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:
| Fall Semester as Undergraduate | Spring Semester as Graduate | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Sequence |
Description |
Amount (USD) |
Sequence |
Description |
Amount (USD) |
|
10 |
Federal SEOG Grant |
2,000.00 |
60 |
University Grant |
1,000.00 |
|
20 |
University Grant |
1,950.00 |
70 |
Federal Work-Study |
1,800.00 |
|
30 |
Federal Work-Study |
1,800.00 |
80 |
Perkins Loan − ELO |
3,000.00 |
|
40 |
Perkins Loan |
2,500.00 |
90 |
Sub DL Stafford |
3,000.00 |
|
50 |
Sub DL Stafford |
5,500.00 |
100 |
Unsub DL Stafford |
10,000.00 |
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).
| Fall Semester as Undergraduate | Spring Semester as Graduate | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Sequence |
Description |
Amount (USD) |
Sequence |
Description |
Amount (USD) |
|
10 |
Federal SEOG Grant |
2,000.00 |
60 |
University Grant |
1,000.00 |
|
20 |
University Grant |
1,450.00 |
70 |
Federal Work-Study |
1,800.00 |
|
30 |
Federal Work-Study |
1,800.00 |
80 |
Perkins Loan − ELO |
3,000.00 |
|
40 |
Perkins Loan |
2,500.00 |
90 |
Sub DL Stafford |
3,000.00 |
|
50 |
Sub DL Stafford |
2,500.00 |
100 |
Unsub DL Stafford |
10,000.00 |
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.