Money

Are money matters getting complicated? Or are you intimidated by all the numbers and financial terminology? The following online resources support students in becoming financially literate and improves financial planning during school and for after graduation.

By Noreen Balos, Funding Peer
Monday, November 21st, 2016 - 10:07am


Are money matters getting complicated? Or are you intimidated by all the numbers and financial terminology? The following online resources support students in becoming financially literate and improving financial planning during school and after graduation.

  • GradSense.org (http://GradSense.org) is a unique online education platform that provides tools and resources to help students plan for their financial future. The website is targeted towards current graduate students as well as undergraduate students, including those who may be considering graduate school. With online tools like Debt-to-Salary Calculator, "Add It Up" Compound Interest, Visualization Tool, Budget Calculator, and Infographics, GradSense.org helps students navigate the following points of debt and financial management: helps current and prospective students explore debt levels and salary ranges for different degrees and fields; shows students the long-term impact of common daily or weekly spending decisions; enables users to budget for common student expenses; and allows students to explore real salary data by occupation.
  • SALT (https://www.saltmoney.org/index.html) was created by the American Student Assistance (ASA) to provide college students with information and tools for making better decisions about financing their education. The service provides information about scholarships, internships, jobs, and student loan borrowing options as well as loan repayment. It also provides access to interactive resources including a budget calculator and an online dashboard for tracking loan and repayment options.
  • CashCourse (http://www.cashcourse.org/) is funded by the National Endowment for Financial Education (NEFE) and offers customizable, online personal finance tools to public and private nonprofit universities in the United States. All materials are free and institutions with an account may customize the website to include their school colors and logos as well links to their social media accounts (e.g., Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn).
  • EverFi (https://everfi.com/higher-education/) sets out to improve financial management and minimize student loan defaults and dropouts among college students. It offers interactive modules on personal finance and financial aid management along with learning activities that are personalized based on student's individual financial attitudes and behavior. This resource also provides students with an Action Plan feature which allows for the viewing of a recap of the information they found most relevant.
  • Money Management International (http://www.moneymanagement.org/) is a nonprofit organization and full-service credit counseling agency with membership in the National Foundation for Credit Counseling (NFCC), Consumer Federation of America (CFA), and National Council of Higher Education Resources (NCHER). They provide online access to a variety of financial literacy topics including budget and debt counseling, debt management, and loan management.

Source:
Denecke, D., Feaster, K., Okahana, H., Allum, J., & Stone, K. (2016). Financial education: Developing high impact programs for graduate and undergraduate students. Washington, DC: Council of Graduate Schools.