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:

Field Value After Item Types Are Merged

Offered Amount

Sum of the offered amounts

Accepted Amount

Sum of the accepted amounts

Award Action

B—Offered/Accepted when sum of accepted Amounts > 0

O—Offer when previous condition is not met

Note: Canceled and declined awards are no longer visible after posting.

Split Code

XX when different split codes are used

Note: The disbursement plans must be the same.

Aggregate Level

When the Multi-Pass processing option is selected, the system tracks aggregate level limits based on each grade level limit increase.

When the Multi-Pass processing option is not selected, the system tracks aggregate level limits based on the NSLDS Level from the term where the first nonzero disbursement ID exists within the disbursement plan.

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