Entrance Counseling
Nellie Mae's online entrance counseling program is a self-directed counseling experience for students that tests their understanding of loan terms and borrowing responsibilities, and enables them to fulfill their Federal Stafford loans entrance counseling requirements.
Additionally, optional information is available on borrowing Federal Perkins loans and private education loans. Content is modified for graduate students.
Schools can choose to have Perkins Loan information included in the online entrance session. (Refer to Perkins Loans.)
Schools may review the application content by using the Demo the Application feature.
Demo the Entrance Counseling Application Steps to review the entire Nellie Mae entrance counseling session:
- Open a new browser window and enter www.nelliemae.com/entrance into the browser address bar.
- Click on Demo Entrance Counseling link on the bottom left-hand side.
- Continue through the application pages.
Note: Information entered during the "Demo" will not be saved by Nellie Mae.
Informing Students Nellie Mae can help schools inform students of this online counseling option with flyers and other printed materials that can be distributed at the financial aid office or in student mailings. Contact your account executive to request materials. (Refer to the Publications page.)
In addition, a school's financial aid office web site may incorporate a hyperlink to the Nellie Mae entrance counseling application.
Student Registration Information For entrance counseling, the student must complete:
- First and Last Name
- Social Security Number
- email Address (optional Field)
- Perkins Loan information (if applicable)
- School Name
Entrance Counseling Data Collection When Nellie Mae's web administrator contacts the financial aid officer following online registration, the financial aid officer can designate which data collection option the school wants. The school can choose to collect:
- Only student data
- Student and reference data
- Student, parent, spousal and reference data
Entrance Counseling Perkins Loans Schools can choose to have the entrance counseling session display Perkins Loan information. If your school chooses this option, provide the name, address, and telephone number of the school's Perkins Loan servicer during the registration process.
Entrance Counseling Process To complete Nellie Mae's entrance counseling application, students must correctly answer four multiple-choice questions. The answer to each question can be found by reading the text on the previous page(s).
The application displays an error page if the user answers incorrectly. LoanLink redisplays the page with the question so that the student may review and select the appropriate response.
On the final page of the entrance counseling session, students are asked to certify that the information submitted is correct. Students also certify that they give permission for the information to be submitted to Nellie Mae and shared with the school.
Once the student certifies this information and clicks submit, the record is written to Nellie Mae's database and the student is given a confirmation number. All completed sessions are immediately available for a financial aid officer's review.
Only information on students who have completed the session will be available.
Entrance Counseling Customization Schools may customize certain features of the entrance counseling session. When Nellie Mae's web administrator contacts the financial aid officer following online registration, the financial aid officer can provide the custom information.
- For the Frequently Asked Questions section:
- You may write questions and answers that are specific to your school or your school's process. Nellie Mae will add these to the general FAQs already listed.
- You may add an email hyperlink to a designated person in your financial aid office. This allows student users to submit questions directly to a loan counselor at your school.
- For the General facts about student loans section:
- You may write and submit additional content that you wish your students to read. The content may be information that is specific to your school or your school's process, or additional general information that you want reinforced.
- For the final confirmation page:
- You may request additional hyperlinks that you consider helpful resources for your students, including your school's financial aid office web page. The web site name/URL and descriptive text about the recommended web site will be included.
Email Notification to Schools Each weeknight, LoanLink sends email notification to the school's designated recipient if there are new student records. This message links financial aid officers to Nellie Mae's web site to retrieve student information. Nellie Mae does not send personal student information via email messages. Financial aid officers must log in to our secure web site to view or download this information.
Schools do not have to wait for the email prompt; financial aid officers may log in to view information anytime.
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