At each institution, half of the students will receive the currently required one-time entrance and one-time exit counseling. Through the experiment, the other half of students will receive additional loan counseling that includes information about managing repayments after leaving school.
Through the pilot program, colleges and universities can employ counseling services of outside groups, develop their own platform or use the department’s loan counseling tools.
Lorain County Community College, ab0ut 30 miles west of Cleveland, is the only other Ohio college participating in the program.
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At Central State, 82 percent of students receive Pell grants, a form of federal financial aid for families typically earning less than $60,000 a year, and many have no financial support from their parents, according to Central State.
“If we can address problems a lot earlier, more often, give students the necessary tools to make the right decision, then we should see a reduction in the amount of debt,” said CSU president Cynthia Jackson-Hammond.
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