Essential functions include, but not limited to:
Counseling:
- Financial Aid Counselors use significant and broad professional judgment and discretion in the awarding of available financial aid Situations require a thorough understanding of regulations as well as the personal issues involved. In many cases, the issues involved are complex and require involved discussions and excellent analytical skills to arrive at a decision. All exceptions must be fully documented and made within the limitations of statute/regulation.
- Bridging the gap between family expectations and the reality of limited financial aid resources can be stressful. Counselors regularly deal with dissonance between a family's perceived need and the help available to the student. Counselors are expected to remain supportive, calm, and professional during these difficult conversations.
- Financial Aid Counselors interact in-person, over the phone, virtually, and by email with students, families and support networks, and others seeking information and assistance with all aspects of the financial aid process. Counseling may include analyzing the student's circumstances for financial aid eligibility, explaining outcomes and consequences of actions or decisions, and referring students to other offices or resources as warranted by the student's situation.
- Determine when standard procedures may be inadequate to meet the student's situation and advocate for exceptions to policy within the office or with process partners.
- Counsel college and high school students, families and support networks, and other stakeholders on Federal, State, Institutional, and Third-party aid programs (such as College Success Foundation, CWU Foundation, and other organizations that fund scholarships) and explain how they may interact with one another.
- Counsel students and parents regarding educational loan options including federal student loans, private student loans, federal parent loans, and other possible sources of funding.
- Counsel students one-on-one and in groups about grants, scholarships, loans, work study employment, and financial planning.
- Articulate timelines to students and families and support networks. Assist students to secure the best financial package possible in their situation.
- Advise customers on a broad range of financial aid rules, regulations, policies, and procedures, including some U.S. income tax filing rules.
- Serve as team/committee member on review of appeals, special projects, and tasks.
File Processing and Program Management:
- Provide day-to-day support in all aspects of financial aid processing: process applications, verify application data, determine eligibility, issue and/or revise awards, add scholarships and other funds to student awards and adjust other aid according to policy and monitor satisfactory academic progress.
- Accountable for properly following procedures used to process and distribute funds. Analyze high amounts of detailed data and take corrective action under tight time constraints. Contribute to development of system solutions for recurring problems.
- Review a variety of reports, comparing new data to previously recorded data, analyzing data for reasonableness and consistency with other information, contacting outside parties or students when necessary for clarification, making determinations as to how this affects student eligibility, adjusting the aid package and notifying students of changes.
- Take appropriate action if conflicting information or evidence of fraud is discovered. Make corrections to the application and/or ask for additional information as needed and under tight time constraints.
- Utilize professional judgment to counsel students regarding special circumstances. Review special circumstances presented by the student in-person or by means of written requests. Make appropriate revisions to student eligibility, cost of attendance, or financial aid award to accommodate reasonable requests that are within the law, institutional policy, and funding guidelines. Document professional judgments and corrections, compiling documentation to support determinations.
- Award and revise financial aid in accordance with federal, state, and institutional regulations and guidelines. Verify or correct application information, track through automated correction process or enter data directly through FAAccess On-line.
- Responsible for an assigned program management area such as oversight of default prevention, consumer information, guaranteed sources, aid for study abroad, scholarships, or reconciling disbursements with program funding source. Serve as the expert on the specific program, train the assigned back-up staff member, and maintain the business process guides that outline the specific processes and procedures. Complete fund reconciliation regularly as required by the assigned program.
- Maintain access to the administrative system (PeopleSoft), and other Financial Aid systems such as Common Origination Disbursement system (COD), National Student Loan Data System (NSLDS), Free Application for Student Aid (FAFSA), FAA Access, Central Process Service (CPS), WSAC secure portal, and ELM (private loan processing Center).
Presentations/Outreach:
- Counselors must be effective and knowledgeable in communicating to diverse groups and larger audiences the financial aid process and requirements, and willing to contribute whenever possible or needed to support CWU outreach activities.
- Perform community outreach at workshops using various types of presentation technology in a variety of settings, including on and off campus, day, evening, and weekend venues. Coordinate presentations with sponsoring groups and other presenters, determine in advance the appropriate equipment needed and handouts and materials to be provided. During peak times, financial aid counselors are conducting presentations at least once per week.
- Support the efforts of Student Engagement and Success by participating in weekday, evening and weekend events such as Wildcat Previews Days, Orientation, Welcome Week, etc.
Attend Training:
- Remain current in the field by attending training sessions, both in-person and virtually, provided by the U.S. Department of Education, Washington Student Achievement Council (WSAC) and through research using professional publications, manuals, and internet resources
- Maintain expert knowledge of regulatory and institutional changes and utilize complex computer systems to meet job requirements. Specific assigned programs may be complex and require specialized training or skills.
- Other duties as assigned
(Additional duties assigned to Financial Aid Counselor 2. Complete list of duties available upon request.)