welcome to maris college a liberal arts college bridging the traditions of the past with the tools of the future drawing inspiration from the historical cultural and artistic heritage of the hudson river valley and supported by a unique partnership with its neighbor i b m maris college holds fast to the timeless values of its rich heritage while embracing advanced technology in the service of education a century ago the merest brothers came to the hudson river valley to train young men to continue the brothers vocation as great educators the merest order was founded on the principles of higher human values dedication to service and excellence in education today merest is a private independent college but the ideals instilled by the merest brothers nearly a century ago remain a central part of the college's mission student clubs are required to provide community services and the college continues to emphasize the role of helping others as an integral part of the liberal arts experience the merest faculty for chalan to examine the technologically prepared for immediate and long term success in the rapidly changing environment of the twenty first century so i guess today is scott garrett he's the associate director for financially sport which really tiger directed my search a little bit i see there were coaches that were actively recruiting and so that kind of narrowed down my list a little bit of the schools i was looking at you know obviously you're recruits an athlete you're visiting go from graduating from college to assistant director financially and that's another great question as well so the journey for me as i finish my undergraduate here after four years when a couple different career pass most or all of them in higher read i started out as a college football coach i went to a few other colleges universities for about six years coaching college football which was a lot of fun and it was it was exciting to be working you know it higher ed i did a lot of recruiting for the masters the great oddly enough talking about affordability and in college cos i didn't want to pay for a master's degree so i looked in the hudson valley and we have several schools here and i was able to obtain employment here of college in the financial aid office and my goal was to  master's degree and then maybe go on and do something else after i got my masters degree i stayed in finance late and then i had an opportunity here america to go to the athletic department and be an assistant director of athletics for about five years which which was exciting again going back to my journey my history in kind of getting back with the athletic department so very very exciting and then there was an opportunity to come back to paris college in a different role after that in the student financial services office as the as the you know in the  they have a lot of experience with the process so they're very unique specific questions maybe to our college toward the process itself because of because of all that previous experience and then the other side as a first time going through it so the question is can range very simply through what do i bookie for something financial assistance i would say the answer is yes i think they're trying to figure out early on maybe what what school university if they're going to be able to afford or connect that you know the gap  between what they can you know you're going with the financial aid packages offering and i think that's what they're trying to do when they come into office a lot of times it's the it through the admissions process is really that percept on a college campus and then there's that applying acceptance but then when you step out of that you're looking at the person as a whole not just academically that's when these other things start to shine a little bit here for instance of our scholars we have our music department our meter group and you have the opportunity to audition through the application process so there's ways you can highlight what you what town to have and what i mean you know help you out here at the school with you know do so parents they always come up to me you know i ask me things like every school is expensive these days you get the money at the absolutely i think when you look at the missions process as as work setting students into that freshman class there's experience of work with the suits and families that are in what we do instant financial services the exciting part i would like to say is we get to work with students and fam for all four years so again there's a process you know things will change for students and families were very much committed like all schools are their students and want to see them succeed and graduate so all four years that things are going on they're filling out forms they're when they're not a process sometimes it's not just about trying to get more of a merit scholarship award or maybe maybe a grant like a need based you know based on need to change circumstances sometimes there's a reality why they may be asking us and we want to make sure we're looking at obviously a student step on campus i think we need to fall in love with the what they see from the river the architecture and i think we back it up with a lot of other things obviously strong academic programs and you know the experience a student can have our campus experience that really sets him up later on in life i think that's our selling point there's a lot of other things that are here whether it's our you know studio brought forward where they can go over overseas and study in and gain that experience as well so there's a lot of little things but those are such a large metropolitan area like new york city a simple train right down down the way i think we're students really benefit from that is not so much even at the end of the four year videotaping employment in a field they really want to do but have the opportunity for internships and sometimes even paid internships and so there was a lot of industry in business in the hudson valley or simply going down in new york city so the opportunity is there and the school is very big fish store is there absolutely so what what do you what exactly the fashion program two sides of the fashion program there's obviously for those and i've learned as i've been here the there's the design piece to it which i think a lot of us associate with fashion designing clothing and because of that nature but we also have the merchandis so we're students really benefit as you can imagine if right here our campus they actually have their own business set up where they are merchandising the part of the bay having to develop or working through the industries in new york city to produce and selling on campus romero's college and really kind of get into the field of what they can be doing with from the merchandising a lot of those things are selling were made or designed by the students on the design side we're very very fortunate in new york city it is in such a large piece of fashion internationally and we're able to plug into that with our shows still three dollars from institution not so much as a record of every school has their priorities of what they're trying to do i mean we're trying to improve our fashion program or computer science so a student may seem  this so the free federal form the faster it is the only form that we ask for all requiring students to complete every single year through the department of education in order to see what their need is is really being demonstrated that's a starting and for a question a lot of people feel that they know their situation maybe they feel that again he had a previous student go through this process and found that they were not seen based funds by filling out the facts i think as a priority to be asked all students and families least at first you're coming in to complete  point for students who maybe don't have that program so we try to give an opportunity to all students who want to work on campus the ability to know when when students come here and they get financial aid every year as soon as school goes up to which is just like try to assist us and we try to take it as a case by case as they may be yes they answer a question we have been known to to evaluate you know students or a certain situation as they presented to us maybe through an appeal process to try to see if there's anything else we can do to assist them so where  we're finding that the school house has a lot of these high schools are asking colleges to come in and do the presentation a lot of times we're painting to a general process not just specific to ours to tuition it may be simply a faster completion night or raising questions about the form and how to fill it out it's also by the general process of how does financial aid work when when can i expect to do that one thing to get another thing we're doing quite a bit of them we also because pace of statewide efforts with faster completion so it's definitely growing as you know we always say you definitely want to look at the schools and start to narrow down why you want to ten hopefully it's because of the major that you're seeking to study or maybe how you felt stuck on that campus as far as this is why i'm on my four year experience the steps that are usually the interest in school and there's there's an application process and hopefully that acceptance process after the acceptance is when financial aid really comes into play that that's when that the information the fasces pulled in to the school financial aid packages are created and usually shortly after the acceptance process is when those are hold out the students and families for their review with him the question is obviously there's you know interaction dialogue as we lead up to things as the open house with the possum deadlines so narrow what's the process for the financial we're we're following kind of the missions time in the sense that i find that a lot of students are now early in their junior year of high school hoping by the end of their junior they have already started the process of looking for college is visiting actually questions g hopefully by april they are they have got the answers that they need they have the picture set for them and they go to school they want to go to make that decision so a lot of times before they arrive us in september and august they're kind of set in place at that point ok so so active working what are they actively picking up as well as what would you say is the most interesting pages it's of no great question so as we can imagine society today right now anything related to computer sciences is booming right now so we buy a lot of our computer science majors whether it's maybe the software development maybe again we buy that and that's that a major that has seen some some great growth here and i think we're going to continue to see great gro then move into some of the park or sciences the biology majors we've just started our physicians assistance program here maris college so we have a few more things coming down the line that science or but that's another big piece and then and then i think you have some just  america's colleges always been known for communications there is always been very very big very large very successful because of our proximity to new york city it and some of our graduates have gone into the field so just to name a few and do you actively go out this is the we will tend to events for may be accepted students maybe not we are now involved in those emissions events were there to answer questions because of so much of the presentation but were interviews were part of the presentation we're there to help them you know better see the bigger star first doctorate program which will start of january two thousand and eighteen which will be a head doctor and physical therapy that's a big huge step prostitution i'm sitting to add to that world we're very very excited mentioned before fashion continues to grow and it's so popular in  the community and in the international community that that that you know gives us a great name you know we continue to strive as you can see we're building on campus right now to provide a lot of things for our students whether we just better housing or or can you know committed housing for all four years along with that see as let's say at sea to financial aid what do you what do you see as the secret sauce for the school i think that we on the big board right now is division i think we do about as good a job as anybody as far as making the financial aid packages as best they possibly can be everyone has different needs everyone demonstrates that from the year to year i think what we do is we make nearest college affordable and i think that's been a mainstay know asking questions i mean sometimes financially or that process becomes and it doesn't in the time when there was after the acceptance but i think sometimes students and families don't get in contact with their financial aid office soon enough on  college campus i really strongly recommend that when you start looking at schools start looking at the financial aid process as well maybe when you narrow it down to a to a number of schools visit those financially offices set up meetings early on find out what their processes are  mother said to me a couple years ago to the fantastic one one of our students and come he said close mouth doesn't effect and so i can't recommend that and not there are so many ways to afford college these days it doesn't just have to be loans but if you're not willing to get out there ask