Awarding and Award Notification. After the FAFSA, the EFC, and Need Analysis, the next step is to create an award package. Learn about the principles for awarding financial aid and some of the awarding philosophies and models used to help you balance the art and science of awarding.
Budget Construction. Learn the structure behind building student budgets. Review the required and optional components that go into calculating Cost of Attendance, learn ways to determine reasonable figures for each item and understand how to prorate a COA for shorter or longer periods of enrollment. Case studies throughout the session put to work the lessons learned.
Calculating the EFC. After the FAFSA comes the Expected Family Contribution calculation. What does this number mean and how is it used? Learn the federal methodology formula behind it, the information that goes into it and how the delivery of student financial aid is dependent upon it. Put your knowledge to the test by completing an EFC calculation by hand.
Cash Management Regulations. Schools are required to adhere to money management principles that help minimize the Title IV aid program costs for the federal government, students and taxpayers. Review specific requirements to follow for requesting, maintaining and disbursing funds — including timelines and notifications — to protect your school’s ability to participate in Title IV aid programs.
Cohort Default Rates. National and institutional cohort default rates are likely to increase over the next several years. While the key factors are external — the state of the economy, increased debt levels and the legislatively-mandated transition to a three-year calculation — there are steps you can take now to manage or improve your school’s rates. Understanding how cohort default rates are calculated and how they affect schools and borrowers will help you begin to develop strategies for minimizing the effect of these environmental factors in the future.
Common Audit Findings. Administering student financial assistance requires schools to adhere to a myriad of laws, rules and regulations. Understanding the common audit and program review missteps of others can help your school identify potential problem areas and correct them before an auditor sets foot on your campus.
Conflicting Information. Students submit multiple pieces of information to a variety of offices at a school — some of it consistent, some of it conflicting. While ED requires schools to resolve conflicting information before delivering federal student aid, the responsibility involves the institution as a whole, not just the financial aid office. Examples, case studies and discussion items will help identify common sources of conflicting information and resolve conflicts in a timely manner.
Consumer Information. Higher education can be expensive — for students, families and the taxpayer. It’s fitting, then, that higher education choices are informed decisions. Learn about the federal disclosure and reporting requirements necessary for compliance, as well as the consumer information Title IV-eligible schools must provide to help students make appropriate consumer decisions when choosing a school.
FAFSA. Completing the Free Application for Federal Student Aid is the first step in a student’s journey to receiving federal student assistance. Learn about the four options for filing the FAFSA and review common questions that cause applicants to struggle.
Federal Delivery System. The U.S. Department of Education uses numerous systems to process financial aid applications and manage billions of dollars of federal student assistance. These systems collect, analyze and distribute information on financial aid applicants, and track the flow of funds. Learn how the systems work together and how they can help you administer federal student aid programs.
FERPA. Students have the right to keep their personally identifiable information from being disclosed. Likewise, schools are required to use proper due diligence to protect this information. With the amount of student information maintained by a school, it is recommended that school employees review the provisions of the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act each year to understand the information that can and cannot be disclosed, with whom it can be shared — and learn when a release is required and the information that should be included.
Financial Aid Web Resources. The Internet is one of the most readily available information resources. See a variety of Web resources that are particularly useful to the financial aid administrator for researching financial aid topics or assisting students with additional scholarship opportunities.
General Eligibility Requirements. Students must meet certain minimum requirements to receive federal student aid. Learn what these eligibility requirements are, which requirements your school is responsible for confirming, and how the federal government can help you in confirming others.
Need Analysis. Get a general overview of the concepts behind Need Analysis and the components of it: Cost of Attendance, Expected Family Contribution and Need. Through case studies, learn the basic formulas and how the resulting analysis sets up the award package.
Overawards and Overpayments. When students receive more financial aid than they should have, the financial aid office must intervene. Explore the difference between overawards and overpayments — and how to resolve or report them.
Policies and Procedures. Writing policies and procedures can be a tedious task, but it doesn’t have to be as challenging if you have the right tools. Review how to select the best templates, how others on campus can help and what resources you likely already have at your disposal. Learn how to address the common barriers that prevent offices from completing this task.
Professional Judgment. The Higher Education Act gives aid administrators a powerful tool to help students with unusual circumstances, to prevent situations from affecting their ability to pay for college. Find out what you can and cannot do through professional judgment, and discuss common documentation requirements. Apply your knowledge and experience through engaging case studies.
Return of Title IV funds. A return of Title IV funds calculation determines the amount of aid a student earned after completely withdrawing from all classes and the resulting federal funds that must be returned by the school or the student. Learn the various components of the Return of Title IV funds calculation and how to apply them through a hands-on case study.
Satisfactory Academic Progress. All schools are required to establish SAP policies and monitor students’ progress toward program completion. There is more, however, to being in compliance with SAP regulations, including those that will become effective on July 1, 2011. Learn what needs to be included in your school’s policies and procedures, how to deal with appeals and how SAP is used to determine a student’s eligibility for aid.
Stafford/PLUS Loans: The Basics. Learn the fundamentals of the federal education loan program, including subsidized and unsubsidized Stafford loans, parent and graduate and professional student PLUS loans, and federal Consolidation loans. Explore borrower eligibility, annual and aggregate loan limits and a high-level overview of the various repayment plans available to borrowers.
Stafford/PLUS Loans: Beyond the Basics. Once you’ve mastered the basics of the Stafford and PLUS loan programs, it’s time to learn even more about federal education loan program requirements. Review when to prorate loans based on programs of study and learn the difference between scheduled- and borrower-based academic years.
Stafford/PLUS Loan Repayment Relief. When borrowers of federal education loans are having difficulty making payments, they need to know that several options exist for keeping their loans in good standing. Borrowers may be able to postpone making loan payments or even qualify to have their remaining debt canceled. To position yourself to be ready to help borrowers when they reach out to you, examine what it takes for borrowers to qualify for deferment, forbearance and loan cancellation.
Summer Financial Aid. Awarding aid during the summer presents unique challenges that may not be present during the academic year. Through hands-on examples and case studies, explore how to prorate the Expected Family Contribution and the Cost of Attendance, examine the effect of the frequency of annual loan limits and review the factors affecting award amounts for crossover payment periods.
Tax-Filing Requirements. Financial aid administrators must know specific topics related to Internal Revenue Service tax-filing requirements. Recent changes to verification regulations effective for the 2012-2013 award year point to increased reliance on the IRS data retrieval process and information obtained directly from the IRS, including tax transcripts. Build a solid understanding of the requirements through a review of basic elements, a comparison of tax returns and tax transcripts and complete several case studies to determine what needs to happen when the applicant’s file does not measure up.
Types and Sources of Financial Aid. Self-help, gift, federal, state, institutional and outside aid — these are the building blocks of a financial aid award package. Gain a thorough knowledge of these forms of aid to better serve your students.
Verification. All schools participating in federal student financial aid programs must verify application data for some portion of their student population. Recent changes to verification regulations effective for the 2012-2013 award year point to increased reliance on the IRS data retrieval process and information obtained directly from the IRS, including tax transcripts. To help you gain confidence that you are now and will remain in compliance, review all current and new verification requirements, outline acceptable documentation and identify the difference between verification and conflicting information.