MSFCP™ focuses on improving student financial wellness and changing student’s financial behavior, resulting in improved academic success, persistence, credential completion and lifelong financial health.
Two-year colleges and four-year colleges serve an increasingly large percentage of first-generation, diverse students, who face financial challenges. For many students, a single economic set-back, for instance, an unexpected car repair, can cause a major disruption in a student’s life. Having no emergency savings and lacking a basic understanding of personal finances, students may make poor choices, resulting in dropping out of college. Concerns about finances can dominate a student’s thoughts while in college, as substantiated by financial surveys of college students. For example, results of the 2024 Student Financial Wellness Survey of over 53,000 two- and four-year college students by the Trellis Company found that a large percentage of students suffer economic stress. For instance, 61% worry about having enough money to pay for college, 56% said they would have trouble getting $500 in an emergency situation, and 28% said they had run out of money 6 or more times in the past year.
Outcomes from the initial MSFCP™ project demonstrated that supporting student financial health and wellness leads to increased college persistence, retention and student success. Results from the original three-year MSFCP (2022-2024) initiative demonstrated that MSFCP students are more likely than their peers nationally to return to school or complete an academic program. This was true among both 2-year and 4-year institutions. Among first-time full-time (FTFT) two-year college students, 72% of MSFCP students returned to their school or completed their programs, which was notably above the 63% rate for two-year FTFT college students nationwide. At three of the MSFCP community colleges, FTFT MSFCP students also had higher persistence rates compared to all FTFT students at the same institution. Retention rates at MSFCP’s 4-year universities exceeded both the national retention rates and rates for all FTFT students at these institutions.
Qualitative findings from site visits indicate that MSFCP students gained confidence about finances with many students showing increased savings, reduced debt, and improved credit.
The MSFCP™ model integrates one-on-one financial coaching with financial education outcomes delivered in a credit or noncredit course. Ideally, students will:
- understand the concept of cash flow,
- learn to manage expenses,
- create a personal budget,
apply strategies to save money, - understand credit cards and credit card debt,
reduce debt, establish and/or increase their credit score, and - meet a financial goal.
Thus, MSFCP™ develops financially capable students, fostering healthy financial habits that last into the future.