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OSR-GSA Committee on Student Financial Assistance (COSFA) Update
July 2008
- FIRST - Financial Information, Resources, Services, and Tools
COSFA continues work to update and change financial information geared
towards medical students and applicants. Please visit FIRST,
check out FIRST
Facts, and provide any feedback you have. Future updates include
the addition of dozens of FIRST Fact sheets and the development of
a digital financial aid folder designed for students and FAOs. The
digital folder would follow a timeline layout students have suggested
in earlier meetings, while incorporating a budget creation tool, a
cache for loan information, and links to other resources in a portal-like
design.
- Effective Practices for Separations
Following the success of the previous 'Effective Practices' document
that outlines standards for parties involved in medical student financial
assistance, COSFA is working to create a document entitled 'Effective
Practices for Separations.' This information will help medical students
with debt who are transitioning out of the medical school environment.
A FIRST Facts sheet will contain a basic checklist that lists topics
and questions a student should explore when leaving the medical education
environment with large amounts of debt but without a medical degree.
The project involves all GSA committees.
- Other discussion included topics surrounding recent regulatory changes
for lenders. Lender participation in exit interviews is not permissible
per recent legislation and FAOs are concerned that the quality of
information conveyed to students in exit interviews has been diminished.
Additionally, FAOs cannot recommend the best financial lender to students,
and students are at a disadvantage as a result. Finally, no more government
money was put into Federal Perkins this last year, so many schools
are not able to offer Perkins loans to students for the 2008-2009
academic year.
Should you have questions or ideas about financial assistance issues
and the OSR, please feel free to contact me.
Mark Bicket, MSIII
GSA-COSFA Liaison
Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine
bicket@jhmi.edu
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