Hampton Aid Director, Recipient of Stinging Review, Pledges Better Service

Photo credit: Titus Ledbetter III Ericka Montgomery, a financial aid adviser at Hampton University, helps a student in her office.

By Titus Ledbetter III
Black College Wire

A Princeton Review survey of 110,000 U.S. college students found that Hampton University ranks No. 7 on the list of worst financial aid programs among 357 universities considered.

The No. 7 ranking in the category �Students Dissatisfied with Financial Aid,� is a major concern for Rich Parker, senior class president. Last year Hampton was ranked No. 2 in that same category.

�People look to the Princeton Review when they decide which school they are going to attend,� said Parker, a marketing major from Brooklyn, N.Y. �If we keep getting bad reviews, many students will choose other universities as opposed to Hampton.�

Marcia Boyd is entering her second year as director of financial aid and scholarships at Hampton. One of the first changes she made, at the request of the Student Government Association, was extending the hours of operation. She also increased the number of financial aid counselors from two to six.

Boyd said she hopes to develop a student advisory panel that will allow students to sit with financial advisers to discuss key issues.

�If students began to tell us what their needs are, I think those poor Princeton Review reports will tend to disappear,� Boyd said. �If you walk away without getting the information you need, you have done both parties a disservice. You haven�t given us the opportunity to provide those answers.�

Boyd said the financial aid department would conduct its own service survey in November. She said it would poll a larger audience and be more comprehensive than the Princeton Review survey, which questioned an average of 300 students per school.

Cynthia Small, a third-year pharmacy student from Queens, N.Y., had no problem talking about her experiences with the department.

�It�s hard to get in contact with the counselors and ask questions,� Small said. �It takes a long time for them to send the award letter that states how much money you will receive.�

Small said she turns in her Free Application for Federal Student Aid form in January, but does not hear back from the school until about the time classes start. She added that most of her friends try outside loans because help from Hampton takes too long. And this year, the school made a mistake again.

�They gave me undergraduate aid, and then they have to reverse it and give me graduate aid. This happened in July and I still haven�t received any financial aid.�

Pharmacy students are considered graduate students in their third year at Hampton.

�My counselor this year was a little more caring because I think she was new,� Small said. �It has made a little progress and they sent out the letter earlier, but I still have no money, except for what my parents paid.�

James Jones, a senior computer science major from Fort Washington, Md., said his financial aid is �never late� and that some of the financial aid advisers will work with the students. But he has seen that their errors have costly effects on students because if they are not financially cleared, they must go home and sit out the entire semester.

Jones said that this could be the reason many students don�t graduate on time.

�They don�t talk about Pell grants and other sources of financial aid,� Jones said. �They could suggest something other than �I�m sorry.��

But not every student is dissatisfied.

Derey Alston, a freshman business management major from Houston, said he visits the office of his financial aid adviser just to say "hi."

Alston said an outside organization that was supposed to give him a loan tried to deny him the money he needed. He said that without help from the financial aid department, he wouldn�t be be a student at Hampton.

�I love my financial aid adviser, Mrs. [Neina] Perry-Ford,� Alston said. �I couldn�t count the number of times I talked to her on the phone. It was crazy when we met, I gave her a hug and everything. It took forever to get my financial aid paper. She told me what to do and faxed the paper to me.�

The Princeton Review survey was taken during the 2003-2004 school year and/or previous two school years.

Titus Ledbetter III is a student at Hampton University.

Posted Sept. 21, 2004