. Faced with increasing enrollment and applicants for financial aid -- almost double in the past two years -- Mr. Dave Bodwell, Director of Financial Aid for PBCC decided it was time to enlist additional processing assistance. Even though his office engaged in creative outreach programs, which have been successful in reducing the CPS selection rate from 39% to 29%, the increase in FAFSA volume by 55% in the first quarter of 2009 threatened to make the verification workload unmanagable. Two more factors added to Mr. Bodwell's decision; the current economic downturn and its impact on his office budget and the need to serve their fast-growing Veteran population. Adding additional staff at this time was simply not an option. When Mr. Bodwell saw ProEd's low cost pricing structure based solely on completed work units, the solution became self-evident. For these reasons, Mr. Bodwell chose ProEd's Verification Assistant over other competing services to begin helping them with the federal verification process.

"With ProEd's team of experienced former and retired financial aid professionals and our virtual processing environment, we're able to plug right into Mr. Bodwell's process immediately," said Dr. Paul Gilroy, President and CEO of ProEd. Mr. Irv Bodofsky, former Chair of NASFAA, one of ProEd's consultants, remarked, "Our flexibitily in using either the school's or ProEd's document management system is a real plus. Processing is done in a remote servicing environment using the computer resources of the school. In cases where a document management system is not available, ProEd augments the school's process with our own document management system, which provides a complete audit trail and easy retrieval of verification documents."

The benefits of the Verification Assistant program are:

• The process is completely electronic
• Verification is done by experienced former financial aid administrators
• Complete on-line archival of verification forms and processes
• Reduces your workload
• Improves customer service
• Inexpensive and easy to use
• More efficient and speeds up the process
• Utilizes a completely virtual processing environment

This service is available to all colleges and universities, including: all public and private institutions, 2 or 4 year, and nonprofit or for-profit institutions. The Verification Assistant is available for immediate implementation. Call now to take advantage of our introductory prices!

To learn more, sign up for a demonstration webinar on the ProEd website at: www.proed.org, or call us at: (877) 761-7001 or send an e-mail to: answers@proed.org.

ProEducation Solutions, LLC is a consulting firm specializing in strategic and operational issues related to the administration of financial aid. Started in 2001, ProEd has been committed to assisting colleges & universities in meeting their price, positioning and affordability objectives. Our team of experienced higher education professionals have consistently developed tools to empower the college financial aid staff through the use of our secure, web-based decision support system. Visit ProEd at: www.proed.org.

Posted 06/02/09 to www.NASFAA.org. Posting of press releases is done as a service to Members and does not imply endorsement or support by NASFAA. NASFAA does not review this information for content or accuracy.