Financial Planning Made Simple FAQs
We created our FPMS tool to help our students start addressing the important topic of paying for school. The main reason why students apply for our scholarships to career and technical colleges is the money it saves them. Most students can think of plenty they could do with an extra $1,000 maximum scholarship. By reducing some of this burden, we hope you can focus more on the training you need to qualify for your next job.
Questions about our financial literacy video? These frequently asked questions and answers should help you move forward...
FPMS is an online-based tool that was created to help career college students protect their future by making responsible borrowing decisions. It consists of an 18-minute animated video tutorial with the student’s choice of two avatars to walk them through the budgeting, borrowing and repayment process. The video gives students the opportunity to calculate their own budgets by using the downloadable FPMS Student Financial Planning Tool. It allows users to visually see exactly where their money is being spent in hopes of helping students to decrease overspending and increase their savings.
Through discussion with Financial Aid representatives it was stated that many students did not understand the full impact of borrowing or how much to borrow. FPMS was created to inform students about the long term impact of borrowing and to illustrate that they should only borrow what they have to in order to attend school.
Currently the FPMS video tutorial and downloadable Student Financial Planning tool are in English.
All Imagine America applicants will apply online as they did before. On the applicants confirmation page they will be notified of the FPMS video tutorial. Additionally once a week an email reminder will go out to applicants who have not completed the FPMS video tutorial.
All Imagine America applicants must complete the FPMS video tutorial, including Imagine America High School, Military Award Program (MAP) and Adult Skills Education Program (ASEP) applicants.
The career college contact for the school will be able to log in to the “Applicant Management” page to view student’s applications. In the “Status” column it will state if the student needs to complete the FPMS video tutorial. Additionally, the career college contact will receive a confirmation email once the student has completed FPMS.
The student will be notified that their application has been accepted by the college, however the scholarship or award will not be valid until they complete the FPMS video tutorial. Applicants will not be able to download their certificate and award letter.
Career college representatives will receive a confirmation email that the student has completed the FPMS video tutorial.
Yes, if your college participates in our Scholarship and Award Programs and would like all students at your college to have access to the FPMS this is possible for a small annual fee. If your college is interested in accessing the FPMS video tutorial but is not in the Scholarship or Awards Program there is an annual fee. For more information, please contact Lee Doubleday at 571.267.3015 or leed@imagine-america.org.
To begin the process, log in to your account at www.iafportal.org.
- Once logged in, on the left-hand navigation, select “Video” to begin watching the FPMS video.
- You will need to have Adobe Flash Player to view FPMS. To check if you have Adobe Flash Player, visit the test site www.adobe.com/software/flash/about/. This will display which version of Flash Player is installed and if it is installed correctly.
Are You Ready To Get On The Road To Student Success?
Make sure you take full advantage of our resources and information for students. Check out our handy Roadmap to Student Success, as well as our articles and resources with useful information and tips. Good luck as you train for the job (and the life) that you want!
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