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GRADUATE/PROFESSIONAL SCHOOL
PERSPECTIVES
July 11, 2003
Salt Lake City
Graduate and professional aid
administrators have been recognized here at the 2003 NASFAA
conference through the eleven sessions presented for this
special interest. From how Alternative loans are developed
for our school’s specific needs to the Reauthorization
proposals that will affect our student populations, we had a
focus on our issues, along with a great lesson on hunting down
grant resources that are sadly lacking for our students. While
all of these things are important to us, probably the most
critical feature on the horizon for the graduate and
professional community is SOGAPP, the Survey of Graduate Aid
Policies, Practices, and Procedures.
Ken Redd of NASFAA presented
preliminary information about this survey, which will be
distributed in late August. A sampling of schools within each
discipline will be selected and results weighted to represent
the full community. Scheduled for completion by early October
this is a survey that will address pertinent areas of our
operations including our student and staffing FTE’s, costs,
debt issues, professional judgment practices, salaries and
more. Once the responses are compiled, we will all benefit
from the shared information about how we are operating our
programs.
These questions will not demand
additional tabulations or research of most financial aid
administrators as we are currently reporting the information
to other agencies or it is information about our daily
practices. The completion process will be conveniently
web-enabled and will allow the user the choice to complete
their responses in one setting or to return to do it in
multiple sessions. Schools selected to participate in the
survey will receive some advance notice from NASFAA explaining
the participation requirements. I hope everyone who receives
the opportunity to take part in this important piece of
research will take the small amount of time required to
participate.
Submitted by Judy Cramer
(jmcramer@vcu.edu)
Virginia Commonwealth University School of Medicine
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