Concord linked to National Student Clearing House (Features)

A couple weeks ago it was reported that the registrar’s office did not have a link to the National Student Clearinghouse (NSC), but now they do! But most readers are probably wondering “what’s it matter to me?” Well, that’s what this article is for!

It may not be clear what the NSC is to some, so here’s an explanation. The National Student Clearinghouse is a central database that links all of the federal and private loan lenders. The database holds all the information of a student’s enrollment status, estimated graduation date (which can be changed), and other information pertaining to your loans and school information. This seems a bit scary privacy wise, but it’s built to benefit student, educational institution and lenders to keep an easy, open line of communication. And if there’s one thing this campus desperately needs it’s more open communication.

This comes after what seemed like a long, pain-staking process to get this implemented by the Computer Center, as reported before. This is a welcome addition to campus technology because it will benefit the campus in the present and future.

Before this link was up many alumni, students graduating and even current students were having trouble with their loan companies trying to make them start paying while they were in school. Take my friend Patrick Frazier for example, after he graduated from Concord loan companies had already started demanding payment. From what he reported to me, the loan companies had his graduation date 6 months before he actually graduated. Who’s to say if that’s a mistake in the registrar’s office or the loan company just misfiling updated papers? Who knows and it’s all been sorted out.

Now, with this new link up with the NSC something like that will never happen again and no longer will be students need to send in an in-school deferment document to the NSC.

It’s really hard not to stress just how important of a step towards a more efficient bureaucracy this is. While many people have a hatred of bureaucracy, when it works properly like one would hope this will it works well and benefits everyone involved. More efficiency is very good for Concord, let’s jut hope other departments will step up to the plate as well. Less hassle for everyone each semester should be a goal we all work toward.