Some financial aid practices have a frightening habit of coming back to life.
It starts innocently enough.
Someone asks a question during a financial aid committee meeting. A familiar situation comes up, and someone utters those five little words:
“We’ve always done it that way.”
Cue the thunder. A door creaks. Somewhere in the distance, a financial aid practice rises from the dead.
It’s late October, and while the rest of the world is busy with haunted houses and scary movies, we’re shining The Beacon’s light on something that can haunt private and independent schools long after Halloween.
The Zombie Policy. 🧟♀️
You know the type. A practice that hasn’t been questioned in years. An exception that somehow became standard procedure. An unwritten understanding passed from one administrator to the next, with nobody quite sure where it originated.
Maybe it made perfect sense at the time. But is it still serving your school’s mission, families, and financial aid priorities today?
Let’s dig up a few of the usual suspects.
🧟 1. The “We’ve Always Done It This Way” Zombie
This one is practically immortal.
Maybe your school has always treated a particular asset a certain way. Perhaps there’s an informal threshold for determining eligibility. Or a committee decision made years ago has quietly become the benchmark for every similar application since.
Nobody remembers exactly when the practice began. Nobody is entirely sure where it’s documented.
But everyone knows it’s the way things are done.
And that’s where things can get tricky. A longstanding practice isn’t necessarily a bad one. But when nobody stops to question it, the school may find itself following an approach that no longer reflects its financial aid philosophy, enrollment goals, or budget realities.
Things get especially spooky when the written policy says one thing, committee practice suggests another, and the school’s current priorities point in a completely different direction.
Put it to rest: Ask why the practice exists in the first place. Is there a sound reason behind it? Is it documented? Does everyone apply it the same way? If the answers are fuzzy, it’s probably time for another look before carrying it into the next season.
👻 2. The Ghost of Exceptions Past
Remember that one family we made an exception for three years ago?
What started as a thoughtful response to one family’s circumstances can sometimes take on a life of its own.
A special consideration becomes an unofficial precedent. A one-time adjustment becomes an expectation. Before you know it, decisions are being influenced by exceptions that were never intended to become standard practice.
Of course, schools need room to respond to unusual family circumstances. That’s part of what makes financial aid work so personal. But when exceptions are not clearly defined or documented, it’s harder to maintain consistency, especially when similar requests come up later.
Flexibility and consistency aren’t opposites. With the right policy framework in place, they can work together magically.
Put it to rest: Decide what warrants an exception, who has the authority to approve one, and how the decision will be documented. That way, the committee has room for thoughtful judgment without turning every past exception into a standing invitation.
🕸️ 3. The Policy Hidden in the Cobwebs
Somewhere, deep inside a shared drive, it exists. Probably.
A financial aid policy guide was created years ago. Everyone remembers seeing it. Someone even thinks they know which folder it’s in.
Even if the guide can be tracked down, let’s face it: the document hasn’t been opened in ages, and the financial aid office has changed quite a bit since it was written.
Or maybe the school’s policies are in a mysterious collection of old emails, committee notes, and institutional memory. Sound familiar?
When policies are outdated, difficult to find, or spread across multiple sources, it’s easy for different interpretations to take hold. And that’s not ideal when the team is making decisions that affect families, enrollment, and the school’s financial resources.
Put it to rest: Gather those scattered policies into one current, accessible guide. Cover the essentials: application requirements, review methodology, awarding priorities, exceptions, appeals, and decision-making responsibilities. Give someone ownership of keeping it updated, too. Otherwise, those cobwebs have a way of coming right back!
🦇 4. The Keeper of Ancient Policy Wisdom
Every school has one. You know who we’re talking about.
The person who remembers why a particular practice came to be. Who knows exactly how the committee handled that unusual family situation back in 2019. Who can explain the unwritten nuances of the school’s financial aid philosophy.
That institutional knowledge is gold.
But… what happens when that person retires, changes roles, or simply isn’t available when a decision needs to be made?
Suddenly, the school’s financial aid playbook starts looking more like a collection of unsolved mysteries.
And the new person overseeing financial aid? They’re left trying to piece everything together.
Institutional wisdom deserves to be preserved, not left wandering the halls like a friendly ghost.
Put it to rest: Get that knowledge out of people’s heads and onto paper. Document not just what the school does, but why. Make sure new committee members and administrators have a reliable resource to turn to rather than depending on whoever happens to remember what happened five seasons ago.
Time to Lay Those Zombie Policies to Rest?
Here’s the thing about financial aid policies: They’re not meant to be carved in stone.
Schools evolve. Families’ circumstances shift. Enrollment goals, tuition strategies, and financial aid budgets change, too.
It’s worth checking and knowing that your policies and practices guiding today’s decisions have kept up.
That doesn’t mean overhauling everything each year. Some longstanding practices may be working just fine. Others might need a closer look, a little clarification, or even a proper retirement.
And don’t forget about reaccreditation.
Depending on your school’s accrediting association, financial aid policies and procedures could be part of the accreditation conversation. Review teams may want to see how institutional practices are documented, carried out, and connected to the school’s mission.
A current financial aid policy guide can help schools demonstrate not only what decisions are made, but how and why they’re made. And that’s a whole lot easier than digging through years of committee notes when the visiting team comes knocking!
At Mission Enrollment, we see firsthand what a difference clear, well-documented financial aid policies can make. Through our policy guide services, we help school teams develop or update the policies that guide their financial aid decisions, from application requirements and review practices to awarding and appeals.
Because the only thing scarier than an outdated policy is discovering it in the middle of financial aid committee season.
This Halloween, leave the zombies to the movies. Your financial aid policies deserve a little more life.
