Understanding the College Financing Plan

The College Financing Plan is a consumer tool created by the United States Department of Education (ED). The format is prescribed by an ED-issued template, which this feature of the system uses without modification. The College Financing Plan is designed to provide a standardized award letter allowing students to easily compare financial aid packages and make informed decisions on where to attend college. According to ED, it can be used with or in lieu of a financial aid award letter.

Within the system, you set up and assign students to a College Financing Plan Group. The exact number of groups you create is based on your school’s needs and setup. Some schools may only require one group per aid year while others may need several. The pages used for setting up College Financing Plan groups control what institution and student data is used when the College Financing Plan is generated for the student. Once your groups are created, you assign them to the appropriate population of students. You can do this manually for one student at a time on the Packaging Status Summary page, or in batch using Population Update. Once assigned, students have access to their College Financing Plan in Financial Aid Self Service. Access to the College Financing Plan can be revoked by removing the student from the College Financing Plan group, which you can also do manually or in batch.