Financial aid administrators at private-independent schools will have an easier time than ever making precise and appropriate aid awards in the coming year, thanks to FAST® v3-powered by ISM.
FAST, Independent School Management’s user-friendly online financial aid processing service, now includes “Assisted Mode,” which has a built-in alert system that points out potential discrepancies and oversights that could affect the award recommendation. With the addition of this new mode to the existing lineup of interface options, private-independent school administrators can now choose how they wish to evaluate applications.
According to Brian Fulmer, FAST Developer and ISM Financial Aid Consultant: "The Assisted Mode makes it easy for financial aid administrators. The step-by-step approach points out all the areas that need attention to make a proper award. Administrators just need to answer a few questions to make sure the award fits the family's real need."
Schools are finding that using FAST is helping them stretch and redirect their financial aid dollars more effectively. The FAST formula for determining a family's ability to pay is precise, based on the local cost-of-living rate rather than a national average. Schools can decide what to allow as expenses based on their mission and area, enabling them to fill seats with mission-appropriate students and recommending awards to the families who need it most.
"It was interesting to see how many people would have received aid that didn’t need it, and vice versa, under the way we used to conduct the process. Perhaps the most important issue is that FAST has allowed us to be more fair in the distribution of our resources," said Hank Hewitt, Director of Admissions at Scranton Preparatory School in Pennsylvania. “The testament to that is the fact that we have the highest number of full pays in the history of the school. Simply stated, we gave the same amount of money, or proportionally more, to fewer people. That, again, is a good thing by the mission of our school.” Appreciation of the FAST program’s quality and the customer service ISM provides is further demonstrated by a 100% growth rate over the past year with 99% client retention.
FAST v3 also includes an improved tax verification system, meaning tax information will be scanned and verified quicker than ever, with the scanned PDFs embedded into each application for schools to review if desired.
The essential capabilities remain the same. FAST v3 allows users to download information from any field into an unlimited number of spreadsheets—something they’ve come to expect from FAST. And FAST is still the fastest and easiest parent application currently available.
"We used SSS for years, but have switched to FAST for several reasons,” said Martha Olson, Director of Admissions at Christian Heritage School. “It takes only 30-40 minutes for parents to fill out, it only costs $36, it gives our Financial Aid Committee more meaningful information, and it sends reports to our Finance Office in just a couple of hours."
“FAST is 100% easier to use,” according to Victoria Weigand, Director of Finance at Christian Heritage School in Connecticut. “First of all, I can make live changes to the data. I can download everything I need for reporting and analysis, and mail merge into my correspondence. The committee can review applications remotely and we can telephone conference on applications. It is much better.”
