Financial Aid Advisor I - Processing

Texas A&M University System • College Station, TX

1d • Onsite

About The Position

The mission of Scholarships & Financial Aid is to provide students and their families with information and financial resources to attend Texas A&M University, along with support programs that promote higher education and developmental opportunities. We administer scholarships and financial aid, which include the following programs: grants, student loans, student employment, veteran educational benefits, athletic aid coordination, short-term loans, and emergency tuition and fee loans. In addition, our office provides advising on the programs listed above. Our office also assists students in gaining financial literacy knowledge through our Money Education Center. Our office is responsible for processing student aid and veteran educational benefits for College Station, Galveston, all Health Science Center sites and Qatar which totaled approximately $1 billion in financial aid assistance for the prior academic year.
Scholarship & Financial Aid is seeking a Financial Aid Advisor I who will be primarily responsible for financial aid processing. As a financial aid processor, this person will work with a team behind the scenes to process documents and review student files. We are looking for a detail-oriented individual who can work in a fast-paced environment, multi task, problem solve, and work with spreadsheets and data. The ideal candidate will be passionate and enthusiastic about providing excellent service to students by timely working daily processing tasks.

Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree or an equivalent combination of education and experience.
• No experience required.
• Ability to meet deadlines and maintain a high level of accuracy, professionalism, and customer service.
• Working knowledge of Microsoft Office software.
• Ability to work individually or as a team in a dynamic organization.
• Good interpersonal communication skills.
• Must be literate in the English language and able to comprehend, give and follow both written and verbal instructions.
• Ability to organize and make decisions.
• Ability to work well under pressure.
• Ability to use tact, diplomacy, and judgment in dealing with all customers.
• Attention to detail.
• Must be in good standing on all Federal Student Loans. The U.S. Dept. of Education will not grant access to student loan data for any individual who is in default status. Access to such information is a necessity for this position. Must be able to rectify default status within three months of employment. Good standing must be maintained for continued employment.

Responsibilities

• Under close supervision, learns to use discretion and independent judgment to advise and counsel students and their families on financial aid and scholarships.
• Learns how to and assists with reviews of student files and adjusts as needed.
• Learns the student financial aid/scholarship process and shadows team members.
• Learns how to award, revise and/or approve the disbursement of financial aid through the specific controls of program policy and guidelines.
• Learns how to communicate with students and their families via multiple methods (i.e. email, in-person, phone, etc.).
• Learns to review application data against additional data received and resolve discrepancies or adjust data in Banner/Compass as appropriate.
• Learns how to collaborate with on campus representatives regarding students’ financial aid concerns.
• Learns, interprets, and maintains knowledge of current federal, state, and institutional policies, procedures, and regulations pertaining to financial aid.
• Learns how staff interact with students and help transition students from prospective to currently enrolled students.
• Learns how to ensure processing activities adhere to established policies and procedures while using critical thinking skills.
• Learns to review match rules to find matching students records in Compass to load ISIR files.
• Learns to work reports related to ISIR data review – ensuring correct ISIR transaction is current record, reviewing ISIR for accurate data and adjusting as needed, and determining students’ awards are accurate after FAFSA changes are made.
• Learns to manage reports related to processing student financial aid.
• Learns to ensure files are completed accurately and in a timely matter, including reports.
• Learns to train others in the office and answers questions related to duties.
• Learns to use discretion and independent judgement to research and resolve issues related to responsibilities.
• Learns to assist in preparing paper scholarship checks for deposit into University accounts.
• Learns to review scanned images of checks to ensure quality of images.
• Learns to balance deposit total with total in imaging system.
• Learns to prepare documents for imaging, including but not limited to identifying all documents, separating into batches, placing separator sheets as appropriate for imaging identification.
• Learns to scan documents using the imaging system, including but not limited to scanning batches of documents, validation of the documents scanned, and the release of these documents into the repository.
• This position provides back-up support for the Processing team as needed.
• This includes cross training with other team members to learn different processes, including correcting over awards, determining correct aid and loan periods for students, determining aid eligibility and awarding students, and processing documentation to clear C flags on students’ aid applications.
• Participates in and assists in the planning and execution of events for departmental initiatives (e.g. financial aid awareness programs, Aggieland Saturday, New Student Conferences).
• Learns how to respond to various questions that may require researching and consolidating data regarding financial aid and scholarships.
• Attends local, state, and national workshops, and conferences.
• May assist with presentations.

Benefits

• Medical, prescription drug, dental, vision, life and AD&D, flexible spending accounts, and long-term disability insurance with Texas A&M contributing to employee health and basic life premiums
• 12-15 days of annual paid holidays
• Up to eight hours of paid sick leave and at least eight hours of paid vacation each month
• Automatic enrollment in the Teacher Retirement System of Texas
• Health and Wellness: Free exercise programs and release time
• Professional Development: All employees have access to free LinkedIn Learning training, webinars, and limited financial support to attend conferences, workshops, and more
• Educational release time and tuition assistance for completing a degree while a Texas A&M employee
• Living Well, a program at Texas A&M that has been built by employees, for employees

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Entry Level