will see a dramatic decline in enrollment starting in 2025. The enrollment cliff poses legitimate challenges to schools around the country. Schools who are savvy in their response to the cliff can better position themselves for student population decreases and increased competition. Prioritizing student success may help the schools most vulnerable to shifting demographics navigate the years ahead.

Trellis' Student Financial Wellness Survey (SFWS) seeks to document the financial well-being of post-secondary students and provide institutions with a detailed profile of the financial issues their students face, some of which could potentially impact their success in college. This report details aggregated findings for the 89 colleges and universities across the country that participated in the fall 2022 implementation of the survey. [For "Student Financial Wellness Survey: Fall 2021 Semester Results. National Aggregate Report," see ED625724.]

The Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) is the application that postsecondary students complete to receive federal grants, work-study, and loans; as well as some state and institutional grants, and private financial aid. In 2019-2020, 17.7 million undergraduates filed a FAFSA and in 2021-2022, full-time equivalent students received an average of $15,330 in financial aid. While the percentage of undergraduate students filing the FAFSA has increased significantly in the past twenty years, it is estimated that over one-third of non-filers in the 2015-2016 school year would have qualified for the Federal Pell Grant. This brief examines data from 59,208 students at 104 higher education institutions that participated in Trellis' Fall 2021 Student Financial Wellness Survey (SFWS). The report focuses on self-reported FAFSA completion and reasons for not completing the FAFSA. Research indicates a link between filing a FAFSA and within-year persistence, year-to-year persistence, and earning a degree within six years. Therefore, understanding students' FAFSA completion rate and reasons for non-submission can inform strategies to help students remain in school and graduate on time.

In order to thrive in college, students need general good health, sufficient energy, the capacity to focus on their studies, and the chance to actively participate in classes. Stress related to financial matters and mental health issues can disrupt the essential dynamics that contribute to achieving academic success. This brief examines data from 36,446 students at 89 higher education institutions that participated in Trellis' Fall 2022 Student Financial Wellness Survey (SFWS). The report focuses on questions in the survey regarding difficulty concentrating on school and missing classes due to financial pressures.

Youth formerly in foster care (YFFC) are more likely to report facing financial struggles while in college and may lack resources, marketable skills, and have limited networks/ support to rely on. These students may not have access to the same kind of family support as their peers. To address these challenges, this population relies more heavily on their institutions and government assistance. Additionally, while federal, state and institutional programs exist to provide aid to these students, many respondents in this sample were unaware of these supports. As a result, institutions must find ways to connect these students to the resources needed to ensure postsecondary success.

The Student Financial Wellness Survey (SFWS) provides a snapshot of student financial wellbeing during the fall of 2021. Over 700,000 students were surveyed from 104 schools in 25 states and 63,751 students responded. During this period Federal stimulus funding helped stabilize finances for many students, but many still struggled to make ends meet. This report is meant to amplify the lived experience of these students. Understanding these experiences will allow college administrators and policymakers to better serve students, enabling them to reach their academic potential. The Fall 2021 SFWS questionnaire went through a thorough reassessment. To reduce survey burden, many questions were removed and others rewritten based on feedback from students, school administrators, and various experts in collegiate finances. This resulted in an instrument that was easier for students to understand and quicker to complete. The report is divided into the following sections: (1) Paying for College; (2) Student Credit Card Use and Risky Borrowing; (3) Financial Decision-Making Factors and Financial Behaviors; (4) Student Financial Security; (5) Basic Needs Security; (6) Students Who Are Parents; and (7) Mental Health Challenges.

Postsecondary students face a myriad of complex financial decisions and tasks, such as financing their education, choosing a major with a return on investment, budgeting, and crafting repayment strategies for credit card and student loan debt(s). With respect to student loans, many borrowers feel "burdened by the repayment process" and express regret for having borrowed so much. Understanding students' utilization and attitudes when receiving assistance with financial decision-making can serve as a first step when evaluating on- and off-campus financial services. This brief examines data from 45,624 students at 104 higher education institutions that participated in Trellis' Fall 2021 Student Financial Wellness Survey (SFWS) with a focus on students' comfort discussing financial situations with others and students' monetary discussions with financial aid advisors. [For "Student Financial Wellness Survey: Fall 2021 Semester Results. National Aggregate Report," see ED625724.]

It is well demonstrated that basic needs insecurities (i.e., food insecurity, housing insecurity, or homelessness) are more pronounced among certain groups of historically marginalized students, including students of color at traditionally under-resourced Historically Black Colleges and University (HBCUs), Predominantly Black Institutions (PBIs), and Hispanic Serving Institutions (HSIs). This brief examines data from 14,117 students attending 26 MSIs from Trellis' Fall 2021 Student Financial Wellness Survey (SFWS)--including 19 HSIs; five HBCUs; and three PBIs. With nearly two-thirds of students from these MSIs facing one or more forms of basic needs insecurity, it is critical for college administrators, the broader campus community, and policymakers to have a full understanding of these students' lived experiences.

The report provides a landscape analysis of the workforce development environment in Texas. Many organizations are performing valuable roles in ensuring that the labor markets in Texas operate efficiently, supplying employers with skilled workers and providing workers with opportunities to continue their career advancement through reskilling. The goal is to outline the various populations, issues, and organization roles at play in the state. The report highlights key organizations and workforce landscapes by regions within Texas.

Many college students struggle to make ends meet while enrolled and sometimes must turn to a wide variety of safety net resources, including official government programs, borrowing from family, and selling belongings. This brief examines data from 63,751 undergraduate students who responded to Trellis' Fall 2021 Student Financial Wellness Survey (SFWS), analyzing the use of various safety net resources.

This brief examines data from 19,934 students with self-reported educational debt in Trellis' Fall 2021 Student Financial Wellness Survey (SFWS), with special emphasis on their financial security and attitudes toward their loans, debt, and debt forgiveness. Nearly two-thirds of borrowers had accumulated more debt than expected, and 36 percent did not feel that their total debt was manageable. These students were also uncertain of their ability to eventually repay their loans--only 28 percent were confident they would be able to pay off the debt acquired while in school.

This brief explores the unique financial circumstances of parenting students, a population that makes up nearly a quarter of all postsecondary students. We find that parenting students are more likely to report experiencing financial struggles, use public assistance more often, and are more reliant on credit cards. At the same time, parenting students are more likely to have additional caregiving responsibilities beyond their children, putting them at greater risk for financial and personal burnout, which may impact their ability to stay enrolled.

While enrollments across all higher education sectors decreased during the COVID-19 pandemic, this decline has been particularly steep for community colleges. Many colleges and universities across the country instituted tuition freezes during the pandemic as a way to try to retain enrolled students and attract potential students, and relief funds provided by the federal government during the pandemic helped colleges maintain funding and provide students with emergency aid and support services. These measures provided relief to some students who may have been under financial strain during part of the pandemic. This analysis uses data from 27,739 respondents at 46 community colleges that participated in Trellis' Fall 2020 Student Financial Wellness Survey (SFWS) and 44,254 respondents at 71 community colleges from the Fall 2021 SFWS. The brief focuses on comparisons between the two annual surveys among community college students. The Fall 2020 survey was implemented during the first fall semester of the pandemic, about seven months after the United States locked down when cases began to rise in March 2020. Many colleges across the country moved a large portion of their classes to an online format. This was particularly true in the community college sector.

When students are food insecure, they often encounter adverse health, social, and academic outcomes, including harm to cognitive functions, mental health, and academic performance. Additionally, compared to food secure peers, students struggling with food insecurity are 43 percent less likely to graduate from college with a two- or four-year degree. With recent estimates of food insecurity among postsecondary students as high as 45 percent, many colleges and universities have responded by implementing on-campus food distribution centers (i.e., food pantries or closets) to better assist students struggling to meet their basic needs. These pantries often provide more than food to students, including personal hygiene products, toiletries, diapers, personnel trained to assist applicants with applying to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) and other benefit programs, and more. Ninety-one of the 104 colleges and universities who participated in Trellis' Fall 2021 Student Financial Wellness Survey (SFWS) had at least one food pantry available to students. To better understand student awareness and utilization of this resource, this brief examines data from 49,946 students attending a school with one or more food pantries (as of November 1, 2021) and who responded to the corresponding question: "Does your school have a food pantry or food closet on campus?"

Transportation costs (gas, car maintenance, public transportation, and parking) make up a large part (nearly 20 percent) of college students' living expenses. Additionally, many students face long commutes because they lack access to a reliable car and/or rely on inconvenient public transportation. Periodic car breakdowns can lead to missed classes and unexpected expenses. Studies conducted in 2021 found that when compared to students who have their transportation costs subsidized and who have access to safe and reliable transportation, students who do not receive subsidies and who do not have access to safe and reliable transportation are less likely to complete courses and finish degrees. This brief examines transportation data from 63,751 students at 104 higher education institutions that participated in Trellis' Fall 2021 Student Financial Wellness Survey (SFWS) with a special lens on their loyalty to their school since research suggests that loyal customers are also more likely to continue their patronage. Strategies to help students to stay in school and graduate should be informed by how their students get to school.

College students are unable to meet their basic needs (food, housing, utilities, etc.) at greater rates than the general adult population of the United States. When students lack enough to eat and/or are unable to secure safe, stable housing, they often face tolls to their psychological and physical health. Additionally, compared to peers who are basic needs secure, students struggling with basic needs insecurities often encounter adverse academic outcomes, including poor grades, enrollment disruptions, academic dismissal, or suspension, etc. Even in a non-pandemic academic setting, these challenges can severely complicate a student's ability to focus on schoolwork and being academically successful. Unfortunately, research suggests the pandemic has exacerbated instances of basic needs insecurity among college students, especially among vulnerable groups. This brief examines data from 20,095 students with one or more forms of basic needs insecurity (BNI) (i.e., food insecurity, housing insecurity, homelessness) from Trellis' Fall 2020 Student Financial Wellness Survey (SFWS) with a special lens on their mental health. With more than one-third of all postsecondary students experiencing mental health challenges before the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, and many more living with food and housing insecurity, having a full understanding of students' lived experiences during the past year is critical. [For "Student Financial Wellness Survey: Fall 2020 Semester Results. National Aggregate Report," see ED616426.]

As the COVID-19 pandemic has proved, maintaining student financial wellness is key to keeping students enrolled. The Student Financial Wellness Survey (SFWS) was administered a year and a half into the pandemic, during a time when vaccinations were allowing schools to return to in-person learning, but the pandemic was continuing to have a strong impact. The SFWS is a self-reported, online survey that documents the financial well-being and student success indicators of postsecondary students across the nation. The Fall 2021 SFWS included many questions from prior implementations as well as new questions on topics including emergency aid, food pantry awareness and use, mental health, and expectations of student loan forgiveness. This report details findings from the Fall 2021 implementation at 24 Texas community colleges.

As the COVID-19 pandemic is proving, maintaining student financial wellness is key to keeping students enrolled. The Student Financial Wellness Survey (SFWS) was open from October 2020 to November 2020. The COVID-19 pandemic and the associated economic crisis were prominent concerns for students as they navigated a mostly remote learning experience for a fall semester unlike any before. Respondents seemed eager to share their experiences, resulting in the highest response rate for the SFWS to date--9.7 percent. Trellis collected information about the entire population surveyed--i.e., gender, age, enrollment intensity--and used it to weigh the results, reflecting the total populations of the participating institutions. There may be lingering response biases based on characteristics uncaptured in the study, some of which may be meaningful when interpreting the results. Sixty-two institutions participated in the survey--46 two-year institutions, 12 public four-years, and 4 private four-years. While the SFWS is not nationally representative, the participating institutions represent a wide range of institutions from 13 different states. In partnership with participating institutions, web-based survey invitations were sent to 394,240 undergraduate students, of whom 37,936 responded. A detailed description of survey characteristics, comparison groups, tests for representativeness, methodology, and other research notes can be found in the appendices. [For the 2019 report, see ED610029.]

Since its writing into Texas state law, only one empirical study has been published which compares the relative ease or difficulty of ApplyTexas against other national-level postsecondary applications of which ApplyTexas competes with. Taylor's (2019) cross-analysis of ApplyTexas versus the Common Application, Coalition for College Application, and Universal College Application was revealing, as ApplyTexas was longer (by word count) and more difficult to read (14.6th grade reading level) than the other applications in the study. This new study integrates several new metrics for evaluating the difficulty of postsecondary applications. To address emergent research suggesting Internet speed can affect students' ability to access postsecondary education (Dettling et al., 2018), this study employs Sitechecker Pro's page size tool (Sitechecker, 2021), which measures the byte size of a webpage, informing the website developer as to how quickly or slowly a webpage may load depending on the speed of an Internet user's connection. Moreover, given the progress toward migrating the ApplyTexas application to Amazon Web Services to increase its technological capacity, this study evaluated the auto-save features of each application system to learn if technological safeguards are being written into application systems to save application progress in the event of a device shutdown, Internet outage, or user error. Applications were completed using a high-speed, 100mbps Wi-Fi connection. Regarding metrics related to how the application is written at the question- or fillable form-level, additional metrics were added to the current study to provide further insight as to how long or complicated the application may be for the average student. First, this study captures both the number of fillable forms required to create an application profile and the application itself, providing a measurement of how many questions or "blanks" a student needs to fill in order to complete the application. This study also evaluates the overall number of webpages required to complete the application, again providing a measure of how long the application is and how difficult it may be for a person with a low-speed Internet connection to load and complete each page of the application.

All Texans deserve access to affordable, high-quality learning opportunities that lead to credentials of value--postsecondary credentials that will unlock their potential, help them provide for their families, and pursue their dreams. Helping students understand the financial choices they will make before, during and after their postsecondary education and giving them the tools they need to achieve financial wellness is critical to students' long-term success. This report includes an overview of the financial challenges that today's students face, key takeaways from a 2019 survey about the student financial literacy and wellness programs currently underway in Texas, and practical information that Texas higher education institutions can use to launch or further develop their efforts. In addition, the report highlights the Texas OnCourse initiatives to develop accessible, professional development for higher education advisers on the financial issues and challenges that students face. The future competitiveness of Texas depends on how well the potential of the state's talent is unlocked. Texas colleges and universities are rethinking how they communicate with students about financial aid, investing in financial education and literacy programming for their students, and making critical changes to practices that impact students' finances. This report highlights Texas institutions and their inspiring work. This report can be used to innovate and advance creative solutions that will support the financial well-being of all Texas students.

Higher education leaders are looking for high impact ways to improve retention and graduation rates in a climate of austere budgets. Increasingly, higher education sees the interplay of finances and academic performance as a key driver of student success. Across the nation, measurable improvements in student success outcomes are observed when students receive a combination of support services and financial resources that help address the unique financial challenges facing many college students. More colleges and universities want to better understand the state of financial wellness for their students to inform strategic planning and to pin a baseline for comparisons after implementing initiatives. Trellis' Student Financial Wellness Survey (SFWS) informs discussions about college affordability, student debt, and financial wellness at the campus level and among policy-makers. This report details findings from more than 38,000 undergraduate student respondents from 78 colleges and universities in 20 states. While not nationally representative, student respondents attended public universities, private colleges, and community colleges that range in size from fewer than 700 students to greater than 55,000 students. This report presents results for 2-year and 4-year institutions (private and public institutions combined) separately. Respondents from public 2-year institutions accounted for a disproportionate amount of the total sample, and these students experience significant differences in financial wellness. The appendices of this report contain response frequencies to every question in the survey (broken out by school sector), select findings from cross-tabulations of survey responses, descriptions of sample characteristics and representativeness, and detailed methodology. [For the 2018 report, see ED601250.]

The COVID-19 pandemic has thrust students, their support networks, and institutions of higher education toward a financial crisis. In response, the U.S. Senate signed the CARES Act into law, which provides institutions of higher education with $14 billion to support various campus functions. Within the CARES Act, the Senate allocated funding for institutions of higher education to create emergency aid programs. Although emergency aid programs have existed on college campuses for decades, they are under-researched within academia. Given the immediacy of challenges presented by COVID-19 and the availability of CARES Act funding, many institutions are moving quickly to develop emergency aid programs on their campuses. Yet, institutions of higher education may lack clear guidance given the ambiguity surrounding funding and timing. To support the higher education community, this report synthesizes existing reports and provides a framework for creating, administering, and assessing emergency aid programs.

In January 2017, Trellis launched the Financial Security Study (FSS) to shed light on a broad set of questions related to students' basic needs and academic experiences. Working with 11 institutions in Texas and Florida from late January to October of 2017, researchers interviewed 72 students every 30 days or so to discuss their recent experiences with academics, finances, work, meeting basic needs, and anything else identified as significant in their lives. This brief contains key findings and take-aways from these discussions as they relate to observed changes in students' mid-month financial and dietary habits.

In January 2017, Trellis launched the Financial Security Study (FSS) to shed light on a broad set of questions related to students' basic needs and academic experiences. Working with 11 institutions in Texas and Florida from late January to October of 2017, researchers interviewed 72 students every 30 days or so to discuss their recent experiences with academics, finances, work, meeting basic needs, and anything else identified as significant in their lives. This brief contains key findings and take-aways from these discussions as they relate to the intersection of students' financial stability and food security over time.

The Student Financial Wellness Survey (SFWS) is a self-reported, online survey that seeks to document the financial well-being and student success indicators of postsecondary students across the nation. This brief contains key findings and take-aways from the analysis of SFWS data by school sector. Key findings include: (1) Community college students are more likely to feel financial obligations to their families, and report less financial support from their families; (2) Community college students were far more likely -- by almost 30 percentage points -- to say they work twenty or more hours a week at their job; and (3) While food security varied little across school sectors. Housing security was somewhat higher among community college students than their counterparts at four-year institutions.

To provide greater understanding, Trellis Research recently conducted a mixed-methods, outcomes-based study of parent PLUS borrowers in Texas. The study, "PLUS Borrowing in Texas: Repayment Expectations, Experience, and Hindsight by Minority-Serving Institution Status," provides a rare look into the repayment behavior of Parent PLUS borrowers of both MSI [minority serving institutions] and non-MSI students, shedding light on the borrowers' goals and financial trade-offs concerning saving, major purchases, and retirement. The study also focuses on both the level of knowledge they possess about the PLUS loan and the differences between their initial expectations and the actual amount of the debt.

Students who feel accepted, valued, and connected to their institution have a more developed sense of belonging. Sense of belonging can be strengthened by building relationships on campus through a variety of ways such as friendships, mentorships, and campus activities. This allows students to feel a connection with faculty and peers. A strong sense of belonging has been shown to increase retention, and ultimately graduation, as well as improving the mental health and overall wellbeing of students (Lu, 2023). An efficient way to gauge a student's sense of belonging is by surveying them. This brief discusses the Diverse Learning Environment (DLE) survey administered by the Higher Education Research Institute (HERI) at UCLA. The purpose of the survey is to assess the experience of undergraduate students by asking questions about their interactions with faculty and peers, any engagement with co-curricular activities, opinions on campus climate, and their overall satisfaction with their collegiate experience. The data can then be utilized to better understand institutional practices, assess student learning outcomes, and identify strengths and areas of improvement for the campus.

Although food insecurity is common among college students, they face significant barriers in accessing food assistance through the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). Despite being a proven program designed to ameliorate food insecurity, eligibility requirements and student-specific restrictions have prevented many eligible students from receiving critical benefits. This brief provides an overview of the student-specific exemptions and highlights the need for simplifying SNAP eligibility requirements to ensure that all students have access to the food they need to thrive.

College students are particularly vulnerable to mental health challenges that can significantly impede their academic performance, social lives, and cognitive abilities. While mental and emotional health concerns have long been present on college campuses, research suggests certain disorders and behaviors have worsened since the onset of the coronavirus pandemic. One of the leading sources on student mental health is the Healthy Minds Study (HMS)--an annual, web-based study conducted by the Healthy Minds Network. Since 2013, the HMS has been fielded at over 450 institutions and received responses from more than 500,000 students. This brief examines select data points from the HMS National Data Reports from 2018-2019 (pre-pandemic), 2020-2021 and 2021-2022.

Recent research suggests that the combination of high and rising college prices, stagnant family incomes, and increased enrollment of lower-income students leaves many college students struggling to meet their basic needs, including adequate, regular nutrition. This report explores the lived experiences of students with low food security, how students cope with its challenges, and how these strategies influence academic performance. Students in our study demonstrated commitment to their education through pronounced levels of sacrifice. They were more likely to approach their education aspirations once their basic needs were met.

Higher education leaders are looking for high impact ways to improve retention and graduation rates in a climate of austere budgets. Increasingly, higher education sees the interplay of finances and academic performance as a key driver of student success. Across the nation, measurable improvements in student success outcomes are observed when students receive a combination of support services and financial resources that help address the unique financial challenges facing many college students. More colleges and universities want to better understand the state of financial wellness for their students to inform strategic planning and to pin a baseline for comparisons after implementing initiatives. Trellis' Student Financial Wellness Survey (SFWS) informs discussions about college affordability, student debt, and financial wellness at the campus level and among policymakers. This report details findings from more than 17,500 undergraduate student respondents from 58 colleges and universities in 12 states. Student respondents attended public universities, private colleges, and community colleges that range in size from fewer than 500 students to greater than 55,000 students. Appendices are included in this report that contain response frequencies to every question in the survey, select findings from cross-tabulations of survey responses, descriptions of sample characteristics and representativeness, and detailed methodology.

Students who are unable to reliably commute to their college campus stand to fall behind in school or drop out altogether. For many students, the cost of transportation presents a barrier to higher education entry and completion. In 2020-2021, transportation costs accounted for nearly 20 percent of the cost of attending college for commuting students, according to the College Board (2020). What's more, for many students who seek cheaper forms of transportation, like bus or active transit, other issues persist. Among these issues are prohibitive cost and affordability, inconvenient routes, frequency and schedules, housing and work proximity, and poor reliability, and quality (Price and Curtis, 2018). This brief examines results from 36,332 students who participated in the Fall 2022 Student Financial Wellness Survey (SFWS) and analyzes school policies that aim to reduce transportation barriers for students.

There is growing recognition that the interplay of student collegiate finances and academic performance influences key student outcomes like retention and graduation. Students experiencing high levels of stress related to finances and meeting basic needs may struggle to reach their academic potential. The Spring 2018 implementation of the Student Financial Wellness Survey (SFWS) captures the attitudes, perspectives, competencies, and self-reported financial behaviors of over 6,000 students from 12 colleges and three states. Student respondents attended public universities, private colleges, and community colleges that range in size from more than 40,000 students to under 1,000. Trellis Research, a department within Trellis Company, designed and implemented the SFWS to document the financial well-being of postsecondary students at participating schools and to inform discussions about college affordability, student debt, and financial wellness at the campus level and among policymakers. The analysis begins with an examination of (1) Student Financial Security which reports and the levels of stress students feel over money matters. Sometimes money anxieties reflect the uncertainty students experience when trying to meet basic human needs like access to food and shelter. The SFWS provides valuable information on these experiences in the (2) Basic Needs section. The next section, (3) Paying for College and Student Debt, inventories the ways students finance their education and how those methods are understood and felt by students. The final section reports on student (4) Perceptions of Institutional Support, i.e., the extent to which students believe that colleges, faced with competing demands for resources, are empathetic and responsive to the financial needs of their students.

In January 2017, Trellis launched a nine-month study aimed at better understanding the non-academic challenges that postsecondary students face and the ways they try to meet their basic needs while pursuing academic goals. Working with 11 institutions in Texas and Florida, researchers recruited a cohort of 72 current undergraduate students. Though not representative of college students nationally, this cohort was highly diverse. More than half did not have a parent with a postsecondary credential, and over 20 percent were at least 28 years old. Hispanic students made up 39 percent, white students 31 percent, and African-American students 19 percent. About two-thirds of this group were pursuing associate degrees at public two-year (community) colleges, and about two-thirds had started college between one and three semesters ago. This report shares a few significant highlights of the postsecondary student interview study.

The rising cost of attending college creates a financial challenge for most students, many of whom must take out student loans to pursue their education goals. Whether or not they earn a degree, these students will leave school with the burden of managing student debt. How well they manage this complex process may shape their personal finances for decades to come. The perceptions of college financial aid administrators as they engage with students tackling the debt dilemma are at the heart of this report. Based on a national survey of 916 student aid professionals, this report also examines how schools deliver the required counseling that accompanies federal student loans. Trellis collaborated with the National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators (NASFAA) and the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (Board of Governors) on the first in-depth survey of financial aid administrators' experience with student loan counseling.