Financial Aid Advisor

Primary Purpose

Description of Essential Functions

• Performs specialized technical duties involving financial aid advising, packaging, and complex eligibility determinations; serves as a technical resource to other employees regarding financial aid eligibility; interprets and applies federal and state regulations related to financial aid-related regulations, administrative policies, and operational procedures.
• Assists students in the application process for financial aid by providing information and answering questions regarding financial aid, helps complete appropriate and required forms, provides advice on rights and responsibilities concerning financial aid, and provides information regarding the status of financial aid applications in person, via email, telephone or other electronic means.
• Analyzes complex application documents required to determine financial aid eligibility by reviewing, identifying, and resolving discrepancies between financial aid applications, federal tax returns, and database matches; initiates requests for supporting documents to resolve conflicting information.
• Interfaces with other external agencies to verify eligibility by exchanging information using various databases and software systems; verifies dual enrollment; determines the validity of foreign, homeschool, and online high school diplomas and refers students to evaluation agencies as needed; determines appropriate financial aid eligibility for students in special circumstances including but not limited to; consortium agreement student eligibility verification.
• Packages financial aid awards in accordance with standard need analysis criteria and federal and state eligibility regulations and current policies/procedures; processes awarding of funds to students following state and federal rules and regulations, including special financial aid programs which may include grants, scholarships or loans.
• Acts as a liaison to other appropriate District department(s) and outside agencies to provide technical assistance on the financial aid application process, regulations, and current policies/procedures.
• Conducts and coordinates financial aid workshops for students, parents, outside groups, and high schools.
• Engages collaboratively in the day-to-day office operations; maintains office procedures for positions and provides input on technical improvements to streamline financial aid application processing.
• Searches databases and record systems, gathers, compiles, and reports financial aid information; prepares complex and detailed reports, correspondence, and other documents to summarize data on financial aid recipients, awards, and disbursements; maintains specialized information and complex interrelated files in filing systems.
• Reconciles awarding as assigned on a monthly, quarterly, and annual basis. Work closely with Business Services and the Director to ensure reconciliation of all accounts monthly and annually to the general ledger.
• Maintain forms and communication templates as needed. Monitor all financial aid communications to ensure critical information related to awards, deadlines, outstanding items are communicated in a timely manner.
• Maintains confidentiality of records and complies with the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) regulations and protecting the privacy of student records.
• Maintains documentation to comply with audit requirements.

• Monitors and evaluates student academic records to determine if a student is meeting financial aid satisfactory academic progress standards to maintain eligibility; monitors and manages subsequent Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) applications; identifies conflicts and notifies students of documents required for resolution.?
• After approval from Director, process student appeals and communicates appeal decision to students and advisors.

• Internal and External Scholarship & Institutional Waiver Processing
  • Assist in the development of a scholarship calendar for academic year and set deadlines; provide support for processing applications and notifying students of their selection and disbursing funds.
  • Inputs various awards from internal and external sources (e.g., scholarships, grants) into the District’s database system.
  • Conduct financial need analysis for tribal students and work with Tribal Education Office to ensure students are receiving aid.
  • Receive, record and process all external scholarship funds; coordinate with the College Foundation and other sources to determine the amount of funds available to award; initiate the award of scholarship monies and approve the disbursement of funds in accordance with established guidelines and criteria.
  • Maintain information and data required to support timely monitoring of the status of all scholarship awards regardless of source, including award notifications, requests for and status of disbursements, status of student accounts and existence of unused funds.
  • Provide technical support and assistance to all students seeking information about or applying for scholarships, including paper-based as well as online applications.
• Work Study & Student Employment Processing
  • Coordinate the federal work study program.
  • Work in conjunction with Human Resources to maintain the student employment database. Approve all federal work study positions in the College's database system, in accordance with college policies and procedures; troubleshoot and correct discrepancies in the system as needed. Process federal work study and general student applications.
  • Provide staff, students, and employers with information regarding policies and procedures relative to the campus student employment opportunities. Create and maintain the federal work study student handbook, procedures and forms as needed.
  • Identify employment opportunities on and off campus for work study; including jobs that meet the federally mandated community service requirements.
  • Maintains work study program data and end of year federal reporting. Process monthly expenditure reconciliations.
  • Reconciles Student Federal Work Study (FWS) records with appropriate College department(s), resolves over-awards by adjusting aid as applicable and informing the department management of any changes.
  • Work collaboratively with payroll to reconcile student employment records and reporting as required. Monitors monthly earnings of students and notifies supervisors of eligible hours available.
  • Monitors financial aid award reports for award changes. Provides advice and guidance in employment counseling and counsels students on alternatives to work study funding.
  • Conduct training sessions for supervisors.
  • Monitors program compliance on the applicable local, state and federal laws, policies, procedures and regulations including conducting mandated on-site visits to work locations to ensure integrity of program guidelines.
• Disbursement Processing
  • Performs specialized technical duties involving the calculation, disbursement, and accounting of financial aid awards and the transmission of financial aid records and reports.
  • Adjusts, prepares, and verifies financial aid awards based on enrollment, course start dates, and award criteria to ensure the correct funds are disbursed at appropriate times; reviews disbursement file in coordination with Accounts Receivable each term and verifies disbursement records with appropriate District department(s) to maintain appropriate balances in the District’s fund accounts prior to final review and submission by Director.
  • Runs the award disbursement process for all financial aid programs, including state and federal grants and scholarships, as well as subsidized and unsubsidized loans; reconcile grant fund accounts and submits financial aid records to the Director for review and final submission to the Department of Education (DOE).
  • Calculates earned and unearned portions of grant-based aid for all students who have withdrawn, or failed classes based on attendance and/or federal guidelines; adjusts awards accordingly and reports adjusted awards to the DOE and the appropriate department(s).
  • Generates reports of disbursed and/or adjusted financial aid awards and submits the reports to the Director for review and final submission to the DOE. Assist the Director in forwarding disbursement information to appropriate department(s) as needed.
  • Work with Accounts Receivable to process returned checks, canceled checks, and stale checks; maintains system to calculate and track financial aid overpayments in accordance with federal and state regulations; reports unresolved overpayment accounts to the Director for review and submission to the DOE or appropriate granting agency. Retrieves the Multiple Reporting Record (MRR) and Pell Potential Over-award Process (POP) files from the DOE and corresponds with students and other educational institutions to identify and reconcile potential over-award payments and concurrent enrollment issues.
  • Transmits and downloads federal financial aid records to and from the DOE as required by federal regulations.
  • Updates student records on the National Student Loan Data System according to the schedule mandated by the DOE.
  • Processes Lifetime Eligibility Used (LEU) and monitors individual Pell Grant awards to prevent over-awarding of federal grant funds.

Required Knowledge, Skills and Abilities

• Associates degree required.
• Three (3) years of related work experience in a detail-oriented office environment.
  Three (3) years of work experience requirement may be substituted with a bachelor’s degree in a business discipline plus one (1) year related work experience in a detailed office environment.

• Ability to communicate effectively, both orally and in writing, using the English language with or without the use of an interpreter. Ability to effectively communicate orally with groups and/or individual, and deal with peers, the public and the community in a positive, empathetic, and professional manner.
• Ability to work effectively with populations representing diverse social, economic, cultural, ideological and ethnic backgrounds, life experiences and abilities, including community members, students, faculty, and staff.
• Ability to follow established procedures and work independently to accomplish those procedures.
• Ability and willingness to manage a flexible work schedule with self-discipline, including travel, various hours and possible weekends/evenings, as well as work days at other college locations.
• Exhibit a high level of computer literacy, sufficient to use software such as email, word processing, spreadsheets, and databases to produce correspondence, documents, and reports. Ability to use Internet, Microsoft Outlook, Word, and Excel as needed.
• Ability to plan, organize, and carry out activities independently. Strong time management skills to support efficient work production and meet deadlines.
• Ability to work with time deadlines and a high level of accuracy using independent judgement in determining college and student eligibility.
• Clear understanding of the role of registration and student records in protecting the integrity of the academic record. In-depth knowledge of FERPA and records security.
• Knowledge of the administration of federal financial aid programs, processes, and regulations, with such knowledge maintained through regularly attending industry workshops and webinars, monitoring agency updates, and engaging with financial aid peers at state and national levels.
• Knowledge of computerized student information systems, computer applications in admissions/registrar services, related technologies, and experience with systems development, implementation, and enhancement.
• Ability to develop and apply flexibility, resourcefulness, and creative approaches to solve problems with an understanding of the institution-wide systems.
• Ability to develop and present educational programs and/or workshops.

• Experience in financial aid operations and administration.
• A degree in accounting or business related program.
• Jenzabar and PowerFaids experience.
• Experience in Career counseling or employment guidance work.

Additional Job Information

Southwestern Oregon Community College only accepts applications through this online application system. We want you to be successful in applying with us. We highly encourage you to complete and submit your application in advance of the deadline.

For assistance with this, please email hr@socc.edu. For technical assistance with your application, please call (855) 524-5627.

Please note: We recognize that our application process can be lengthy, so before you begin, please read all of the stated requirements to determine if you meet them. Applicants must meet all of the stated minimum/special qualifications and additional requirements to be considered for this position. Based on your responses to the qualifying questions, the system may automatically screen you out from further consideration.

Required documents must be provided at the time of application. Please remove any personal information such as photographs, date of birth, gender, social security number, and other protected information from your documents. Documents containing protected information will be considered incomplete. Incomplete applications will not be considered.

Positions are subject to budget consideration and approval. For the candidate who is hired into this position, salary placement will be based on guidelines in administrative policies and procedures or collective bargaining agreements (as applicable). For this reason, please be sure to include everything in your application that you want the college to consider towards placement.

The college does not sponsor employees in the visa application process if they intend to use this as their means to work in the United States. This means that all required work visas must be in place and supported by appropriate evidence to be employed by Southwestern.

Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions of this job.

• MEMBER COPY 4 of the Certificate of Release or Discharge from Active Duty (DD Form 214 or 215) – OR – Letter from the US Dept. of Veterans Affairs indicating a non-service connected pension.
• Disabled Veterans must also submit a copy of their Veterans disability preference letter from the Department of Veterans Affairs.
  • You can request copies of your military service record through the National Archives website at: http://www.archives.gov/veterans/military-service-records/