Student Financial Services and Start of the Year Operations

For anyone of you who called or wrote anyone in Student Financial Services during August and did not get a timely reply—or perhaps a reply at all—we’d like to fill you in on what we have been up to.  August is far and away the busiest time of the year, collectively, for our staff.  Consider what your operations would be like if suddenly 25% of your customers were brand new to your business, anxious, and all trying to reach you during a highly-condensed timeframe.  Now that we have a few minutes to catch our breath, we’d like to share with you some of the numbers from our busy August.

11,684 – The total number of in-person customer service interactions during the 4-week period ending August 29^th.  When you consider that some of these interactions may require several back and forth conversations, the real number is even higher than that.

430 – The total number of calls we received on Monday, August 25^th . . . between 8am and noon.

237 – The total number of students who walked in to speak with an SFS representative on that same day between 8am and 5pm.

1,075 – The total number of customer interactions on August 25^th, including phones, walk-ins and emails.

1:14 – The average wait time, in minutes and seconds, that our customers experienced during the height of our busy season, between August 18^th and August 29^th.

5,959 – The number of outside scholarships applied to student accounts for the 14-15 academic year.  Because many of these students also have need-based financial aid, newly-reported scholarships cause a review and revision to their awards.  This revision is almost completely manual.

7,735 – The total number of official financial aid awards completed since late May.  I include this number because the vast majority of these were completed prior to August 1^st.  Because of this, the number of August contacts was actually lower than it would have been if the financial aid administrators had been delayed in their work.

We are thankful to have such an amazing and caring staff, and it shows in the statements of appreciation we see from parents and students.  Navigating the world of the student account and need-based financial aid can be intimidating, especially for our families doing this the first time.  We are proud of the work we do and the contributions our efforts represent in helping our students be successful at the University.