Ever had a conversation with a impatient, rude, or even obnoxious financial aid counselor?

This is one of the more frequent comments made by many of our clients. One or two less-than-elegant customer service experiences can happen almost anywhere, especially when you’re dealing with the same office on a regular basis for four or more years. Frequent occurrences of poor customer service, though, seem to afflict the financial-aid industry on a more than regular basis. When a school asks for $20,000 (or, gasp, $60,000!) per year, every year, common courtesy is not only assumed, but expected. Demanded, by golly, you’re paying through the nose for it!

Unfortunately, that’s not always the case. Thankfully, we’re happy to report that not all aid offices rank high on the grump-scale. What’s more, if you or your student attends a college or university where the local financial aid officers are universally kind, respectful, and patient, you’ve discovered a gold mine. Stake that claim before someone else does!But why the bad finaid vibe? The aid industry, as a whole, is not a very fun place to work. The first problem, the pay is low. Many universities are guilty of offering low wages in return for “free” tuition benefits, which can be difficult, if not impossible to use for a full-time school employee. For those rambunctious financial aid employees who do take advantage of the free (but often taxed) tuition benefits, the schedules of these folks are stretched to the max: full-time job, school, nevermind family duties and possibly their own childcare responsibilities.

But it’s more than just the lousy pay. Working in financial aid is constantly stressful. Lots of kids can’t go to school unless an aid officer does his or her job effectively. Even when the job’s done well, the final result is often well short of the customer’s expectations. It’s a devastating blow when a student is admitted to a dream school, only to find out later that it’s not possible to attend because the aid offer was too low. Aid officers are yelled at, threatened, even physically harmed. We’re aware of one financial aid office that installed a panic button under the front desk following several hostile incidents in their lobby. The silent alarm went directly to the local city’s metropolitan police force, bypassing the school’s own campus police. Why not the campus police? They weren’t allowed to carry guns. No joke.

Lastly, and not surprisingly, the turn-over in most aid offices is high. Who wants to be paid poorly and work in a place of high negativity? After a year or two of that, a lot of people just leave. Looking for a job? Chances are your local financial aid office has one or more openings. For those who hang on, they’re faced with low pay, a stressful working environment, AND lots of work as they’re surrounded by people who regularly quit.An excuse to be rude, obnoxious, or hostile to students or parents? Absolutely not.

When selecting a college of university, check out the aid office. It’s easy. Just call or e-mail. Are you on hold for long periods? Are your calls promptly returned? Are they returned at all? Did you get a reply to your e-mail that, by the way, answered your question? Did you get a reply? If the answers to these questions were not what you had hoped, and if you will count on financial aid to make it work, think long and hard about that college. That situation probably won’t get better. The good news? There are lots of schools out there with highly functional aid offices. Thankfully, the grumpy aid counselors seem to be congregated at the same schools.