April 4, 2014
At April 4's Cal Assessment Network Session, the Financial Aid and Scholarships Office and Cal Answers Team discussed how the newest Cal Answers reports can help inform campus student affordability programs. The data focus on the federal loans students have accumulated by the time they complete their degree, and answer questions such as:
- How many students rely on federal loans to fund their UC Berkeley education?
- What types of students have higher federal debt burdens and how can we help to alleviate this type of debt in the future?
- Have trends in both the rate of borrowing and the amount borrowed followed the national pattern of steep increases?
At the session we provided a live demonstration of the new reports and showed the audience how to use the answers from the above questions to:
- Identify students who may benefit from financial literacy workshops.
- Spot trends in a department's debt in order to to maximize future impact of departmental awards.
- Combine data from Cal Answers with data from other reliable sources (department databases, federal government metrics, etc.) to create integrated analyses and answer complex questions.
This is the presentation that was discussed. Session presenters were Cruz Grimaldo - Associate Director, Financial Aid and Scholarships Office; Kaegy Pabulos - Federal Direct Loans Program Coordinator and Quality Assurance Manager, Financial Aid and Scholarships Office; and Kelle Jacobs - Business Intelligence Analyst, Office of Planning and Analysis. For more information about Cal Answers Student Affordability reporting, check out the news article on the Cal Answers website