For Paul McKinney, the sobering reality of America’s mounting student loan debt is prime inspiration for teaching Mississippi State’s students about financial literacy.
McKinney, MSU’s Director of Financial Aid, said Americans have racked up $1.2 trillion in student loan debt. The average college graduate has about $30,000 in student loan debt. Mississippi State graduates aren’t immune — $23,250 is the median student loan debt for undergraduate borrowers who graduate from MSU, according to the U.S. Department of Education .
“We want our graduates to get out of here with the least amount of loan debt as possible, while at the same time having a solid, firm foundation of financial knowledge,” McKinney said.
To that end, MSU’s Department of Student Financial Aid hired John Daniels to fill a newly-created financial literacy coordinator position. Daniels began his work in November.
This spring, the university launched a financial literacy campaign, called “Bulldog Budgets” to inform students of ways to manage their student debt and introduce them to budgeting basics.
“We’re helping students know about the various ways to pay for college,” Daniels said. “We want them to be aware of all the different avenues to afford their education here. We help them put together budgets as well — to know the value of a budget, to be able to put it together, to help them have a good financial plan for their time as a student here.”
The program reaches students in a few ways: Daniels said the department is starting to use platforms like Instagram, Twitter and Facebook to reach out to students.
He said the department is also developing a companion website for the program. When it’s finished, the website will allow students to build custom budgets for a particular month or semester.
“It will be a good resource to get savings tips,” Daniels said. “It will also give them resources where they can look up what their exact student loan debt is.”
McKinney said the Department of Financial Aid is planning to begin sending letters to students at the end of each academic year — beginning this summer — so students can see what their loan up to that point is and what an average repayment might look like. From there, he said students can meet with Daniels to figure out ways to reduce the amount of money they have to borrow.
“I didn’t want to mail the letter and say to the students ‘OK, let me know how that works out for you,'” McKinney said. “I wanted to have a resource for them to come back to, and that’s what John is. I want them to be able to come back and talk to somebody.”
Personal finance classes
Daniels and McKinney teach personal finance classes at MSU.
McKinney said the classes cover the basics of money management, from banking and interest to budgeting and saving. The class also delves into credit ratings, car purchases and other topics.
“Some of these things, especially savings and investing are things that these students aren’t going to be able to do for several years until they graduate,” McKinney said, “But they still need to have a basic concept of it right now. We’re not teaching them things they need just today, but it’s lifelong lessons in financing.”
Daniels also sends out monthly financial literacy emails to 14,049 currently enrolled students who applied for financial aid.
He said the overall effort to improve students’ financial literacy is important, because it’s hard to know how many students know what, when it comes to finances.
“We find that some of our students come to college without a great understanding of things like making and sticking to a budget or what does interest mean,” Daniels said. “There are a lot of basic financial concepts that they are not aware of. One of the things we hope they gain at Mississippi State University is a basic understanding of what it means to manage your money well.”
Alex Holloway was formerly a reporter with The Dispatch.
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