The current financial aid functionality is not beneficial to our situation. It seems to have one flow of process with little capability for deviation from it. We do many hacks and workarounds that are not efficient or helpful for future expansion or reporting.
We need the financial aid tab to have an aid application layer and an aid ledger layer within the academic year. We need to be able to see what has been offered separately from what is actually being disbursed.
If there was an aid application layer separate from the aid ledger layer:
- students could accept/deny their aid on the aid application and then we could approve the acceptance which would move it to the aid ledger or the denial which would not add it to the aid ledger but would remain in the aid application. With this too, students could accept a specific amount of the aid or all of the aid.
- we could add multiple aid applications so we could generate different funding estimates where the student could see what aid is available in different situations.
- we could delete aid applications.
- we could track how the aid application may change based on academic, housing, need, etc. We need to be able to show "this is what we originally awarded you but now that x, y, and z have changed, this is what you are now eligible for."
- we could set an Active Aid Application but still be able to view all other aid applications. The active aid application would be visible on the aid ledger layer for calculations.
- we could set enrollment on the aid ledger different from the aid application. The enrollment on the aid ledger would be set by term, not auto-calculated at the time of viewing, and the enrollment checks for processing the disbursements would look at these fields and not the auto-calculations (although the auto-calc flag would alert a difference).
- we could disburse student-designated amounts on the aid ledger that may be different than what they are eligible for on the aid application. The student may be eligible for $3,500 but may only want to take $2,000. We need the $3,500 to stay on the aid application and the $2,000 to stay on the aid ledger. As mentioned above, if they could accept a specific amount, this would make our process even more efficient.
Overall, we need the aid application and funding estimate to remain intact with what a student is eligible for no matter how we actually disburse the aid. We need to be able to show how the COA may change based on differing factors and how need may change what is actually disbursed. We need to be able to show different COAs and need with different aid available in those situations.
I have many more ideas based on this model. I would love to discuss them in further detail.