Understanding Repackaging

Using repackaging, you can award financial aid for groups of students. An equation, a PS Query, or an external file can identify the group of students for repackaging. You can then associate one or more repackaging plans to that population. You can evaluate your selected population and the repackaging plan associated with each student first. The system selects the optimum repackaging plan for each student based on the combination of your repackaging equations and the processing order of the repackaging plan. Then the system applies the repackaging plan against those selected students, awarding each student based on the defined repackaging plan rules.

Three processes are run as part of repackaging. The first process selects students for evaluation. The second process assigns repackaging plans to students. The third process reviews the student's eligibility, the program rules, and other eligibility criteria and then decreases, increases, or validates existing awards, or assigns new awards to students using the assigned repackaging plans. After the first two processes, you can review the students being selected and the assigned repackaging plans. You can also review the order in which the students are repackaged, again by repackaging plan. You can delete students who should not be repackaged. Finally, you can run the third process in live mode or in simulation mode to review expected repackaging results.

Before repackaging, consider the results that you want the system to produce according to your institution's repackaging philosophies. Determine the student attributes to use in the repackaging equations to select the correct students for each repackaging plan. Review the criteria that each repackaging plan uses to select students. If some of the selected students cannot be matched to any of your repackaging plans, review the list of these students to determine why they did not get matched. Adjust your equations to ensure that these students are assigned correctly.

Unlike Packaging, during Repackaging locked awards are always preserved and unchanged, even if the student is in an overaward situation.

During the loading of external awards, an EA lock attribute is set, such that external awards are treated as locked awards during Repackaging. External awards are always preserved and unchanged, even if the student is in an overaward situation. When the EA lock is set, you cannot remove it.