SAN DIEGO--iGrad has partnered with the University of Northern Colorado (UNC) to provide its customized, interactive online and mobile student financial wellness platform to the public university’s more than 6,600 undergraduate students. 

iGrad’s platform at UNC includes comprehensive customized and interactive information on everything from building and maintaining good credit, budgeting and money management to student loan/debt management and loan calculators.

Located in Greeley, Colo., UNC has a diverse student body and 40 percent of undergraduates are the first in their families to go to college, said Stephanie Torrez, UNC’s assistant vice president of Student Success.

“We wanted a platform that can help all students improve their financial literacy no matter their age, life stage or socio-economic background,” Torrez said. “Financial literacy is a vital component of overall health and wellbeing.”

Research shows that financial literacy programs can decrease financial stress, improve academic performance and teach students how to manage their finances for a lifetime. 

With declining enrollment and degree-achievement rates, bolstering student financial literacy is a priority for many colleges and universities. Since the start of the pandemic, college enrollment has declined 5.1 percent, with “unprecedented” declines among students from low-income or high-poverty high schools, according to a new report1 by the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center. Data from the National Center for Education Statistics2 shows that, even pre-pandemic, the degree achievement rate for all students nationally was only about 62 percent.

“Now more than ever, college students are facing tremendous financial challenges impacting enrollment, retention and the level of student loan debt, which is already the second-largest category of debt in the country,” said iGrad Vice President of Business Development Todd Woodlee. 

iGrad is currently used by more than 600 public and private colleges and universities of all sizes, including San Jose State University, UC Berkeley, New York University and Davidson College.

Based on artificial intelligence and proprietary algorithms, iGrad personalizes financial information for each student’s situation and needs. It also offers:

  • Tools, quizzes, videos, articles and a library of multimedia content.
  • A student loan tracking tool that aggregates student loan balances and estimates monthly payments, which helps prepare students for these payments after graduation.
  • Personalized interactive content specific to each user’s financial situation, age, life stage, etc. For example, some users may be directed to comprehensive retirement or mortgage-related content, while others are guided to content focused on student loan or general debt management.

About iGrad

iGrad is a San Diego-based financial technology company that provides artificial intelligence-powered financial wellness solutions to more than 2.7 million students at 650 colleges and universities, over 20,000 employers and over 300 financial institutions. iGrad’s Your Money Personality™ was recently recognized by the Institute for Financial Literacy with the 2020 Excellence in Financial Literacy Education (EIFLE) Adults’ Education Program of the Year award. iGrad is one of three 2020 honorees in the inaugural Barron's Celebrates: Financial Empowerment, after being selected by a team of judges for its contributions to improving the financial health and security of Americans. iGrad recently received the 2022 Eddy Award for Financial Wellness by Pensions & Investments for its Enrich platform. For more information about the iGrad platform, visit https://www.igradfinancialwellness.com. For more information about the Enrich platform for employers and financial institutions, visit http://www.enrich.org.

 

 

1 - https://nscresearchcenter.org/current-term-enrollment-estimates/

2 - https://nces.ed.gov/programs/coe/indicator_ctr.asp