The Department of Education rolled out their finanical literacy program through StudentLoans.gov this week. From my inital look, it looks really good and I am sure many schools will be pushing it out to their students and even making it some type of requirement in order to receive intitutional aid (since it does not appear that you can make it a requirement in order to receive federal finanical aid, ironically).

My one gripe is what they decided to call it and where they put it. Most schools now use the loan entrance counseling built into studentloans.gov that students are required to complete before receiving federal student loans. Students are usually instructed to login to studentloans.gov and click on "Complete Entrance Counseling". The Department of Education decided to call the financial literacy program "Complete Financial Awareness Counseling" and placed the link right above "Complete Entrance Counseling".

Just when you thought that the Department of Education was finally figuring out user interface design, they do this. I am all for finanical literacy and intergrating it into the financial aid process, but do we have to confuse students in order to get them to do it? I found out a few days before the department announced that it was live by a handful of confused students calling into to see which one they are supposed to do.

Two steps forward, one step back.