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Frequently Asked Questions

What does it cost?

Approximately $30-50 per student depending on scope. Arbol charges annually and provides discounts based on the number of students served.

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What do colleges/universities receive?

Colleges receive access to a web-based portal that provides data-driven insights revealing which students are financially vulnerable and which expenses create financial barriers for their students.

For example, Arbol unearthed transportation costs for Villa Maria College students. In response, Villa Maria College set up an innovative ride-sharing partnership, which has decreased costs and improved access to their campus.
All of our partners have experienced increased persistence, increased retention, and decreasing recurrence of emergency aid for program participants after implementing our platform.

Of course, institutions receive support from a dedicated success manager.

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How does it work?

Students connect their financial accounts, financial aid information, and college bill into our analyses engine.

Arbol's scoring model, Arbol Score™, analyzes the data to evaluate the student's financial wellbeing (ranging from vulnerable to healthy). The model measure velocity of progress and alternative data to predict a student’s future performance and financial health over time.

Arbol provides insights, assistance, and nudges to help students boost their scores.

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Are you going to tell our students to get jobs or take loans?

It depends on the individual student's situation.

Many students we serve will need student loans and/or a part-time job to help pay for their college education.

Arbol works with students to demonstrate how a loan can be a financial vehicle rather than a long-term burden.

With that said, we have found that some students can afford their college education without taking any loans by making minor adjustments to their spending.

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Are you taking donors/student sponsors?

Absolutely! You can directly support students by donating to the Arbol Community Fund. Arbol administers grants via the Arbol Community Fund to provide direct support to students with minor, occasional needs.

Please email Emily Louis.


More information on the Arbol Community Fund.

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What are the qualifications for your financial advising team?

Our financial coach, Favio Osorio, is a certified financial planner (CFP®). He has graduated from Mount St. Mary's University (undergraduate), the Duke Fuqua School of Business (MBA), and received his CFP® certification from the University of Georgia Terry School of Business.

Prior to co-founding Arbol, Favio spent over a decade working personal finance at T. Rowe Price, Truist Wealth, and M&T Bank. He also provided research assistance at Princeton University.

Favio exhibits incredible empathy to help put students in a safe space where our financial insights are the most impactful.

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Why are you doing this? This seems too good to be true.

Our founders met discussing how to provide banking to underserved communities, and discovered two things:

1. Traditional banking makes it very difficult to serve communities that do not have wealth.

2. Higher education provided a means to provide that service AND an audience to serve.

Providing financial wellness with analyses, potential grants, and/or microloans allows great students to persist to graduation.

We believe in empowering dreams. Over time we want to use those individuals successes to improve access and equity nationally, and hopefully globally.

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What do students receive?

Students receive access to a financial wellness app providing automated guidance and recommendations to improve financial decision-making and outcomes.

Part of that experience is access to human advisors, including an expert financial planner who helps set a course for a student to achieve financial stability.

Administrators can see potential barriers and work with Arbol to address those challenges with innovative programs.

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What is financial wellness?

We provide students with actionable insights and nudges to adopt healthy financial behaviors and achieve financial goals.

Arbol believes in achieving financial wellness, which goes beyond financial literacy. Literacy means knowledge. Wellness means taking that knowledge and putting it into action.

We believe these actions and insights prevent disruptions proactively.

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How quickly can we start?

We're continuously honing our implementation model, but it looks like 2-4 weeks to gather data, schedule meetings with administrators and students, before fully launching.

Arbol would also schedule ongoing follow-ups to ensure client institutions continue to obtain success.

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Who are some of your partners?

Currently, we're working with luminary partners to test limits and program capabilities. Those luminaries are SUNY Erie, Medaille University, and Villa Maria College.

We're about to launch with Buffalo State University, Canisius College, and Niagara University.

If you'd like to join them, reach out to us.
Email our Director of Campus Success, Mike Kochczynski, at mike@growarbol.com


If you'd like to talk to some of our references:
SUNY Erie: Dr. Erik Neilans, Vice President of Enrollment Management

Villa Maria College: Dr. Ryan Hartnett, Provost

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Do you sell financial products?

Currently, no.

Long-term, Arbol plans to be the full-service financial partner for college students,

It will take a while to get there, but we envision ourselves becoming a leading provider of debit cards and alternative lending. We would provide additional controls, affiliate rewards programs, insights, and data to help students as well as institutions.

Our goal is to enable student success and provide insights for campus leaders.

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How do you keep financial data safe?

If we told you everything, that would be a security risk, but here are the short details:

-Arbol stores student financial data in a secure financial tech aggregator, guarded by advanced algorithmic security. This process not only keeps information safe but also makes it easy for students to see their full financial picture.

-Arbol stores institutional data in a private, secured server accessible to only your account manager and Arbol's student support staff.

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Who is my primary contact?

Mike Kochczynski is our Director of Campus Success. A ten-year veteran of higher education, Mike lives and breathes higher education.

He has worked in Admissions, Student Life, Athletics, and Advancement. Mike has led hundreds of successful implementations and client relationships.

In particular, he is passionate about the lifelong engagement opportunities between institutions and their students. Mike will help you identify program goals and then collaborate on the tasks to meet (or exceed) them.

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