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.

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.