Data Sources and Methods to Obtain External Awards

External award or resource data can be communicated to the financial aid office in various formats and methods:

• Data files, such as state grant roster files or internal departmental scholarship files.

• Manual data entry required when a student submits paper financial aid notifications that indicate outside or private scholarship awards.

• Entries from students who enter outside or private scholarships and grants in Self Service.

• Data included in other nonfinancial aid specific records, such as waiver and third-party contract payments already posted to a student's (SF) account.

• School Loan Certification Requests, which differ from all other external awards. The borrower applies for a loan directly with the servicer and the servicer requests that the school certify the borrower's eligibility.

External award data processing is built around a core set of External Award Staging records that maintain the external award transaction data. Every external award transaction entered is keyed with a set of transaction key values and provided a processing status as it relates to the loading of that transaction into the student award records.