Newly Minted is a monthly series on Head Count following John Gudvangen through his first year as a financial-aid director at Wesleyan University. We’ll check in with Mr. Gudvangen as he learns the ropes of his new position and faces challenges common to his profession, as well as some unique to Wesleyan.

May

Wesleyan University is set to graduate its Class of 2012 this weekend. The university won’t give diplomas to seniors with student loans until they have completed exit counseling. But even though they get this reminder about their debt, the aid office hasn’t heard from many seniors who are worried about paying it back.

The reality of repayment may not have hit them yet, says John Gudvangen, the financial-aid director. Many graduating seniors are still unsure of what their income will be in the coming year, he says, and a good number will go right on to graduate school,…

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Newly Minted is a monthly series on Head Count following John Gudvangen through his first year as a financial-aid director at Wesleyan University. We’ll check in with Mr. Gudvangen as he learns the ropes of his new position and faces challenges common to his profession, as well as some unique to Wesleyan.

April

If Wesleyan University’s need-based aid has done its job, a good number of admitted students have been pleasantly surprised to find they can afford to come to an institution that costs more than $60,000.

Hearing from such students and their families is always enjoyable for John Gudvangen, the university’s aid director, and his staff. After all, these are people who give out money for a living. They like it when the people who receive it are pleased and grateful. Still, they can’t make everyone happy.

“Our natural inclination is to help families,” Mr….

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Newly Minted is a monthly series on Head Count following John Gudvangen through his first year as a financial-aid director at Wesleyan University. We’ll check in with Mr. Gudvangen as he learns the ropes of his new position and faces challenges common to his profession, as well as some unique to Wesleyan.

February

This month Wesleyan University sent admissions decisions to students who had applied for its second round of early decision. Admitted students who received financial aid were notified of their aid awards along with their acceptances.

As it packages aid awards, the financial-aid staff moves from the philosophical to the practical. “It’s no longer in the aggregate,” says John Gudvangen, the financial-aid director. “It’s the specific case right in front of you.”

The second early-decision pool is quite a bit smaller than the regular group the aid office…

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Newly Minted is a monthly series on Head Count following John Gudvangen through his first year as a financial-aid director, at Wesleyan University. We’ll check in with Mr. Gudvangen as he learns the ropes of his new position and faces challenges common to his profession, as well as some unique to Wesleyan.

January

January is a quiet time on Wesleyan University’s campus, with students on break for much of the month. For the financial-aid office, this is the calm before the storm. Before long, it will be time to evaluate need and package aid for students who applied regular decision—work that must happen quickly because Wesleyan sends financial-aid awards with its acceptance letters.

In the meantime, John Gudvangen has been wrapping up his projections for how much the office will spend on aid this year. Because Wesleyan admits students without considering…

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Newly Minted is a monthly series on Head Count following John Gudvangen through his first year as a financial-aid director, at Wesleyan University. We’ll check in with Mr. Gudvangen as he learns the ropes of his new position and faces challenges common to his profession, as well as some unique to Wesleyan.

December

Need-based financial aid hinges on simple subtraction: Cost of attendance minus family contribution equals need. But how does a college determine the handful of variables that make up the family contribution?

John Gudvangen recently had the chance to talk through the answer to that question with a small group of students at Wesleyan University. The student government there has identified financial aid as a key issue, and so Mr. Gudvangen met with a student committee to discuss how it works. He described how his office looks at income, assets, and other…

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Newly Minted is a monthly series on Head Count following John Gudvangen through his first year as a financial-aid director, at Wesleyan University. We’ll check in with Mr. Gudvangen as he learns the ropes of his new position and faces challenges common to his profession, as well as some unique to Wesleyan.

November

The federal form students and families use to apply for financial aid won’t be available until the new year. But Wesleyan University is already getting financial-aid applications: Families are starting to send in the CSS/Financial Aid Profile, an additional form some colleges use to gather more information for awarding institutional aid.

Now that the Thanksgiving holiday is over, the staff will turn their attention to those applications, Mr. Gudvangen says.

Before aid offices can process applications, families must figure out how to prepare them. …

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Newly Minted is a monthly series on Head Count following John Gudvangen through his first year as a financial-aid director, at Wesleyan University. We’ll check in with Mr. Gudvangen as he learns the ropes of his new position and faces challenges common to his profession, as well as some unique to Wesleyan.

October

John Gudvangen has given many financial-aid presentations over his career. But when he spoke at a recent open house at Wesleyan University, something was different. For the first time, some parents of prospective students came to campus equipped with printouts from Wesleyan’s new net-price calculator.

All colleges that participate in federal financial aid are required by October 29 to post net-price calculators on their Web sites, to help  prospective students estimate their out-of-pocket costs. As the deadline approaches, colleges have been

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Newly Minted is a monthly series on Head Count following John Gudvangen through his first year as a financial-aid director, at Wesleyan University. We’ll check in with Mr. Gudvangen as he learns the ropes of his new position and faces challenges common to his profession, as well as some unique to Wesleyan.

September

Before the school year began, John Gudvangen packed up his things and drove with his parents from their home state of Colorado to Wesleyan University, where they helped him settle in. It’s a pattern followed by new students and their families all over the country. But Mr. Gudvangen is not a college freshman: He’s the university’s new director of financial aid.

Until recently, Mr. Gudvangen was the associate director of financial aid at Colorado College, his alma mater. His extended family lives in Colorado, and his wife is staying there while the…

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