Managing Special Cases in Packaging

This chapter discusses how to:

• Manage special cases when packaging students.

• Award for multiple careers.

• Process awards for multiple award periods using passive/active mode.

• Use passive/active mode in Manual Packaging for multiple award periods.

• Award conditional aid for multiple award periods.

• Distribute awards when a shortage of need exists in one award period.

• Protect disbursements during awarding.

• Review one-term DL loan functionality.

• Manage origination from two-term loan to one-term loan.

Managing Special Cases When Packaging Students

This section provides an overview of awarding and packaging students and discusses how to:

• Award for additional terms.

• Award for nonstandard terms.

• Award without application data.

• Award for increased grade level eligibility.

• Add awards using the same financial aid item type.

• Re-award a cancelled or declined item type.

• Cancel awards with disbursements.

• Sequence loan awards.

• Process Direct Loan adjustments.

• Adjust CommonLine loan item types.

Understanding Awarding and Packaging Students

Financial Aid provides sophisticated tools to package students. You can manually award students one at a time, auto package students one at a time using a packaging plan, or Mass Package a large number of students using several packaging plans. Manual awarding and Auto Packaging are performed using one of the award entry components. Mass Packaging is performed using a series of background processes, but you can review the results of each step using inquiry and summary pages. After running Auto Packaging or Mass Packaging, you can supplement a student's package by manually entering awards. Using the award entry pages (Student Aid Package page, Manual Student Packaging page, and Professional Judgement page), you can also override default financial aid item types attributes, such as the disbursement plan and split code. Manual awarding is done by inserting as many financial aid item types as you want to complete a student's package or by modifying an existing award.

You must validate awards after manual award entry or after making any changes to existing awards. Validation is performed automatically as part of the Auto Packaging and Mass Packaging processes. Validation checks eligibility rules, fiscal limits, aggregate limits, and any other financial aid item type rules for each award. Validation lowers award amounts for awards that cause an over-award or which exceed fiscal or aggregate limits. When manually awarding Pell Grants, Validation assists you by calculating the Pell Grant eligibility amount for students when you leave the offer field at zero dollars.

Note. Before a student can be packaged, the U.S.E.D. database matches from the Central Processing System (CPS) must be passed. If one of the matches is returned with an ineligible code, it must be resolved before the student can be packaged for federal assistance. The procedure for resolving ineligible conditions is described in the documentation for the Database Matches page.

Awarding for Additional Terms

To award students for a term you must have a Financial Aid term and a budget associated with the student for the term that you want to award. If the Financial Aid term and budget do not exist for the term you are awarding, you must create a row in the Financial Aid term record and the budget record for that term. The Financial Aid term and a budget must be present for the student because the disbursement record for an award cannot be created without the associated Financial Aid term and budget. For example, if you want to award for a summer term before summer enrollment data—Financial Aid term—is available, you must manually create the summer Financial Aid term and a summer budget.

Note. A budget for the student is not required if you are awarding a financial aid item type that has a meet need/cost attribute of either No Effect or Conditional or if you are awarding using the Professional Judgement page.

If you are awarding for an additional term, not previously awarded for, you must use a relevant disbursement plan/split code combination to account for that new term. For example, if the student was awarded based on two terms, fall and winter, and now needs to be awarded for the spring term, you can change the split code if the disbursement plan encompasses all three terms. Otherwise, you must award for the spring term using different financial aid item types and disbursement plans and split codes that reflect a spring only disbursement.

See Also

Defining Awarding and Rounding Rules

Awarding for Non-Standard Terms

The system supports awarding Pell Grants for non-standard award periods (NSAP) for Pell Grant Formulas 1 and 3. You can define a Summer term as the leading or trailing term. For Formula 1, the system divides the Pell Grant award by the Pell Number of Terms across both Academic and Non-Standard terms. For Formula 3, the system sums the Academic Base Weeks and Non-Standard Base Weeks to define the Academic Program's Weeks of Instruction for Pell Grant calculations..

See Establishing Defaults.

See Reviewing Pell Information.

See Awarding Pell Grants for the 2010 and Future Aid Years.

Awarding Without Application Data

Students who have no application data (ISIR, PROFILE, or institutional application) can be awarded. A student is considered to have no application if the student has no application data or if the student has an application that is different to that indicated in Packaging Data Source field on the Financial Aid Defaults page. For example, if you specify Federal for your packaging data source and the student only has a PROFILE application, the student is considered to have no application.

A student who has no application, as previously defined, is considered by Packaging to be ineligible for federal funds, except a PLUS loan. If you try to award federal funds (except a PLUS loan) to a student who has no application you get the message, In NO APP status. Only conditional, No Effect, or PLUS Item Types are valid. When a PLUS loan is being awarded to an undergraduate student who has no application, Packaging bypasses all federal eligibility checks, including the dependency check, and the PLUS loan is awarded.

Generally when awarding students who have no application, a budget is not required. However, students with no application who are awarded a PLUS loan must have a budget.

To award a financial aid item type to a student who has no application data—except for PLUS financial aid item types—the financial aid item type's Meet Need/Cost attribute must be defined as Conditional, No Effect, or Cost Only and the financial aid item type's Source attribute cannot be Federal. The Meet Need/Cost attribute must be Conditional, No Effect or Cost Only because no need is calculated for the student without an application. The Source attribute must not be Federal, except for PLUS, because when awarding a federal award, Packaging requires ISIR data.

See Defining Financial Aid Item Types.

If you are packaging a student who does not have an ISIR or institutional application data in the system, when you enter any of the award entry pages you receive a message that says, "Student does not have application data." This message is informational only; you can acknowledge the message and enter the page.

Awarding for Increased Grade Level Eligibility

Federally funded financial aid programs require strict eligibility requirements and borrowing limits. Most grade level limits increase as students progresses in their studies. A student who has already borrowed up to the annual level limit within an academic year can receive additional funds if the annual level limit increases because a student advances or progresses to a new grade level with a higher-level limit. Financial Aid provides two procedural options to accommodate and award for an additional increase due to grade level changes. Option one is to use multiple and/or unique item types with different disbursement plans or split codes to support the additional eligibility. The other option is to select the Multi-Pass Processing check box. The Multi-Pass processing option set at the aggregate area level provides the means to automate mid-year grade level limit increases during the Awarding and Packaging process. This is an optional setting. This option is currently disabled for loan programs processed by the financial aid Loan Origination process (for example, Direct, FFELP, Health, Alternative and Perkins loan programs).

See Setting Up Packaging Basics.

To award funds that have aggregate level limits defined and do not have the Multi-Pass processing option selected, you must use multiple financial aid item types and different disbursement plans/split codes to support the additional term. The financial aid item types must be associated with the same aggregate area to calculate aggregate limits correctly. The following scenario for the Stafford loan program demonstrates how it works.

Awarding Stafford loans across multiple NSLDS loan years is necessary when a student begins the financial aid year at one NSLDS level and then advances to the next level in subsequent terms within the same aid year. For example, you may have a student who is a freshman in the fall term but has enough credits to advance to a sophomore in the spring term. To determine the NSLDS loan year, Packaging evaluates the first nonzero disbursement record dictated by the disbursement plan/split code pattern and uses the corresponding term for that record. Then Packaging checks the student's NSLDS loan year for the corresponding term where the first nonzero disbursement record appears.

The student is awarded initially based on his or her freshman status—NSLDS loan year is Freshman. The student is awarded the maximum loan amount for a freshman—sequence #10. You select a disbursement plan/split code pattern for equal disbursements. You validate and post the award. The following table shows the initial loan award:

Near the end of the fall term the student tells you that he or she has enough credits to be a sophomore for the spring term and would like to receive additional loan money. First, you must change the NSLDS loan year on the student's Financial Aid term record for the term in which the student advances to sophomore status. After changing the NSLDS loan year, rebuild the student's spring budget. Then the additional award amount must be entered as a separate financial aid item type on the award entry page—sequence #20. To do this, you must have two financial aid item types set up for the subsidized Stafford loan and two financial aid item types set up for the unsubsidized Stafford loan. Use one for the initial award and the other for any subsequent (add-on) awards.

You award a subsequent Stafford loan, using a different financial aid item type from the initial loan award and a different disbursement plan/split code pattern to support only the spring term. Packaging determines the award amount for the add-on loan. Use a disbursement plan/split code pattern that distributes 100 percent of the additional award in the spring term. If there were more than one term remaining in the aid year, you would distribute the 100 percent evenly across the remaining terms. If you are manually packaging the student, you can leave the award amount at zero, and the Validation process calculates the difference between the freshman loan maximum already awarded and the sophomore loan maximum and awards the correct amount (the difference). After validation, the two loans are both shown because they are two separate financial aid item types. The financial aid item types must be associated with the same aggregate area to account for all sources that affect aggregate limits eligibility. For all non-DL loan programs, you must provide disbursement plan and split code schemes that do not include any zero percentages in a disbursement ID. When a loan is originated, the scheduled disbursement amounts and associated disbursement ID is carried forward to the financial aid Loan Origination process. All non-DL loans with a zero amount associated with a disbursement ID are rejected during the initial Origination process. For example, a disbursement plan of three quarters (fall, winter and spring) could not be used to award a winter, and spring FFELP subsidized Stafford loan.

The first award is the total freshman loan amount split evenly across both terms and the second award—a different financial aid item type—represents the additional spring term only amount the student is eligible to receive as a sophomore. The following table shows the awards before and after validation:

* Using the defined Aggregate limits, Packaging determines the student's eligibility to be 3500 USD (sophomore aggregate limit) minus 2625 USD (freshman award) equals 875 USD (maximum sophomore eligible limit).

Note. Using two financial aid item types causes Loan Origination to create a new master promissory note (MPN) for the second financial aid item type.

Adding Awards Using the Same Financial Aid Item Type

The system permits you to award additional awards using the same financial aid item type under the following conditions:

• NSLDS loan year must be the same for both awards using the same financial aid item type, only if the financial aid item type is tied to an aggregate area that does not have the Multi-Pass processing option selected.

• Career must be the same for both awards using the same financial aid item type.

• Disbursement plan must be the same for both awards using the same financial aid item type.

• Split codes can be different for the awards using the same financial aid item type.

Given the previous conditions, the Posting process collapses the two awards with the same financial aid item type into one award. The split codes are combined and a custom split code is returned. For example, if you have disbursement plan 01 and split code 02 for one award and disbursement plan 01 and split code 03 for the subsequent instance of that award, the combined award has disbursement plan 01 and split code XX.

When you are awarding for an add-on term, such as summer, you must follow the previous rules regarding NSLDS loan year.

If you have different careers with different NSLDS loan years, you can use the same financial aid item type because the financial aid item types for different careers are not combined.

Here is a list of the fields that are affected by the Award Merging process that occurs when the Posting process encounters two or more instances of the same financial aid item type:

The following attributes are not affected by the Award Merging process that occurs when the Posting process encounters two or more instances of the same financial aid item type. The Posting process preserves the value of the highest sequence-numbered row for each of these attributes.

• Sequence Number

• Disbursement Plan

• Professional Judgement override

• Need Override

• Lock override

• Charge Priority List

Re-awarding a Canceled or Declined Item Type

In some instances you may want to re-award or repackage an award for a student after it has been canceled or declined. You can use the same financial aid item type as long as authorization, disbursement, or loan origination has not occurred. If the financial aid item type meets these conditions, you can reuse that financial aid item type regardless of disbursement plan/split code combinations. For a non-loan financial aid item type, authorization and disbursement amounts must be set to zero. If this financial aid item type is a loan and origination has not taken place, you can use the same financial aid item type. Otherwise, you must use a different financial aid item type. In addition, you can use the same or different sequence number when the conditions have been met. Using a different sequence number of a financial aid item type permits you to package the student in batch or online using the Auto Package function with the same financial aid item type after you have canceled the award.

For example, a student was awarded a non-loan financial aid item type such as a University Grant for 1,000.00 USD with a sequence number of 10 and a loan financial aid item type for 5,500.00 USD with a sequence number of 20. If the student originally declined both awards and later decided to attend spring term, you can use the same financial aid item types provided authorization, disbursement, or loan origination has not occurred. If the University Grant was disbursed for 500.00 USD for the fall term, you must set this disbursement down to zero—authorization and disbursement amounts must be backed out. You can then use the same financial aid item type and sequence number or insert a row and use a new sequence number for the same financial aid item type. If loan origination has not taken place, you can use the same financial aid item type and sequence number or insert a row. Otherwise, you must use a different financial aid item type and sequence number.

Canceling Awards with Disbursements

Packaging does not contain any edits to prevent you from canceling awards for which you have already made disbursements for a student. After you cancel a student's award that has associated disbursed amounts, Packaging retains a record of those disbursements—including the associated disbursement plan/split code pattern. This causes a problem if you attempt to award the student a second instance of the same financial aid item type for the award period but use a different disbursement plan than the disbursement plan associated with the canceled award. Packaging cannot reconcile the disbursement plan for the canceled award that has been partially or wholly disbursed with the disbursement plan called for by the new award. This situation can occur for financial aid item types whether or not disbursement protection has been activated for that financial aid item type.

For example, you offer an original award of the honors scholarship for 1,000.00 USD to a student. All amounts in the following table are in U.S. dollars (USD):

You then decide to cancel the original award, and offer the student a 900.00 USD honors scholarship with a different disbursement plan. The following table shows the retained canceled award and the new award. All amounts are in USD:

Packaging cannot reconcile the existing 500.00 USD disbursement from the canceled award with the new scheduled monthly disbursements of 100.00 USD.

The Validation process contains logic to prevent this situation from occurring. When you validate a student's award, the Validation process checks to see if multiple instances of the same financial aid item type with different disbursement plans exist. If this is the case, the Validation process then checks to see if the first instance is a canceled or declined award. If it is, the Validation process then checks whether the award has been disbursed, partially or wholly. If disbursements have taken place, then the Validation process cancels the second instance with reject message 9581, "You have a disbursed award that is either canceled or declined that contains a different disbursement plan than your newest offer."

The Validation process performs this check on both loans and non-loans. To award a financial aid item type under a different disbursement plan, you must first run both the authorization and disbursement processes to back out the row contained under the old disbursement plan. If you want to keep the disbursement plan, you can then award a second instance using the same disbursement plan.

Sequencing Loan Awards

When entering additional Stafford subsidized loans or additional Stafford unsubsidized loans—as in the multiple NSLDS loan years in the same aid year scenario—it is important that the subsidized loans come before the unsubsidized loans in the award sequence. Although the student has additional eligibility in the second awarding session, the Stafford logic requires that any subsidized loans be sequenced before any unsubsidized loans. An example is provided below. In the following example, the subsidized Stafford #2 and unsubsidized Stafford #2 are the second financial aid item types used to award the additional amount the student is eligible for since the student has changed NSLDS loan years:

Note. Subsequent loan awards, after a change in NSLDS loan year, must be awarded using a different financial aid item type because of the change in NSLDS loan years.

Processing Direct Loan Adjustments

You can allocate up to 20 disbursements for Direct Loans—subsidized and unsubsidized, but not PLUS. Financial Aid enables you to package Direct Loan adjustments using the increased number of disbursements, particularly cases in which you have already made one or more disbursements for a student. When you set up disbursement IDs for your institution, remember that these 20 disbursements must cover both the Academic Award Period (AAP) and Non-standard Award Period (NSAP).

The Packaging functionality works only for students whose Direct Loan awards are set up in a particular way. Here is an example of the setup. A student's package includes a 800.00 USD subsidized Direct Loan at an institution using semesters, with three disbursement IDs per semester. This Direct Loan award must have a Loan Program Item Type of Direct Loan, and the disbursement split code must be Even Split Option Even among first disb for Term. If the 800.00 USD loan had a disbursement split code of Even across all disbursements, the Direct Loan functionality and rules would not apply to this award.

Important! If the Split Code option is not Even among first disb for Term, the Packaging process ignores any disbursements already made and repackages the student without regard to disbursement activity.

You must also set up your disbursement plans so that the first disbursement in a term is always a nonzero disbursement. To meet this requirement, the student with the 800.00 USD subsidized Direct Loan receives equal disbursements of 400.00 USD in the fall semester and 400.00 USD in the spring semester.

Your Direct Loan financial aid item types automatically inherit disbursement protection through the Direct Lending processing rules defined in Direct Lending and financial aid item type setup and the selection of Even Among First Disbursement for Term option. If you activate disbursement protection for a Direct Loan financial aid item type, all awards of that financial aid item type are repackaged without following the processing rules established for Direct Loans.

Packaging splits Direct Loans evenly among the first disbursement ID of a term when the award is first offered. Packaging fills the next undisbursed ID within the term when making award adjustments if the scheduled disbursements have been paid, thereby always protecting what has already been disbursed. This behavior is the same for all Direct Loans whether your institution is an MPN or non-MPN institution.

Direct Lending processing inherits the characteristics of Even Among First Disbursement by Term with disbursement protection activated. When a disbursement has already occurred with protected disbursement, the system moves any residual amount to the next undisbursed ID in the term. If all subsequent terms do not have any disbursed IDs, then the system updates the first ID in each term.

The number of adjustments that you can make to a Direct Loan award depends on the number of disbursement IDs for each term in the disbursement plan, and whether your institution is an MPN institution. The Direct Loan adjustment process determines whether the institution is an MPN institution based on the DL Serial MPN Activation check box on the Loan Institution Table page.

For non-MPN schools, if the MPN indicator is No, and no remaining undisbursed IDs exist in the term, after you have used all the disbursement IDs for any term, you can no longer automatically make changes to the student's award. At this point, you can make custom splits manually or you can create a new loan for the increase. While this example illustrates increases to the student's total award amount, the Direct Loan adjustment process also handles decreases to the student's total award amount.

If your institution is an MPN institution and the MPN indicator is Yes, and no remaining undisbursed IDs exist in a term to support the increase, the system distributes the residual amount (the original amount minus the new amount) to the next undisbursed ID across subsequent terms.

Here is an example of a loan increase for a MPN institution. You originally award a student a 4,500.00 USD Direct Loan. Three equal disbursements of 1,500.00 USD are scheduled (one per quarter). You disburse the first ID in the fall term:

Then increase the award from 4,500.00 USD to 6,000.00 USD. When you modify a Direct Loan award, Packaging recalculates the total disbursement amount for each term, using the entire new award amount (rather than the residual or difference between the original award and the revised award). This value is referred to as the term target amount. The new term target amount is 2,000.00 USD. However, 1,700.00 USD has been fully disbursed in the fall term and no remaining disbursement IDs exist for the fall term. Therefore, the system distributes the additional 300.00 USD owed in the first term (2,000.00 USD minus 1,700.00 USD equals 300.00 USD) to any remaining undisbursed IDs:

Handling Error Messages in Direct Loan Adjustments and Packaging

Five error messages explain errors encountered during the Direct Loan adjustment Packaging process. The following table provides the message number, message text, and an explanation of the circumstances:

See Also

Protecting Disbursements During Awarding

Adjusting CommonLine Loan Item Types

CommonLine loans are highly dependent on the Packaging process. During the process of originating, transmitting, and receiving loan information from the loan servicer, changes to the loan award can affect the loan process. Conversely, changes to loan information by the lender can affect the loan award information in the student's package. After a CommonLine item type is awarded and accepted, it is ready for immediate processing by the loan program. The loan is originated and transmitted electronically to the loan servicer. After approval by the servicer, you can update the award in the student's package if the disbursement amounts and fees need to be corrected with the amounts confirmed by the lender. The system performs this automatically by the CommonLine and CRC loan inbound processes. After the loan is guaranteed, adjustments to the loan item type amounts trigger an adjustment to the loan by the loan origination process, and this information is transmitted to the loan servicer.

A problem exists when you change the loan item type while the loan is in transit to the servicer and a response has not yet been received by the school. If this occurs, the notification of the loan guarantee fails to load by the loan inbound processes if the amount of the item type no longer matches the amount of the loan. To resolve the issue, users must determine the proper corrective action. This often requires readjustment of the loan award so that the loan inbound processes can complete their task, and then readjusting again the loan award to the student's true eligibility.

To prevent this problem, Packaging no longer allows loan awards to be adjusted if an originated loan exists for the item type with a loan origination transmission status of Transmitted. Awards can be modified after the loan has been processed by the loan servicer and the approval (or rejection) of the loan has been loaded into the system. In cases where a school must modify the award amount, you can change the transmission status of the loan using the Override Loan Status component. You should perform this action after careful consideration, as additional actions may be required to ensure that the loan is correctly processed to completion.

See Also

Receiving and Processing CL4 Inbound Files

Originating CommonLine Loans

Awarding for Multiple Careers

This section provides an overview of awarding for multiple careers and discusses how to:

• Use award entry pages for multiple careers.

• Package sequential careers.

• Package replacement careers.

• Make award adjustments with multiple careers.

• Use Auto Packaging with multiple careers.

• Use Mass Packaging with multiple careers.

Understanding Awarding for Multiple Careers

Financial Aid enables you to package a student for one career for the first term and another career for one or more subsequent terms. You can also package a student for one career for the aid year, then later repackage the student with a different career for part of the aid year. PeopleSoft refers to this as "sequential career awarding."

You can also package a student for one career for the aid year and then replace the award package with awards for a second career for the aid year. The change in career would occur because the student changed to a different career for the aid year, prior to the start of the first term. PeopleSoft refers to this as "replacement career awarding."

For institutions with more than two terms, the system also allows you to award a student who changes from Career 1 for the aid year to Career 1 for Term 1 and Career 2 for Term 2 then back to Career 1 for Term 3. The system also supports awarding for students who change from Career 1 for the aid year to Career 1 for Term 1 and Career 2 for Term 2 and Career 3 for Term 3. This would be sequential career awarding with three careers instead of two.

Note. You cannot package a student for more than one career per term.

The Student's Field Audits page displays changes made to the student's Financial Aid term during the build process. This assists you in identifying students who may need award adjustments or budget updates based on a career change or other student record change.

Mass Packaging can also process students who have different careers in different terms within the aid year. Mass Packaging packages the student using one career, then packages them again using the other career. Awards made under the first career are considered existing (passive) awards when the student is packaged for the second career.

Using Award Entry Pages for Multiple Careers

Note. The following examples are based on Pell Grant awarding functionality for the 2009 and prior aid years.

The Career field on the award entry pages enables you to select the active career to be used for the current awarding session. If the student only has one career, then that career defaults into the Career field. You can make new awards or alter existing awards for the active career only. After you validate and post awards, or click the Reset button, you can select a different active career.

The non-active career and the awards associated with it are called a passive career and passive awards. Passive awards are listed first sequentially on the award entry page and active awards are listed below them. Passive awards and careers cannot be updated during the awarding session and are considered existing awards and careers. You cannot re-sequence active awards to intersperse them among passive awards.

The system considers passive awards first when it validates the awards, and passive awards are not changed by the system. Packaging includes awards for the passive career in the need summary amounts. Packaging also uses budget data for the passive career to calculate need summary amounts.

After you select a career and move out of the Career field, the Need Override check box is automatically selected for any existing awards—posted awards from an earlier awarding session—for the active career. You can choose to clear the Need Override check box on the existing awards for the active career.

Note. The Need Override check box does not override aggregate area maximums. So, if a student has multiple NSLDS loan years from their multiple careers—such as undergraduate senior and first-year graduate—and there are awards from the same aggregate area for both careers, the aggregate area maximums for the active career's NSLDS loan year are adhered to during validation.

Here is an example of how the Need Override check box functions with multiple NSLDS loan years and aggregate area limits. You award a 5,500.00 USD subsidized Stafford loan for the undergraduate career—senior NSLDS loan year—and validate and post the award. The aggregate total for the Stafford is 5,500.00 USD, which is the maximum allowed for a senior NSLDS loan year. Next, you award a 3,000.00 USD subsidized Stafford loan for the graduate career—first-year graduate NSLDS loan year—and validate and post that award. The aggregate total for the subsidized Stafford for the first-year graduate is 8,500.00 USD, which is the maximum allowed for a first year graduate NSLDS loan year. Now, you select the undergraduate career as the active career to add more awards. (The Need Override check box is automatically selected for the 5,500.00 USD subsidized Stafford award when you move out of the Career field because it is a previously posted award.) You add additional awards for the undergraduate career. When you validate and post the awards, the undergraduate career is active, the 5,500.00 USD subsidized Stafford award is reduced to 2,500.00 USD to stay within the aggregate maximum for a senior NSLDS loan year. The 3,000.00 USD subsidized Stafford made under the graduate career is added to the 2,500.00 USD from the undergraduate career making a total of 5,500.00 USD. This is the maximum allowed for a senior NSLDS loan year.

The following table gives an example of how you would use the Need Override check box in general. This is the award package the first time the student is packaged:

*Example based on Pell Grant awarding functionality for the 2009 and prior aid years.

This is the award package when you have reduced the Pell Grant so that it is awarded only for Term 1 (the student is a graduate student in Term 2) and you have selected the Need Override check box for the University Grant and Institutional Loan awards. Even though more need exists due to the reduced Pell Grant—the University Grant and Institutional Loan are not increased because the Need Override check box is selected.

*Example based on Pell Grant awarding functionality for the 2009 and prior aid years.

Packaging Sequential Careers

Note. The following examples are based on Pell Grant awarding functionality for the 2009 and prior aid years.

If a student is initially packaged for one career for the entire aid year and then changes to another career in a second or third term in the aid year, you can adjust the student's award by taking the steps outlined in this section. This situation generally occurs when a student changes careers part way through the aid year, and is called sequential career packaging.

The following step-by-step process should be used after the first term has begun and the student has been packaged for the entire aid year using one career. Then the Financial Aid Term Build process changes the student's career or the student informs the financial aid office that he or she has a different career for the second term.

To package sequential careers for a student:

1. Assume the student is in Career 1 for Term 1 and Term 2.

2. After Term 1 begins, the student changes to Career 2 for Term 2.

3. The Financial Aid Term build changes the student's career information, or you can change the career online.

   Adjust the budget for Career 1 in Term 2 down to zero and build a new budget for Career 2 in Term 2.

   Note. Reducing a budget to zero does not remove the budget record. When the career on Financial Aid term changes, the actual Financial Aid term record still exists. The records used in the initial awarding have the data changed, but they are not deleted.

4. Go to an award entry page.

   The student's current awards—for Career 1 in Terms 1 and 2—are displayed.

5. Select Career 1 from the available Career options. All the awards for Career 1 are now available to be edited.

6. Reduce the awards for Career 1 based on the number of terms the student is actually in Career 1 for the aid year.

   For example, if the student is Career 1 for Term 1 and Career 2 for Term 2, at a semester-based institution, reduce the student's Career 1 specific awards by one half. Departmental awards are an example of career-specific awards. If an award is not affected by a change in career, you do not need to adjust the award. For example, you may not need to adjust Perkins loans, Stafford loans, or University Grants. When you reduce an award, use a custom split to direct 100 percent of the award to Term 1 for Career 1 or specify a split code that distributes 100 percent of the award in Term 1 for Career 1. Validate and post your changes.

   Note. If you do not reduce the awards for the first career before packaging with the second career, the student may not have any need with which to receive additional awards, and no awards are made for the second career. The student can also be over-awarded if the need for the second career is less than the need for the first career because the second career's budget is reduced.

7. Select Career 2 from the available Career options on the award entry page. The remaining awards for Career 1 in Term 1 are now considered passive awards and are displayed at the top of the sequence order. Award the student for Career 2 for Term 2. Be sure to use disbursement splits that direct the Career 2 awards to Term 2 for disbursement. You can award the student for Career 2 using Manual Packaging, Auto Packaging, or Mass Packaging. Disbursement plans and split codes are attached to careers and only the disbursement plans and split codes for the selected career are available when awarding.

   Note. Use the Professional Judgement page to go back and make changes to awards for Career 1 after you have awarded for Career 2 if the awards you are changing have aggregate areas associated with them. For more information regarding this topic see the "Making Award Adjustments with Multiple Careers" section.

The following tables show an example of the first award package for Career 1, then the second award package for Career 2. In the example the student begins as an undergraduate for Terms 1 and 2, then changes to a graduate for Term 2. The following table shows the student's original package:

*Example based on Pell Grant awarding functionality for the 2009 and prior aid years.

The following table shows the student's package with an additional subsidized Stafford loan because of the student's increased eligibility as a graduate student:

*Example based on Pell Grant awarding functionality for the 2009 and prior aid years.

#Additional loan for graduate eligibility. You can use the same financial aid item type because it is a new career.

You can also use this step-by-step process for students who change from Career 1 for the aid year to Career 1 for Term 1 then Career 2 for Term 2 and back to Career 1 for Term 3. You would go through the step-by-step process first for the change to Career 2 then again for the change to Career 3.

Packaging Replacement Careers

If a student is packaged for one career for the aid year and then changes careers for the entire aid year, you can replace the awards of one career for awards of another career. To do this, cancel all of the awards for the first career. Then award new awards for the second career, even though you may be awarding the same award(s) for the second career as you awarded for the first career.

You must build a Financial Aid term and budget for the new career before you can award for the new career.

Here are the steps for packaging students when they change from one career to another career for the entire aid year. In other words, the first career is replaced with a second career.

To package a replacement career for a student:

1. Assume the student is in Career 1 for Term 1 and Term 2, and that before Term 1 begins the student changes to Career 2 for Term 1 and Term 2.

   The Financial Aid Term build changes the student's career information, or you can change the career online.

2. Reduce the Budget for Career 1 for Terms 1 and 2 down to zero and build a new Budget for Career 2 for Terms 1 and 2.

3. Go to an award entry page.

   You see the awards for Career 1.

4. Select Career 1 in the Career field.

   The Career 1 awards are now available to be edited.

5. Cancel all awards for Career 1.

6. Validate and post the canceled awards.

   This discards all the awards for Career 1.

7. Select Career 2 in the Career field.

8. Enter all the awards for Career 2, even those that were canceled for Career 1.

9. Validate and post the awards you have entered for Career 2.

Making Award Adjustments with Multiple Careers

Sequential career packaging, one form of multi-career packaging, enables you to package a student for a first term in one career and subsequent term(s) in a second career. An example of when you use sequential career packaging is a student at a semester school who is a graduating fourth-year undergraduate in the fall semester and a first-year graduate student in the spring semester.

When you package this student, Packaging acknowledges the student's change in career by evaluating the student's NSLDS loan year, as indicated by the disbursement plan associated with the financial aid item type. If the financial aid item type has an aggregate area associated with it, Packaging uses the student's NSLDS loan year from the appropriate disbursement plan to associate the financial aid item type with the appropriate aggregate level on the aggregate area table to determine the correct aggregate limit for the student. Financial aid item types such as subsidized and unsubsidized Stafford Loans point to the same aggregate area for both undergraduate and graduate careers.

Normally, you package this student by packaging him or her as a fourth-year undergraduate for either the fall semester only or for the entire year prior to the start of the award year. Then, when the award year begins, you repackage the student as a first-year graduate for the spring semester. The student's award package includes the following financial aid item types:

Packaging has used the NSLDS loan year values from the disbursement plans to identify the aggregate limits for his or her subsidized and unsubsidized Stafford Loans correctly. In the fall semester, the student receives a subsidized Stafford for 5,500.00 USD, the aggregate limit for fourth-year undergraduates in the subsidized Stafford aggregate area. The student does not receive an unsubsidized Stafford because he or she has already reached the aggregate limit for fourth-year undergraduates in the unsubsidized Stafford aggregate area. In the spring semester, the student receives an additional 3,000.00 USD subsidized Stafford loan, because the aggregate limit for first-year graduates is 8,500.00 USD, and the student has only received 5,500.00 USD in this aid year—as an undergraduate. The student also receives an unsubsidized Stafford loan for 10,000.00 USD because the aggregate limit for graduate students is higher than that for undergraduate students.

A problem can occur when you adjust the student's fall term after you have packaged the student as a graduate for the spring semester. When you adjust any undergraduate award, Packaging reevaluates the aggregate limit for any award that is associated with an aggregate area. If a graduate award exists within the same aid year associated with the same aggregate area as an undergraduate award, Packaging considers both the undergraduate and graduate amounts towards the undergraduate aggregate limit. Consequently, Packaging decreases the undergraduate award by the graduate award amount so that the undergraduate aggregate limit is not exceeded. For this student, if you adjust one of the fall semester awards (setting the student's University Grant to 1,450.00 USD) the student's subsidized Stafford loan decreases to 2,500.00 USD (undergraduate limit of 5,500.00 USD minus the graduate award of 3,000.00 USD).

Packaging sets the subsidized Stafford to 2,500.00 USD while repackaging the student's fall semester awards because the student's spring semester award is associated with the same aggregate area as his or her fall Stafford award. Based on the spring semester subsidized Stafford award, Packaging determines that the student has exceeded his or her fourth-year undergraduate aggregate limit of 5,500.00 USD for subsidized Stafford loans. Therefore, Packaging decreases the student's fall subsidized Stafford loan award to 2,500.00 USD, so that the student is under the aggregate limit of 5,500.00 USD.

Packaging alerts you to a student whose award would be decreased in this situation. Packaging checks for the existence of two nonzero amounts for differing aggregate levels in an aggregate area within the same aid year for a student. If a student meets this criteria, an error message stating, "Student has an award with multiple aggregate levels; unable to package. Awards having multiple aggregate levels MUST be repackaged via Professional Judgement. DO NOT POST the set of awards generated in this Packaging Session, or it resets the loan to 0.00 USD and cancels all subsequent loan transactions. Repackage all awards via the Award Override page" appears. You may also see a shorter version of this error message: "Student has an award with multiple aggregate levels; unable to package."

Note. The error messages appear only for actions of A—Accept, B—Accept/Offer, and O—Offer. You can cancel or decline an award with multiple aggregate levels using any Packaging process.

If you receive either of the previously listed error messages, you must cancel out of the award entry page without posting the current transaction and repackage the student using the Professional Judgement page.

Warning! If you post the current transaction before exiting the award entry page, the student's award is reset to zero and the Loan Adjustment process begins.

Using Auto Packaging with Multiple Careers

When you are using Auto Packaging, only the packaging plans for the active career are available. Remember also, that the Packaging process evaluates any passive awards first before it auto packages awards for the active career.

Using Mass Packaging with Multiple Careers

Mass Packaging can also accommodate students with multiple careers. If a student with multiple careers—one career for the first term and another career for subsequent terms—is selected for Mass Packaging, the student is associated with multiple packaging plans based on their multiple careers and the selection criteria (packaging equations) associated with that career's packaging plan. Mass Packaging processes the student for the first career based on the processing order of the packaging plan, then awards for the second career based on the processing order of the packaging plan. The processing order for the packaging plans determines which packaging plan is used and, therefore, which career is packaged first. Awards made using a Career 1 packaging plan are passed on as passive awards to be included as part of any subsequent awarding for Career 2.

Note. Review the processing order for all your packaging plans to ensure that Mass Packaging selects the packaging plans, and, therefore, the careers, in the order you want. You enter the processing order on the Packaging Plan page, in the Processing Order field.

If you have students who have multiple careers (Career 1 and Career 2) and some students should be packaged for Career 1 first while others should be packaged for Career 2 first, you would need to run these two groups of students in separate Mass Packaging runs, changing the processing order on your packaging plans for each run. The packaging plan's processing order determines the order in which a career is packaged because the packaging plans are tied to careers.

You cannot allow students with posted awards in multiple careers to enter a Mass Packaging run to be selected for packaging plans for multiple careers. In live mode, Mass Packaging aborts without any messages if this is allowed. In simulation mode, your packaging results do not appear correct because the previous career's awards are not posted in simulation mode and, therefore, are not considered as existing awards when the second career is packaged. A student can have posted awards in multiple careers and go through Mass Packaging using one packaging plan for one career at a time.

Posted awards for multiple careers means the student has been awarded at least one award for Career 1 and at least one award for Career 2 and those awards are posted before the student is processed by Mass Packaging. To package students with posted awards in multiple careers using Mass Packaging, you should keep track of these students and only process them in Mass Packaging for one career at a time. The way to process students for one career at a time is to select the students, then make all but one of their careers invalid on the Mass Packaging by Students page or Institutional Mass Packaging by Student page. Assign packaging plans to the students. Then run Mass Packaging in simulation mode and review the results. If the results are correct, run Mass Packaging in live mode. This causes the awards to be posted for the first career. Now repeat the process for a second career.

Awards for the first career must posted to be considered as existing awards for any subsequent career's packaging. When you run Mass Packaging in simulation mode with more than one career, when the second career is being packaged, the simulated awards packaged for the first career are not considered existing awards because they are not yet posted.

Understanding Multiple Award Period Processing

Multiple award period processing functionality enables you to process students for a subsequent award period without Packaging canceling awards for the initial award period or determining incorrect award amounts. It also enables you to use the same financial aid item type for the AAP and the NSAP. The ability to process awards in passive/active mode between award periods and the disbursement protection feature make this possible. An exception to this rule is subsequent awards—with aggregate area level limit rules—made to students because their NSLDS loan year has changed during the award year. You also cannot use the same financial aid item type for the AAP and NSAP for non-Direct Lending loans. In these cases, you must still use separate financial aid item types for each award period.

For example, you initially package a student for an award period, the AAP, and then at a later date you process the student for a subsequent award period, the NSAP. Normally, when you package the student for the NSAP, you do not want the awards for the AAP to change. Because Packaging employs passive/active mode processing, you can process the awards in the AAP as passive awards when awarding the NSAP. Packaging does not change passive awards; it preserves them, unlike active awards that are subject to change. However, Packaging still uses the award amounts of passive awards to determine remaining annual aggregate limits or other eligibility requirements and to update need summary balances.

See Also

Protecting Disbursements During Awarding

Processing Awards for Multiple Award Periods Employing Passive/Active Mode

This section provides an overview of passive/active mode in multiple award period processing and discusses how to:

• Process sequential award periods.

• Process simultaneous award periods.

Understanding Passive/Active Mode in Multiple Award Period Processing

Packaging is able to treat awards made during an initial award period as passive awards when you are processing a subsequent award period for a student. Two factors determine whether an award is processed in active or passive mode. First is the award period attribute associated with the packaging plan you are currently using to package the student. If the award period attribute is B − Both, Packaging considers all awards made in either award period as active awards (active for evaluation or reevaluation). As a result, in the "Both" award period model, if you want to prevent any existing awards that you have disbursed from being reduced, you must employ disbursement protection (with the exception of Direct Loan awards, because the system's Direct Loan processing rules function like disbursement protection). If the award period attribute associated with the packaging plan is A − Academic or N − Non-Standard, and existing awards made in a previous award period contain a disbursement plan/split code pattern that does not equal the packaging plan's award period, then those awards are considered as passive awards by Packaging. Conversely, if existing awards made in a previous award period contain a disbursement plan/split code pattern that either agree with the designated award period of the packaging plan or span both award periods, then those awards are considered to be active awards, and, therefore, are reevaluated by Packaging. Only the disbursements in the active award period portion of the award are reevaluated. Reevaluation may cause the existing awards to be reduced based on the revised need situation as well as revised eligibility criteria. An award cannot be reduced below the total of the disbursements in the passive award period portion of the award.

Note. Because the packaging plan's Award Period attribute triggers the use of passive/active mode, you must use an additional field to use passive/active mode processing in Manual Packaging.

Warning! You must not activate disbursement protection for Direct Loan financial aid item types. If you activate disbursement protection for a Direct Loan, Packaging does not follow the processing rules established for Direct Loans and instead treats the Direct Loan award as it would any other disbursement-protected award.

The award period for an individual award is determined based on the disbursement plan/split code pattern of the award. If the disbursement plan/split code pattern spans only the AAP then the award is designated as "Academic." If the disbursement plan/split code pattern spans only the NSAP, then the award is designated as "Non-Standard." Finally, if the disbursement plan/split code pattern spans both the AAP and NSAP, then the award is designated as "Both." For all awards of a financial aid item type that you use in more than one award period, the disbursement plan must span both the AAP and NSAP. In other words, all AAP and NSAP terms must be defined. The split code can have scheduled disbursements in the AAP, the NSAP, or both award periods. For awards with a disbursement plan that includes both award periods, the split code determines the award period for that award. So if the split code indicates that all disbursements are scheduled for the AAP, the award is considered to have an award period of Academic even though the disbursement plan includes the AAP and NSAP.

Note. If you have more than one disbursement plan for a financial aid item type—because you assigned different disbursement plans to each instance of that financial aid item type—Packaging displays an error message indicating that different disbursement plans were found.

Awards within a packaging plan must contain disbursement plan/split code patterns that are compatible with the packaging plan's award period attribute. For example, an award can have a disbursement plan/split code pattern that is designated only for the AAP despite the award period attribute on the packaging plan designating an award period of B − Both. However, if the award's disbursement plan/split code pattern is designated for the AAP only, and the packaging plan's award period attribute is N − Non-Standard, then you receive error message 9580 after validation indicating that you must change either the award's disbursement plan/split code pattern or the packaging plan's award period attribute so that they are compatible.

If the disbursement plan/split code pattern of an award does not match the award period attribute of the packaging plan, Packaging treats that award as a passive award. For example, you are packaging a student for a trailing summer term using a packaging plan with an award period attribute of N − Non-Standard, and the student already has an existing departmental scholarship whose disbursement plan/split code pattern designates the award for the AAP. When you repackage the student for the NSAP, Packaging treats the departmental scholarship as a passive award because the packaging plan's award period attribute and the disbursement plan/split code pattern for the existing award do not match. If the existing award has a disbursement plan/split code pattern that spans both award periods, Packaging evaluates only the disbursements of the award in the award period that matches the packaging plan's award period attribute as active; the disbursements designated in the other award period are processed as passive and remain untouched.

There are two different business processes involving multiple award period processing. One involves sequential award period processing, the other simultaneous award period processing. Sequential award period processing involves packaging the student for an initial award period (AAP) and then packaging the student for a second, subsequent award period (NSAP). Simultaneous award period processing involves packaging the student for both award periods at the same time. An example of sequential award period processing is when a student enrolls at a community college for only one term—summer only or spring only—in one award period and then decides to return in a subsequent term resulting in a different award period. You use simultaneous award period processing for students that attend the institution for both award periods. If you have an academic program longer than 9 months, you might be packaging your students using simultaneous award period processing. However, setting up one award period that covers the entire academic program is the recommended business process.

Processing Sequential Award Periods

During sequential award period processing, make sure that the packaging plan's award period attribute is either A − Academic or N − Non-Standard, and not B − Both. This allows Packaging to employ passive/active mode, and directs Packaging to use the COA, EFC, and need for the designated award period.

As an example of sequential award period processing, you are processing a student's University Grant award of 150.00 USD for the summer term. Your semester-based institution treats the summer term as a leading summer. The following table gives the student's COA, EFC, and need for both the NSAP and AAP—all values are in U.S. dollars (USD):

You first need to assign a disbursement plan that spans both the NSAP—for the leading summer term—and the AAP because the student may subsequently be eligible to receive additional University Grant funding in the AAP. In this case, you can use the same financial aid item type in both the NSAP and AAP. However, in this first pass, the disbursement split code assigned to the award should have all disbursements scheduled only in the NSAP (leading summer term).

The following table illustrates how you set up the University Grant award for the student where the disbursement plan that covers both award periods has an ID of 10 and the split code that disburses 100 percent of the award in the leading summer term has an ID of 02:

When Packaging processes the student for this University Grant, it takes into account the COA, EFC, and need for only the designated NSAP. Remember, the disbursement plan/split code pattern coupled with the packaging plan's award period attribute determines the designated award period. Although the disbursement plan spans both award periods, the split code dictates that the award period should be nonstandard. Therefore, Packaging uses the student's COA, EFC, and need information only for the NSAP when packaging the student.

The student then decides to attend your institution in the fall semester. He or she is eligible for a 1,200.00 USD University Grant during the AAP. You create a second packaging plan with an award period attribute of Academic that contains a packaging rule containing the University Grant financial aid item type. You assign the same disbursement plan as the summer-only University Grant. However, you must use a split code that distributes the award only in the AAP. For this example, split code ID 01, which distributes the award in two disbursements—50 percent in the fall semester and 50 percent in the spring semester—is used.

The following table illustrates the two University Grant awards for the student:

When Packaging runs for the second University Grant under the AAP designated packaging plan, it takes into account only the COA, EFC, and need for that designated award period. Because the University Grant award contains disbursements targeted only to the AAP—based on its disbursement plan/split code pattern—Packaging uses information only for the AAP when packaging the student. Because the first University Grant award only affects need for the NSAP, Packaging does not consider the first award of 150.00 USD during calculations for the AAP. Remember that this example is based on using a leading summer. If your institution uses a trailing summer, you would define the disbursement plan/split code pattern accordingly.

The Award Posting process merges the two instances of the University Grant into a single award because they are generated from the same financial aid item type and share the same disbursement plan. However, the Award Posting process merges the two discrete splits into one custom split, and displays XX in the Split field to indicate the custom split. The Award Posting process retains the separate disbursements called for by the two University Grant awards, and the Need Summary page reflects these separate disbursements.

The following screen shots illustrate how the Award Posting process handles the two instances of the University Grant. In the first shot, both instances of the financial aid item type are visible.

The navigation path to the page is Financial Aid, Awards, Award Processing, Assign Awards to a Student.

The next two screen shots show the disbursement detail for each instance of the Honor Scholarship.

The next screen shot shows how the two instances of the University Grant financial aid item type are combined after posting. Notice that the Split field contains XX, indicating a custom split:

When you look at the disbursement detail for the University Grant, you can see that Packaging has retained the disbursements dictated by the two separate instances of the University Grant

The Need Summary page also retains the separate disbursements:

Important! The disbursement plan/split code pattern enables Packaging to maintain the integrity of each award and therefore its disbursements by award period. Using this functionality, you can use the same financial aid item type across award periods.

Loans and Sequential Award Period Processing

The origination requirements of loans affect your ability to use sequential award period processing and passive/active mode. For non-Direct Lending loans you originate—such as CommonLine or Perkins loans—regulatory requirements dictate that you cannot assign a disbursement plan/split code pattern with a zero disbursement in any disbursement cycle and, therefore, in any award period. However, assigning a disbursement plan that covers both award periods, as required by the procedures for sequential award period processing outlined in this section, results in one award period having a zero disbursement. For example, if you are awarding a student a CommonLine loan for the AAP, you assign the loan a disbursement plan that covers both award periods, in case you package the student for the trailing NSAP with another instance of the CommonLine loan. Then you give the award a split code that disburses 50 percent in the fall semester, 50 percent in the spring semester, and 0 percent in the trailing summer term. If you submit this loan, it does not originate because of the zero disbursement in the trailing summer term. To award non-Direct Lending loans during sequential award period processing you must use separate financial aid item types and disbursement plans, each for the AAP or the NSAP alone.

For Direct Lending loans, you can use the same financial aid item type for both the AAP and the NSAP. However, you cannot have a zero disbursement in the disbursement cycle of the first term for the Direct Lending loan. This means that you can have a zero disbursement in a trailing summer term, but you cannot have a zero disbursement in a leading summer term.

Processing Simultaneous Award Periods

During simultaneous award period processing, make sure that the packaging plan's award period attribute is B − Both, and not A − Academic or N − Non-Standard. This directs Packaging to use the COA, EFC, and need for both award periods, and also indicates that all awards for both award periods can be repackaged unless they are locked or have disbursement protection activated.

During simultaneous award period processing, Packaging evaluates maximum eligibility for need across award periods. Packaging first identifies the student's maximum need, and then it schedules disbursements according to need for the respective award period.

For example, you have a student attending for both award periods and you are going to award a University Grant to the student for both award periods at one time. Your semester-based institution treats the summer term as a trailing summer. The following table provides the COA, EFC, and need for the student—all values are in U.S. dollars (USD):

The total value of the University Grant that you plan to offer the student is 5,000.00 USD. To begin awarding, create a packaging plan with an award period attribute of Both, and create a packaging rule for the University Grant with a disbursement plan that spans both the NSAP and the AAP, and a disbursement split code that contains disbursements scheduled in both award periods. For this example, the split code used—split code ID 03—directs Packaging to schedule one disbursement per academic term, with 45 percent of the disbursement awarded in the fall semester, 45 percent of the disbursement awarded in the spring semester, and 10 percent of the disbursement awarded in the trailing summer term. Based on this disbursement plan/split code pattern, Packaging matches the award period attribute for this award (Both).

The following table illustrates how you set up the University Grant award for the student and provides the scheduled disbursements based upon the 45/45/10 split of the 5,000.00 USD total award:

When Packaging processes the student for this University Grant, it takes into account the COA, EFC, and need for both award periods. Because the packaging plan award period is Both and the disbursement plan/split code pattern for the University Grant is Both, the COA, EFC, and need values for the two award periods are combined. The combined need value determines the student's maximum award eligibility. The scheduled disbursements for this award do not exceed the student's eligibility for each award period so they are validated.

Important! Packaging maximizes need per packaging run. This fact is important when EFC exceeds COA for one award period. This means that need in one award period is not reduced when additional EFC is available from another award period.

What would happen if EFC exceeded COA for one award period in the previous example? The same conditions exist: you have a student attending for both award periods, you are going to award a University Grant of 5,000.00 USD to the student for both award periods at one time, and your semester-based institution treats the summer term as a trailing summer. The following table provides the new COA, EFC, and need for the student—all values are in U.S. dollars (USD):

EFC exceeds COA for the NSAP. However, because Packaging maximizes need per packaging run, the student's total need for the two award periods is 14,000.00 USD. In other words, Packaging does not apply excess EFC—200.00 USD in the NSAP—from one award period to the other award period.

To begin awarding, create a packaging plan with an appropriate award period attribute, and create a packaging rule for the University Grant with an appropriate disbursement plan and disbursement split code. For this award, you have several options.

Option 1:

You can assign the University Grant a disbursement plan that is targeted only for the AAP, and a split code that divides the disbursement evenly between the two academic semesters. Based on this disbursement plan/split code pattern, Packaging designates the award period for this award as Academic. The following table provides the scheduled disbursements based upon the 50/50 split of the 5,000.00 USD award where the disbursement plan that spans only the AAP has an ID of 15 and the split code that divides the disbursement evenly between the two academic semesters has an ID of 01:

When Packaging processes the student, it takes into account the COA, EFC, and need for only the designated award period. Because the disbursement plan/split code pattern for the University Grant is targeted to the AAP, only the COA, EFC, and need values for the AAP are considered. However, other awards within the student's aid package can have disbursement plan/split code patterns that are targeted to both the AAP and NSAP.

Option 2

You can also assign the University Grant the same disbursement plan as in the previous example, spanning both the NSAP and the AAP, and the same disbursement split code (disbursements scheduled in both award periods). For this example, the split code used (split code ID 03) directs Packaging to schedule one disbursement per academic term, with 45 percent of the disbursement awarded in the fall semester, 45 percent of the disbursement awarded in the spring semester, and 10 percent of the disbursement awarded in the trailing summer term. Based on this disbursement plan/split code pattern, Packaging designates the award period attribute for this award as Both. However, because the student does not have need in the NSAP, during validation Packaging distributes the 500.00 USD that would have been scheduled for the trailing summer term among the two semesters of the AAP using relative weighting provided sufficient AAP need remains. Because the disbursement percentages for the fall and spring semesters are equal, each semester receives an additional 250.00 USD.

Packaging determines the relative weighting for each term by dividing the original disbursement percentage of the term, 45 percent, by the sum of all disbursement percentages for terms within the award period, 90 percent. For this example, Packaging does the following calculations:

Remainder Calculation for Fall Semester = 45/90 * 500.00 = 250.00

Remainder Calculation for Spring Semester = 45/90 * 500.00 = 250.00

Total Disbursement for Fall Semester = 250.00 + 2,500.00 = 2,500.00

Total Disbursement for Spring Semester = 250.00 + 2,500.00 = 2,500.00

The following table illustrates how you set up the University Grant award for the student, and provides the scheduled disbursements based upon the redistribution of the 500.00 USD originally scheduled for the NSAP

See Also

Distributing Awards When a Shortage of Need Exists in One Award Period

Using Passive/Active Mode in Manual Packaging

This section provides an overview of passive/active mode in Manual Packaging and provides examples of:

• Processing sequential award periods.

• Awarding for a single award period followed by both award periods.

• Awarding for both award periods followed by a single award period.

Understanding Passive/Active Mode in Manual Packaging

For Packaging to determine whether awards are active or passive, the process needs to evaluate the award period for which you are packaging the student. Packaging compares the award period for which you are currently packaging against the disbursement plan/split code patterns of existing awards to determine whether to process them as active or passive awards. During Auto and Mass Packaging, Packaging uses the packaging plan award period attribute for this comparison. Because Manual Packaging does not employ packaging plans, the Award Period field on the award entry pages enables you to specify the award periods this packaging session covers.

Before you begin awarding manually, select an award period processing mode in the Award Period field. The default value for this field is Both − Both Award Periods, so if you do not change the value in this field, all existing awards are reevaluated based on need and eligibility for both the academic and NSAPs. After you select an award period processing mode, Packaging evaluates all existing awards to determine which awards fall within the selected award period and, therefore, can be changed. These awards are considered active. You cannot change awards that do not match the selected award period. These awards are considered passive and are made unavailable on the award entry pages.

Note. The Award Period field serves as a target for Packaging and is not a characteristic of the awards in this packaging session. This field controls which existing posted awards are treated as active or passive awards.

To determine which awards you can change, Packaging compares the selected award period against the disbursement plan/split code patterns of existing awards. Packaging does this by evaluating all nonzero disbursement rows for each award. Each disbursement ID within the disbursement plan is tied to a term, and each term has been designated for either the AAP or the NSAP. If all the nonzero disbursements belong to the AAP, Packaging considers the award for AAP processing. If all the nonzero disbursements belong to the NSAP, Packaging considers the award for NSAP processing. If the nonzero disbursements span both the AAP and the NSAP, Packaging considers the award for both AAP and NSAP processing.

Packaging then compares the type of processing (AAP, NSAP, or both) for which an award is eligible based on the selected award period processing mode. If the award period processing mode is Academic, then Packaging processes the awards whose nonzero disbursements all fall in the AAP as active awards. If the award period processing mode is Non-Standard, then Packaging processes the awards whose nonzero disbursements all fall in the NSAP as active awards. Packaging evaluates awards whose nonzero disbursements span both the AAP and the NSAP in a slightly different fashion than those awards that fall within a single award period. If the award period processing mode is Academic, Packaging processes the award as an active award but reevaluates only the portion of the award designated for the AAP. This portion consists of the nonzero disbursements tied to terms designated for that award period. If the award period processing mode is Non-Standard, Packaging processes the award as an active award but reevaluates only the portion of the award designated for the NSAP. If the award period processing mode is Both, Packaging processes the award as an active award and reevaluates the entire award.

If the disbursement plan/split code pattern of an existing award designates an award period that does not match the selected award period processing mode, the award is passive and therefore cannot be changed by either you or Packaging when submitted for validation. Passive awards are unavailable on the award entry pages to indicate visually that you and Packaging cannot change them. Active awards are open and available on the award entry pages to indicate visually that you and Packaging can change them.

When you add new awards, the disbursement plan/split code pattern of the new award must match or fall within the selected award period processing mode. If the disbursement plan/split code pattern of the award designates it for a single award period (for example, the AAP) that does not match the single award period selected as the award period processing mode (Non-Standard) you receive error message 9580 after validation. This message indicates that you must change either the award's disbursement plan/split code pattern or the award period processing mode so that the award's designated award period and the award period processing mode match. If the disbursement plan/split code pattern of the award designates that it is for both award periods when a single award period is selected as the award period processing mode, the Validation process assigns the award only to those disbursement IDs designated for the award period selected as the award period processing mode.

The following three sections describe three different awarding scenarios and the behavior of Packaging.

Processing Sequential Award Periods

Note. The following examples are based on Pell Grant awarding functionality for the 2009 and prior aid years.

You can use any of the award entry pages to process the student for discrete award periods. For example, at a semester-based institution with a trailing summer term, you award a student a 2,700 USD Pell Grant for the AAP. The disbursement plan is for both semesters in the AAP, and the split code—set up as a custom split—calls for a 1,350.00 USD disbursement in the fall semester and a 1,350.00 USD disbursement in the spring semester. The following screen shot displays this award on the Student Aid Package page:

The student then decides to attend the trailing summer term, and you award the student a 1,000.00 USD Honors Scholarship for the NSAP. Before you manually enter this award, you must select Non Std − Non-Standard as the award period because you want to process the student for the NSAP and leave the existing Pell Grant award for the AAP untouched. When you select Non Std − Non-Standard, Packaging determines that the Pell Grant award is designated for the AAP and does not match the selected award period value, so it treats it as a passive award and makes the row unavailable. Now you cannot change the Pell Grant award, and Packaging does not reevaluate it when you validate the new award.

Insert a new row and add the 1,000.00 USD Honors Scholarship with a disbursement plan/split code pattern that distributes the award in the trailing summer term. When you validate this award, Packaging evaluates only this award and processes the Pell Grant award as a passive award.

If you want to reevaluate the student's awards for both award periods, you can selected Both as the award period after you have posted the Honors Scholarship. Both the Pell Grant and the Honors Scholarship are then available for changes, and Packaging treats both awards as active awards and reevaluates them based on need and eligibility criteria/rules. These rows remain available and open.

Awarding for a Single Award Period Followed by Both Award Periods

Note. The following examples are based on Pell Grant awarding functionality for the 2009 and prior aid years.

You can award a student for a single award period, either AAP or NSAP, and later award the student for both award periods. When you award the student for both award periods, all awards—no matter what award period the award's disbursement plan/split code pattern designates—can be changed and are processed as active awards.

For example, at a semester-based institution with a trailing summer term, you award a student a 3,300.00 USD Pell Grant for the AAP. The disbursement plan is for both semesters in the AAP, and the split code—set up as a custom split—calls for a 1,650.00 USD disbursement in the fall semester and a 1,650.00 USD disbursement in the spring semester. The following screen shot displays this award on the Student Aid Package page:

The student is then awarded a 5,000 USD Honors Scholarship that covers the trailing summer term in addition to the academic year, with 40 percent disbursed in fall (AAP), 40 percent disbursed in spring (AAP), and 20 percent disbursed in the trailing summer term (NSAP). Before you manually enter this award, you must select Both as the Award Period because you want to process the student for both the NSAP and the AAP. When you select Both, Packaging determines that the Pell Grant award is active because its disbursement plan/split code pattern designates it for the AAP, which falls within the chosen award period processing mode. Now you can change the Pell Grant award, and Packaging reevaluates it when you validate the new award. Because you are only adding the Honors Scholarship, you do not need to change the Pell Grant. Insert a new row, and add the 5,000.00 USD Honors Scholarship, choosing a disbursement plan that spans both award periods, and a split code that distributes the award 40 percent fall, 40 percent spring, and 20 percent summer. When you validate this award, Packaging evaluates both awards.

Warning! If there has been a change in the student's need or eligibility, the existing award is changed unless you have activated disbursement protection for that financial aid item type. Activating disbursement protection only protects the disbursed portion of the award. The award itself can be reduced to the level of the disbursed amount.

Awarding for Both Award Periods Followed by a Single Award Period

You can award a student for both award periods and later award the student for a single award period, either the AAP or the NSAP. When you award the student for a single award period, only those awards with disbursement plan/split code patterns that fall within or span the designated award period can be changed and are processed as active awards. Awards whose disbursement plan/split code patterns designate an award period that does not match the designated award period mode are treated as passive awards.

Warning! Although you intend to reevaluate only a single award period, Packaging also reevaluates the portion that falls within that single award period of existing awards that span both award periods. If there has been a change in the student's need or eligibility that warrants a change in the award, Packaging adjusts the existing awards.

For example, at a semester-based institution with a trailing summer term, you award a student a 5,000 USD Honors Scholarship that covers the trailing summer term in addition to the academic year, with 40 percent disbursed in fall, 40 percent disbursed in spring, and 20 percent disbursed in the trailing summer term. The following screen shot displays this award on the Student Aid Package page:

Then you offer the student a 2,625.00 USD subsidized Stafford loan for the academic year. Before you manually enter this award, you must select Academic as the award period, because you want to process the student only for the AAP. When you select Academic, Packaging determines that the Honors Scholarship is active because its disbursement plan/split code pattern designates it for both award periods, which spans the chosen award period processing mode of Academic.

Now you insert a second row and enter the 2,625 USD subsidized Stafford loan, with a disbursement plan/split code pattern that spans only the AAP. You can also change the Honors Scholarship award, and Packaging reevaluates it for need and eligibility when you validate the new award. However, Packaging changes only the disbursements in the AAP; the NSAP portion of the award remains unchanged.

Warning! Even if you do not change or intend to change the Honors Scholarship, the AAP portion of the award is reevaluated automatically by Packaging.

Awarding Conditional Aid for Multiple Award Periods

This section clarifies the behavior of conditional awards during multiple award period processing. An important factor in determining how Packaging treats conditional awards is whether federal aid is present in the same award period as the conditional awards. The behavior of conditional awards reverting from "no effect" to "special need" based on the presence of federal aid does not span award periods. Therefore, the presence of federal aid in one award period does not affect the awarding of conditional aid in the subsequent award period. This only applies to sequential award period processing and not simultaneous award period processing. The following tables demonstrate that the behavior of conditional aid is determined on an award period basis.

Note. When conditional awards behave like no-effect awards, it is in the sense that the awards are not restricted by the student's need. However, conditional awards are displayed under the Special Need/Cost Aid fields on the Need Summary page.

Example A:

Example B

Example C

Example D

If federal aid does not have disbursements scheduled in the same award period as the conditional award, the student's remaining need does not restrict the amount of the conditional award. The student's need does not restrict the conditional award amount because the federal aid is being processed as a passive award, and therefore does not affect calculations for the active award period. For example, a student's award package includes a subsidized Stafford loan for 3,000.00 USD—with disbursements of 1,500.00 USD in the fall and spring semesters—and a conditional University Grant for 1,000.00 USD with a disbursement in the trailing summer term. Because the Stafford loan does not have disbursements in the NSAP, Packaging processes the Stafford loan as a passive award leaving it untouched when it processes the University Grant. Therefore, the University Grant behaves as a no effect award because the Stafford loan is not present in the NSAP.

When federal aid has disbursements in the same award period as the conditional award, and the federal aid precedes the conditional award, Packaging treats the conditional award as a special need/cost item type. Consequently, the placement of the conditional award relative to existing federal aid affects the student's conditional award amount. If the conditional award precedes federal aid, Packaging treats the conditional award as a "no effect" award and increases the student's total aid amount without regard for need or COA limits. If the conditional award follows federal aid, Packaging treats it as a special need/cost item type, first determining if unmet need exists to award. If so, Packaging compares the remaining unmet COA against the EFC and awards up to the lesser of the two.

When you use sequential award period processing, you can change the sequence of the conditional award from one award period to the next. The behavior of the conditional award can be different from one award period to the next based on the presence or absence of federal aid. If the NSAP does not have federal aid, but the AAP does, you can decide whether the conditional award behaves as a "no effect" award in both award periods. If you have the conditional award precede federal aid in the AAP, the conditional award behaves as a "no effect" award in both award periods. Or you can choose to have the conditional award follow federal aid in the AAP, so that the conditional award behaves as a special need/cost item type in the AAP and as a "no effect" award in the NSAP. You cannot do this if you use simultaneous award period processing because only one instance of the conditional award exists, and, therefore, only one sequence number for that award.

Important! Using sequential award period processing to change the behavior of conditional awards from one award period to the next is only possible when you use Auto and Mass Packaging. If you use Manual Packaging when you process the student for the second award period, all awards—existing and offered—are evaluated as they are in simultaneous award period processing.

Distributing Awards When a Shortage of Need Exists in One Award Period

To further enhance simultaneous award period processing, Packaging handles a shortage of need in one award period by proportionally redistributing the remainder of the award into the other award period.

For example, you have a student who attending your quarter-based institution for the AAP as well as the trailing summer non-standard term. The student's COA, EFC, and need are given in the following table:

The first award in the student's award package is a 4,000.00 USD University Grant that has a disbursement plan that spans both award periods and a split code that distributes the award among all four terms evenly (25 percent fall, 25 percent winter, 25 percent spring, and 25 percent summer). Based on this disbursement split code, the student should receive 3,000.00 USD in the AAP—1,000.00 USD per quarter—and 1,000.00 USD during the NSAP. Because the 1,000.00 USD in the NSAP exceeds the student's 200.00 USD need, Packaging distributes the remaining 800.00 USD (1,000.00 USD minus 200.00 USD) among the three terms in the AAP provided sufficient AAP need remains. This is based on the relative weighting of the original disbursement percentages that pertain to the AAP portion of the disbursement plan/split code pattern. Packaging determines the relative weighting for each term by dividing the original disbursement percentage of the term, 25 percent, by the sum of all disbursement percentages for terms within the award period, 75 percent. For this example, Packaging does the following calculations:

Remainder Calculation for Fall Quarter = 25/(25 + 25 + 25) * 800.00 = 266.66

Remainder Calculation for Winter Quarter = 25/(25 + 25 + 25) * 800.00 = 266.66

Remainder Calculation for Spring Quarter = 800.00 - 266.66 - 266.66 = 266.68

Total Disbursement for Fall Quarter = 266.66 + 1,000.00 = 1,266.66

Total Disbursement for Winter Quarter = 266.66 + 1,000.00 = 1,266.66

Total Disbursement for Spring Quarter = 266.68 + 1,000.00 = 1,266.68

Note. When calculating the relative weight of a disbursement percentage, the system is precise to the seventh position beyond the decimal point. This precise figure is multiplied by the remainder, and then rounded using the Rounding Option set up for the financial aid item type.

The following table shows the projected disbursements prescribed by the split code and the projected disbursements that are based on relative weighting:

This relative weighting functionality enables you to continue to award students until their remaining need is exhausted while maintaining a proportional disbursement spread similar to each award's original disbursement percentages.

When Packaging distributes the award proportionally because of a shortage of need, it returns one of the following messages.

Protecting Disbursements During Awarding

This section provides an overview of disbursement protection and provides examples of:

• Disbursement protection for fully disbursed terms.

• Even across disbursements by term with disbursement protection turned off.

• Even across disbursements by term with disbursement protection turned on.

• Even among first disbursement by term with disbursement protection turned off.

• Even among first disbursement by term with disbursement protection turned on.

Understanding Disbursement Protection

Packaging contains functionality that enables you to choose whether you want disbursed amounts to be protected when repackaging a student. When you activate disbursement protection, Packaging does not repackage an award below what has already been disbursed. To invoke disbursement protection, the award must meet four conditions:

1. The award is for a non-Direct Loan financial aid item type.

2. You indicate at the financial aid item type level—using the Disbursement Protection check box—that Packaging should protect the disbursed portion of an award.

3. The award's disbursement split code uses an even split option of either Even among first disbursements by term or Even across disbursements by term.

   If you do not use a split code with an even split option, the system does not observe disbursement protection. Instead, Packaging honors the split percentages defined by the specific financial aid item type and splits the award amount accordingly, which may result in one or more unequal disbursements.

   Any loan award, Direct Loan or Non-Direct Loan, with a custom loan fee is considered having a custom split, not an even split, and is, therefore, not subject to disbursement protection.

4. The award has one or more disbursed entries.

When disbursement protection is activated, the award cannot fall below the disbursed amount; however, you can still manually un-disburse the award if you feel a student is no longer eligible for the award.

When you modify a disbursement-protected award, Packaging recalculates the total disbursement amount for each term, using the entire new award amount (rather than the residual or difference between the original award and the revised award). This value is referred to as the term target amount. After the term target amount is determined, Packaging evaluates the even split option to determine how to split the award within the term. If disbursed amounts exist, Packaging checks to see if the disbursements are greater or less than the term target amount. If the disbursements are less than the term target amount, Packaging distributes to the term target amount while protecting the existing disbursed amounts. If the disbursed amount is greater than the term target amount, Packaging distributes the residual amount—total award amount less the disbursed amount—to the next term while protecting the existing disbursed amounts. Packaging then determines whether subsequent terms are partially disbursed or fully disbursed. If the term is partially disbursed, then the term target amount drives that term's distribution. If the term is fully undisbursed, then Packaging distributes residual amounts from fully disbursed terms into undisbursed terms.

If all disbursement IDs for the designated award period—determined by the packaging plan or the Award Period field on the award entry pages—are fully disbursed, then Packaging adds the residual amount to the last disbursement ID of the award period. If the designated award period is Both, Packaging adds the entire residual amount to the last disbursement ID of the second award period if the student's need for that award period is equal to or greater than the residual amount. If the student's need for the second award period is less than the residual amount, Packaging adds the amount of the student's need to the last disbursement ID of the second award period. It then adds the remainder of the residual amount to the last disbursement ID of the first award period. The following section provides examples of disbursement protection behavior when all of the designated award period's disbursement IDs are fully disbursed.

The even split option you choose—Even among first disbursements by term or Even across disbursements by term—and whether you have selected the Disbursement Protection check box affects how Packaging distributes the disbursements after an award increase or award decrease. The examples in the following sections demonstrate the possible combinations of even split options with disbursement protection turned on or off.

You cannot manually set the award amount to zero with an award action of B—Offer/Accept and have the Validation process return the maximum eligible award amount for a disbursement protected award. If you enter zero as the award amount, the Validation process returns the award with its original award amount and schedules disbursement valuation without making any changes. If you want the award amount to be zero (eliminate the award), then you must manually cancel the award by using the award action of Cancel.

In Auto and Mass Packaging, you cannot effectively reduce a disbursement-protected award to a desired amount because the award is generated by the packaging plan rather than you being able to enter a specific amount. Packaging first cancels existing awards that are not locked and do not have disbursed amounts. If a portion of the award has been disbursed, then Packaging reduces the award to the disbursed amount. For example, if, from an award of 1,000.00 USD, 500.00 USD has been disbursed and a rule exists to repackage the student, the system reduces the award to 500.00 USD. Packaging then creates new instances for the awards contained in the packaging plan. Packaging processes the second instance of the same financial aid item type independently of the first instance, and the award amount for this instance uses the aggregate, item type, and fiscal limits of that packaging rule to determine its maximum eligibility. However, the amount that has already been disbursed—preserved in the first instance—is added to the total award amount from the second instance. Continuing the previously given example, the student receives the 500.00 USD plus whatever additional award Packaging determines the student is eligible for. Therefore, it is impossible make a reduction when you repackage the student using Auto or Mass Packaging.

For example, a student has a 3,000 USD University Loan that has disbursement protection activated, with a disbursement plan (ID 15) that covers the institution's two semesters and uses an even split option of Even among first disbursements by term. The student also has a 1,000.00 USD Honors Scholarship that does not have disbursement protection activated, with the same disbursement plan as the University Loan but a split code—02—that distributes the award entirely in the first disbursement ID of the spring semester. You have already disbursed the fall disbursement ID to the student. The following table shows the scheduled disbursements. Disbursed amounts are in bold, and all amounts are in USD:

Then the student's need changes and you attempt to decrease the University Loan to 2,000.00 USD using Auto or Mass Packaging. The first step Packaging takes is to attempt to cancel all existing awards that are not locked. Neither existing award is locked; however, Packaging does not cancel the University Loan because a portion of the award has been disbursed and disbursement protection is activated. Packaging decreases the amount of the award to match the disbursed amount, and cancels the Honors Scholarship. Then Packaging inserts a new instance of the University Loan with an amount of 2,000.00 USD.

Because Packaging preserves the first instance of the University Loan—for the disbursed portion of the award—due to disbursement protection, as well as adding the second instance of the University Loan, the total award amount for the University Loan is increased to 3,500.00 USD (2,500.00 USD in the fall and 1,000.00 USD in the spring) instead of reduced to 2,000.00 USD. Additional examples of Auto and Mass Packaging behavior during award increases and decreases are in the following sections.

Note. You do not have to process multiple award periods to invoke disbursement protection. It works whether you are processing multiple award periods or processing awards only for a single award period.

See Also

Processing Direct Loan Adjustments

Illustrating Disbursement Protection for Fully Disbursed Terms

The following examples illustrate the behavior of disbursement protection when you have fully disbursed all disbursement IDs within a designated award period.

Note. The behavior of disbursement protection for fully disbursed terms is the same for both even split options, Even across Disbursements by term and Even among first disbursements by term.

Single Award Period

In this example, the even split option is Even among first disbursements by term with disbursement protection turned on for a semester-based institution with two disbursement IDs per term and a trailing summer. The tables display the distribution of an original award amount and then an example of how the system distributes an increase to an award.

The original award amount is 1,000.00 USD, the term target amount is 500.00 USD, and the designated award period is Academic. The full 1,000.00 USD has already been disbursed using all the disbursement IDs for the AAP.

After fully disbursing the award, you increase the award from the original award amount of 1,000.00 USD to 2,500.00 USD. Packaging takes the residual amount (1,500.00 USD) and adds it to the last disbursement ID of the designated award period (D 04). The new total amount for D 04 is 1,750.00 USD (250.00 USD + 1,500.00 USD).

Both Award Period (Sufficient Need in Second Award Period)

In this example, the even split option is Even among first disbursements by term with disbursement protection turned on for a semester-based institution with two disbursement IDs per term and a leading summer. The tables display the distribution of an original award amount and then an example of how the system distributes an increase to an award.

The original award amount is 1,000.00 USD, the term target amount is 333.33 USD, and the designated award period is Both. The student's remaining need for the NSAP is 1,000.00 USD and for the AAP is 5,000.00 USD. The full 1,000.00 USD has already been disbursed using all the disbursement IDs for the both the Non-Standard and AAPs.

After fully disbursing the award, you increase the award from the original award amount of 1,000.00 USD to 2,500.00 USD. Packaging takes the residual amount (1,500.00 USD) and adds it to the last disbursement ID of the second award period (D 06). The new total amount for D 06 is 1,700.00 USD (200.00 USD + 1,500.00 USD), which is less than the remaining need for the AAP.

Both Award Period (Insufficient Need in Second Award Period)

In this example, the even split option is Even across disbursements by term with disbursement protection turned on for a semester-based institution with two disbursement IDs per term and a trailing summer. The tables display the distribution of an original award amount and then an example of how the system distributes an increase to an award.

The original award amount is 1,500.00 USD, the term target amount is 500.00 USD, and the designated award period is Both. The student's remaining need for the AAP is 5,000.00 USD and for the NSAP is 1,000.00 USD. The full 1,000.00 USD has already been disbursed using all the disbursement IDs for the both the Non-Standard and AAPs.

After fully disbursing the award, you increase the award from the original award amount of 1,500.00 USD to 3,000.00 USD. When Packaging takes the residual amount (1,500.00 USD) and attempts to add it to the last disbursement ID of the second award period (D 06), the disbursements for the NSAP exceed remaining need. Then Packaging determines the difference between the existing disbursement amounts (500.00 USD) and the remaining need (1,000.00 USD), and adds this amount (500.00 USD) to D 06. The new amount for D 06 is 750.00 USD (250.00 USD + 500.00 USD). Packaging adds the rest of the residual amount (1,000.00 USD) to the last disbursement ID of the first award period, D 04. The new amount for D 04 is 1,250.00 USD.

Illustrating Even Across Disbursements by Term with Disbursement Protection Turned Off

The following illustrates an example of the even split option, Even Across Disbursements by Term with disbursement protection turned off for a quarter-based institution with two disbursement IDs per term. The tables display the distribution of an original award amount and then an example of how the system distributes a decrease to an award.

The original award amount is 3,000.00 USD, the term target amount is 1,000.00 USD, and 500.00 USD has already been disbursed in the disbursement ID 01.

After the first disbursement for fall term, you reduce the award from the original award amount of 3,000.00 USD to 2,700.00 USD. The term target becomes 900.00 USD. The student already received 500.00 USD, but with disbursement protection turned off, the system recalculates the remaining disbursements to be 450.00 USD with a disbursement adjustment of 50.00 USD. When you run Authorization/Disbursement, the system adjusts the disbursement by 50.00 USD.

Illustrating Even Across Disbursements by Term with Disbursement Protection Turned On

The following illustrates an example of the even split option, Even Across Disbursements by Term with disbursement protection turned on for a quarter-based institution with two disbursement IDs per term. The tables display the distribution of an original award amount and then examples of how the system distributes decreases and increases to an award.

The original award amount is 3,000.00 USD, the term target amount is 1,000.00 USD, and 500.00 USD has already been disbursed.

After disbursing disbursement ID 01 for fall term, you reduce the award from the original award amount of 3,000.00 USD to 2,700.00 USD. The term target becomes 900.00 USD. The following table shows how the system recalculates the disbursement for disbursement ID 02 to be the difference between the term target amount and what has already been disbursed for the fall term. The next disbursement ID for winter is also shown:

After disbursing disbursement ID 03 for winter term, you increase the award to 4,500.00 USD. The term target amount becomes 1,500.00 USD. The system first calculates a new term target amount of 1,500.00 USD per term. Because disbursement protection is turned on, the disbursements that occurred in ID 01, ID 02, and ID 03 remain protected. Also, because the fall term is fully disbursed for 900.00 USD, the term target amount of 1,500.00 USD cannot be met. As a result, this creates residual amount of 600.00 USD. This 600.00 USD residual is distributed among any subsequent fully undisbursed terms.

Because the winter term is a partially disbursed term where the existing disbursed amount is less than the term target amount, the system subtracts what has been disbursed (450.00 USD) from the term target amount (1,500.00 USD) and distributes the difference (1,050.00 USD) to the remaining undisbursed ID in the winter term.

Finally, moving to the spring term, because it's a fully undisbursed term, the system adds any residual amount from any fully disbursed previous terms (600.00 USD in this case) to the spring term target amount (1,500.00 USD) totaling 2,100.00 USD. The system then spreads this new term target amount evenly among all undisbursed IDs in the spring term.

Illustrating Even Among First Disbursement for Term with Disbursement Protection Turned Off

The following illustrates an example of the even split option, Even Among First Disbursement for Term with disbursement protection turned off for a quarter-based institution with two disbursement IDs per term. The tables display the distribution of an original award amount and then an example of how the system distributes a decrease to an award.

The original award amount is 3,000.00 USD, the term target is 1,000.00 USD, and the first disbursement has been disbursed.

If you reduce the award to 2,700.00 USD, the term target amount becomes 900.00 USD. Because disbursement protection is turned off, the originally scheduled disbursement amount is recalculated to the term target amount of 900.00 USD with a disbursement adjustment of 100.00 USD. When you run the authorization and disbursement processes, the system adjusts the disbursement by 100.00 USD.

Illustrating Even Among First Disbursement for Term with Disbursement Protection Turned On

The following illustrates an example of the even split option, Even Among First Disbursements for Term with disbursement protection turned on. The tables display the distribution of an original award amount and then examples of how the system distributes increases and decreases to an award.

The original award amount is 3,000.00 USD, the term target amount is 1,000.00 USD, and the disbursement ID 01 of 1,000.00 USD has already been disbursed:

After disbursement ID 01 for fall term, you increase the award to 4,500.00 USD. The term target amount becomes 1,500.00 USD. The system determines the amount that the student receives in the remaining disbursements by awarding additional amounts up to the term target for the first term. In this case, 1,000.00 USD has already been disbursed for disbursement ID 01. The system schedules a 500.00 USD disbursement in disbursement ID 02 of the fall term. The fall disbursements now meet the term target amount. The remaining winter and spring terms are fully undisbursed with no residual overflow created in the fall term. Therefore, the system observes the term target amount of 1,500.00 USD.

After the disbursements for fall term, you reduce the award to 2,700.00 USD. The term target becomes 900.00 USD. The student has already received 1,500.00 USD for the fall term. This creates a shortage of 600.00 USD. The following table displays how the system recalculates the scheduled amounts for the terms. The system deducts the already disbursed amount of 1,500.00 USD from the new award amount of 2,700.00 USD leaving a difference of 1,200.00 USD. Because the winter and spring terms are fully undisbursed, the system splits the 1,200.00 USD difference evenly among both terms creating a new term target amount of 600.00 USD. Because the even split option is even among first disbursement for the term, only the first disbursement ID for each remaining term contains 600.00 USD.

Reviewing One-Term DL Loan Functionality

This section provides an overview of one-term DL loan functionality and discusses how to:

• Define a single-term loan.

• Award a single-term loan after the midpoint.

• Associate rules with one-term DL processing.

• Review disbursement ID scenarios.

Understanding One-Term DL Loan Functionality

Federal regulations require that a single term loan be split into at least two disbursements. The one-term option is designed for schools using direct loan MPN processing. This functionality is also available for those non-DL item types that have the disbursement protection flag activated.

If the loan period consists of only one semester, the first half of the loan is disbursed at the beginning of the semester. The second half is disbursed at the calendar midpoint of the semester. For any loan period, if more than half of the loan period has elapsed before an initial disbursement has been made, a single disbursement of the entire loan may be made. After an initial disbursement is authorized and disbursed, you can repackage (increase or decrease) the award in the same manner as is currently in place for multi-item DL awards.

Page Used to Define a Single-Term Loan

Defining a Single-Term DL Loan

Access the Disbursement Split Formula page (Set Up SACR, Product Related, Financial Aid, Awards, Disbursement Split Cd Formula, Disbursement Split Formula).

Setup is defined for a single term and must contain two or more disbursement IDs, each containing a unique disbursement date. In addition, the disbursement date for the designated midpoint disbursement ID must be after the midpoint of the term.

Note. To facilitate increases and change processing for Stafford one term direct loan MPN item types, you should set up and define at least four disbursement IDs. You can define up to a maximum of twenty disbursements for a single term.

See Also

Defining Split Code Formulas

Awarding a Single-Term Loan After the Midpoint

If a single term loan is awarded after the midpoint of the term, you have the option to disburse the entire award amount in a single installment. If you pay the student this way, you do not need to use the Even Across Disbursements for One Term disbursement plan option. You can create a disbursement plan with disbursement dates on or after the midpoint and use the existing Even Among First Disb for Term option that places the entire disbursement in the first disbursement ID of each term.

Associating Rules with One-Term DL Processing

One-term DL loan processing treatment is identical to the one-term non-DL item type with disbursement protection invoked. If you decrease the loan and all disbursement IDs have been disbursed, the system decreases the award starting with the last disbursement ID and works its way up toward the first ID. Also, if you increase the loan and all of the disbursement IDs have been disbursed, then you must use a different item type to make the increased award.

Reviewing Disbursement ID Scenarios

To compare and illustrate the behavior of one-term DL loan processing versus a non-DL award with disbursement protection invoked versus a non-DL item type with disbursement protection turned, review the following examples.

Note. Although the following examples show a two disbursement plan for direct loan item types and disbursement plans, we are recommending that you create plans with a minimum of four disbursement IDs. This facilitates change increases made to the award after the first disbursement has been made.

Student with a DL Item Type

In the following example, a student is awarded a DL item type with a Disb Plan/Split Code (even split for single term) with two IDs.

Disb Plan/Split Code: OT2

ID 01 09/01/2005

ID 02 11/01/2005 Midpoint

1. Award the student 1 Disb Plan/Split Code: OT 2,000.00 USD on 08/01/2005

   Split	Awarded	Disbursed
   Disb 01	500.00 USD	0.00
   Disb 02	500.00 USD	0.00

2. Originate and disburse ID 01 for 500.00 USD on 09/05/2005

   Split	Awarded	Disbursed
   Disb 01	500.00 USD	500.00 USD
   Disb 02	500.00 USD	0.00

3. Increase the student's award to 1,500.00 USD on 09/10/2005: Because Disb 01 is disbursed, the residual increase in the award amount goes toward the midpoint disbursement ID (Disb 02).

   Split	Awarded	Disbursed
   Disb 01	500.00 USD	500.00 USD
   Disb 02	1,000.00 USD	0.00

4. Originate and disburse ID 02 for 1,000.00 USD on 10/20/2005.

   Split	Awarded	Disbursed
   Disb 01	500.00 USD	500.00 USD
   Disb 02	1,000.00	1,000.00 USD

5. Decrease the student's award to 900.00 USD on 10/25/2005. The system repackages and adjusts Disb 02 downward from 1,000.00 USD to 400.00 USD to total the 900.00 USD award.

   Split	Awarded	Disbursed
   Disb 01	500.00 USD	500.00 USD
   Disb 02	400.00 USD	1,000.00 USD

6. You must run DL origination as well as authorization/disbursement to reverse the 600.00 USD adjustment so that it reflects the revised Disb 02 ID amount of 400.00 USD.

   Split	Awarded	Disbursed
   Disb 01	500.00 USD	500.00 USD
   Disb 02	400.00 USD	400.00 USD

7. Increase the award to 1,100.00 USD on 11/10/2005. Because all of the split IDs have been fully disbursed, you should get an award message requesting that you use another item type for the increase.

   Split	Awarded	Disbursed
   Disb 01	500.00 USD	500.00 USD
   Disb 02	400.00 USD	400.00 USD

8. Decrease the award to 800.00 on 11/15/2005. The system repackages and adjusts Disb 02 ID downward from 400.00 USD to 300.00 USD to total the 800.00 USD award.

   Split	Awarded	Disbursed
   Disb 01	500.00 USD	500.00 USD
   Disb 02	300.00 USD	400.00 USD

9. You must run DL origination and authorization/disbursement to reverse the 100.00 USD adjustment so that it reflects the revised Disb 02 ID amount of 300.00 USD.

   Split	Awarded	Disbursed
   Disb 01	500.00 USD	500.00 USD
   Disb 02	300.00 USD	300.00 USD

Student with a Non-DL Item Type with Disbursement Protection Turned On

In the following example, a student is awarded a non-DL item type with disbursement protection turned on at the item type level and with a Disb Plan/Split code (Even Split for Single Term) with two IDs.

Disb Plan/Split Code: OT2

ID 01 09/01/2005

ID 02 11/01/2005 Midpoint

1. Award the student 1,000.00 USD on 08/01/2005.

   Split	Awarded	Disbursed
   Disb 01	500.00 USD	0.00
   Disb 02	500.00 USD	0.00

2. Originate and disburse ID 01 for 500.00 USD on 09/05/2005.

   Split	Awarded	Disbursed
   Disb 01	500.00 USD	500.00 USD
   Disb 02	500.00 USD	0.00

3. Increase the student's award to 1,500.00 USD on 09/10/2005: Because Disb 01 is disbursed, the residual increase in the award amount goes toward the midpoint disbursement ID (Disb 02).

   Split	Awarded	Disbursed
   Disb 01	500.00 USD	500.00 USD
   Disb 02	1,000.00 USD	0.00

4. Disburse ID 02 for 1,000.00 USD on 10/20/2005.

   Split	Awarded	Disbursed
   Disb 01	500.00 USD	500.00 USD
   Disb 02	1,000.00 USD	1,000.00 USD

5. Decrease the student's award to 900.00 USD on 10/25/2005. The system repackages and adjusts Disb 02 downward from 1,000.00 USD to 400.00 USD to total the 900.00 USD award.

   Split	Awarded	Disbursed
   Disb 01	500.00 USD	500.00 USD
   Disb 02	400.00 USD	1,000.00 USD

6. You must run authorization/disbursement to reverse the 600.00 USD adjustment so that it reflects the revised Disb 02 ID amount of 400.00 USD.

   Split	Awarded	Disbursed
   Disb 01	500.00 USD	500.00 USD
   Disb 02	400.00 USD	400.00 USD

7. Increase the award to 1,100.00 USD on 11/10/2005. Because all of the split IDs have been fully disbursed, you should get an award message requesting that you use another item type for the increase.

   Split	Awarded	Disbursed
   Disb 01	500.00 USD	500.00 USD
   Disb 02	400.00 USD	400.00 USD

8. Decrease the award to 800.00 on 11/15/2005. The system repackages and adjusts Disb 02 ID downward from 400.00 USD to 300.00 USD to total the 800.00 USD award.

   Split	Awarded	Disbursed
   Disb 01	500.00 USD	500.00 USD
   Disb 02	300.00 USD	400.00 USD

9. You must run authorization/disbursement to reverse the 100.00 USD adjustment so that it reflects the revised Disb 02 ID amount of 300.00 USD.

   Split	Awarded	Disbursed
   Disb 01	500.00 USD	500.00 USD
   Disb 02	300.00 USD	300.00 USD

Student with a Non-DL Item Type with Disbursement Protection Turned Off

In the following example, a student is awarded a non-DL item type with disbursement protection turned off at the item type level and with a Disb Plan Split Code (Even Split for Single Term) with two IDs.

Disb Plan/Split Code: OT2

ID 01 09/01/2005

ID 02 11/01/2005 Midpoint

1. Award the student 1,000.00 USD on 08/01/2005.

   Split	Awarded	Disbursed
   Disb 01	500.00 USD	0.00
   Disb 02	500.00 USD	0.00

2. Disburse ID 01 for 500.00 USD on 09/05/2005.

   Split	Awarded	Disbursed
   Disb 01	500.00 USD	500.00 USD
   Disb 02	500.00 USD	0.00

3. Increase the student's award to 1,500.00 USD on 09/10/2005: Because disbursement protection is off, the system recasts the award across all of the disbursement IDs, both disbursed and undisbursed.

   Split	Awarded	Disbursed
   Disb 01	750.00 USD	500.00 USD
   Disb 02	750.00 USD	0.00

4. Re-disburse Disb ID 01 for the residual 250.00 USD and disburse Disb ID 02 for 750.00 USD on 10/20/2005.

   Split	Awarded	Disbursed
   Disb 01	750.00 USD	750.00 USD
   Disb 02	750.00 USD	750.00 USD

5. Decrease the student's award to 900.00 USD on 10/25/2005. Because disbursement protection is off, the system recasts the award across both disbursement IDs that are disbursed, thereby adjusting Disb 01 ID downward from 750.00 USD to 450.00 USD and adjusting Disb 02 ID downward from 750.00 USD to 450.00 USD to total the 900.00 USD award.

   Split	Awarded	Disbursed
   Disb 01	450.00 USD	750.00 USD
   Disb 02	450.00 USD	750.00 USD

6. You must run authorization/disbursement to reverse the 300.00 USD adjustments each from Disb ID 01 and Disb ID 02 (totaling the 600.00 USD decrease) so that it reflects the revised Disb 01 ID amount of 450.00 USD and Disb 02 ID amount of 450.00 USD.

   Split	Awarded	Disbursed
   Disb 01	450.00 USD	450.00 USD
   Disb 02	450.00 USD	450.00 USD

7. Increase the award to 1,100.00 USD on 11/10/2005. Because disbursement protection is off, the system recasts the award across both disbursement IDs that are disbursed, thereby adjusting Disb 01 ID upward from 450.00 USD to 550.00 USD and adjusting Disb 02 ID upward from 450.00 USD to 550.00 to total the 1,100.00 award.

   Split	Awarded	Disbursed
   Disb 01	550.00 USD	450.00 USD
   Disb 02	550.00 USD	450.00 USD

8. Re-disburse Disb ID 01 for the residual 100.00 USD and Disb ID 02 for 100.00 USD, totaling 550.00 USD each (or 1,100.00 USD total disbursements) on 11/15/2005.

   Split	Awarded	Disbursed
   Disb 01	550.00 USD	550.00 USD
   Disb 02	550.00 USD	550.00 USD

9. Decrease the award to 800.00 USD on 11/15/2005. Because disbursement protection is off, the system recasts the award across both disbursement IDs that are disbursed, thereby adjusting Disb 01 ID downward from 550.00 USD to 400.00 USD and adjusting Disb 02 ID downward from 550.00 USD to 400.00 to total the 800.00 USD award.

   Split	Awarded	Disbursed
   Disb 01	400.00 USD	550.00 USD
   Disb 02	400.00 USD	550.00 USD

10. You must run authorization/disbursements to reverse the 300.00 USD adjustment so that it reflects the revised Disb 01 ID amount of 400.00 USD and the revised Disb 02 ID amount of 400.00 USD.

    Split	Awarded	Disbursed
    Disb 01	400.00 USD	400.00 USD
    Disb 02	400.00 USD	400.00 USD

Managing Origination from Two-Term Loan to One-Term Loan

Packaging allows for a new disbursement plan option to support DL one-term loans. There are no changes to the Direct Lending process if you choose this new disbursement plan option. However, if you want to change an existing DL loan from a two-term loan to a one-term loan before transmitting the loan, you must first cancel the originated two-term loan using packaging and run DL origination with the adjustment check box selected. Then using packaging, insert a new row, award a new DL item type, use a disbursement plan and split code that reflects the new even split option for one term, and rerun origination with loan adjustments turned on.

See Also

Reviewing One-Term DL Loan Functionality