NT4CM FAQs

Tell us what you think. We want to hear from you.

Please click here to email the NT4CM Steering Committee your questions, comments and suggestions. We'll post common questions and answers on this page so that all trainers can benefit from your queries.

Q: An entity that is not affiliated with the NT4CM partnership plans to offer training in our area in October. The entity has paid a local college a flat fee to reserve a campus room for the full day. However, they only intend to use the room for a morning session. Can we use the room in the afternoon for NT4CM training if we reimburse the entity for the reasonable cost of the room?

A: Yes. You may use the room as long as you clearly inform all NT4CM registrants that your session is not affiliated in any way with the morning session. For example, you may wish to advise attendees: "The preceding training session was independently sponsored by an organization that is not affiliated with the NT4CM partnership."

Q: Our budget has been cut dramatically, and we cannot find any entities that will provide us free sites for training. Are other states in this situation? If so, what do you do to get the most out of your budget?

A: Other states and the Steering Committee provided these recommendations:

• Approach colleges, especially community colleges, to donate the room and/or the food
• Cut lunch and breakfast
• Have people on your committee do the handouts and the postage for their own regions
• Try the auditorium at a K-12 school
• Ask the statewide commissioner of education to throw support behind the training and speak to the governor about your funding
• Consider webinars if necessary
• Check with US Dept of Education for a regional training facility (if ED has a regional office in/near your state)
• See whether large church organizations can provide a training site or other support
• Try Educational Opportunity Centers

Q: Counselors in our state find it difficult to get time away from their office/school. How are we going to get decent attendance at our training when potential trainees have so many other demands on their time?

A: Other state coordinators have found that combining NT4CM training with a previously existing event can be effective, since the counselors are already planning to be away from school that day. Some events to consider:

• Regional TRIO or GEAR UP conference
• Regional ACAC conference
• Guidance expo, combining state association event with regional guidance training
• Articulation conference
• Other events that counselors in your state/area will attend in large numbers (ask them!)

Q: Is NT4CM replacing the training my state guaranty agency (or ASFAA, or higher education agency) already provides?

A: Not at all. If your state already has a successful training program in place, you might wish to look through the NT4CM training modules to see whether it would benefit your state to add one or more of those modules. You are not required to participate in NT4CM; and if you do participate, you are not required to use all of the modules. Note that if you do choose to use the content of one or more modules without participating in NT4CM, you must remove the content from the NT4CM template and put it in your own template. If you do not participate in NT4CM, you may not use the NT4CM logo or the logo of any of the Steering Committee member organizations.

Q: In the past, a lender has sponsored our counselor trainings by providing the training location, bagels and coffee in the morning, and even some of the trainers. Can we continue to do this?

A: If you plan to participate in NT4CM (either by using some or all of the training modules), you may not rely on lender support such as the activities described above. If you are unsure whether activities in your state could be considered "lender support," please e-mail a description of your situation to nt4cm@ed.gov.

Q: May I make changes to the NT4CM PowerPoint presentation?

A: In order to ensure the integrity of the material, please do not modify the information presented in the NT4CM modules. (The State and Institutional Aid module is the exception to this rule, because state coordinators supply that information.) Because NT4CM offers CEUs based on approved module content, it is even more important that the information in the modules remain intact.

Q: What tips do you have for advertising NT4CM in my state?

A: Try these methods:

• Download a fact sheet from the e-Library and distribute it at state and regional conferences and college fairs
• E-mail the PDF of the fact sheet to school counselors in your state
• Announce your training in your:
• Web site
• Listservs
• Newsletter
• Facebook page
• Twitter tweets
• Send postcards (e-mail nt4cm@ed.gov for an electronic file you can use)
• Use public access cable TV
• Ask your local radio stations to run public service announcements or interview your State Coordinator
• Talk to people and get the word of mouth started
• Work with other organizations to spread the word or to offer the NT4CM training at events they already have planned (e.g., articulation conferences, state or regional TRIO/COE or NCAN conferences, College Access fulfillment events, etc.). Some organizations that state coordinators have partnered with in the past:
• Foster care organizations
• Mentoring organizations
• Take Stock in Children
• State department of education office that works with K-12
• GEAR UP
• TRIO/COE
• NCAN
• State/regional association of student financial aid administrators
• Superintendents and principals (they can encourage counselors to attend)

Q: What tips do you have for making our workshop the best it can be?

A: Try these tips from experienced state coordinators:

• If you do your own registration in your state (rather than having NT4CM host your registration on our site), ask for both a work number and an alternate (home or cell) number. If you come up against a snow day, you'll be able to get in touch with your trainees to let them know about the cancellation.
• As you schedule your workshops, keep in touch with district contacts who oversee counselors; they can let you know about any dates you should avoid due to previously scheduled events in their area.
• Provide plenty of notice so counselors will have time to plan to attend. Short notice = low turnout.
• Open your workshops by asking attendees about the types of barriers their students face in paying for college. You can refer back to those barriers as you move through the program.
• Know your audience. You are likely to get a slightly different batch of questions when you're presenting a workshop to TRIO or GEAR UP staff than when you're presenting to counselors from your state's wealthiest school district. Be prepared.
• Pay attention to the feedback you get, both during your workshop (watch those body-language signals) and in your evaluations (so you can tweak things next time if necessary).
• If you're an Option C or D state and want to save money on printing and shipping the curriculum materials, look into the cost of loading the participant guides and handouts onto USB drives (aka flash drives or thumb drives). Another option is CD-ROM.
• Film your presentations and post them on your web site, preferably in small "chapters" of one topic each, so that counselors can use them at financial aid nights or to help students and parents during meetings.

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