It would be helpful for our students to see the calculated scheduled/pending credit balances prior to aid posting/disbursement. As things display now, if a student's scheduled aid exceeds their billed costs, the financial area / statement all display $0 as the balance, even if they may have $5000 coming back soon as a credit balance refund for the semester.
1) For students who take out loans to cover their off-campus living expenses and other indirect costs, it is helpful for them to be able to see how much they will be getting back for the semester before we disburse aid a few weeks into the semester. They need to budget based on what they will have coming back or decide if they may need to increase loans or reduce if the pending credit will be more than they need. We allow students to request advances of these pending credit balances, but it's hard for them to see at a glance what they may have coming back.
2) We have students who only want to borrow exactly what is needed to pay their direct/billed costs and specifically do NOT want a refund check for living expenses. Again, showing them they have a pending credit balance of X would be helpful. We do not want to encourage over-borrowing if they do not need that excess loan. And of course it's easier to reduce the loan before it's disbursed, than to wait until a refund check has been issued and cancel all of that, then.
Thanks for your consideration.