Finding Text
Federal Program Information: Student Financial Aid Cluster, ALN 84.007, 84.268, 84.033, 84.063
Criteria: Awards for Student Financial Aid are determined based on financial need. Financial need is established by considering the student's cost of attendance and their individual expected family contribution. The student's cost of attendance is determined based on their status and program at the College. The cost of attendance should align with the appropriate student budget established by the College.
Condition: Three of the 25 students in our sample did not have a cost of attendance that aligned with their appropriate budget.
Context: The students with the error each had an additional $3,778 added to their cost of attendance by the system. The College provided a report identifying the extent of the error, which affected a total of 130 students in the summer.
Questioned Cost: None
Effect: The cost of attendance did not agree with the appropriate student budget established by the College. Upon recalculation of aid, the error did not cause any student to be over-awarded aid.
Cause: An error was made in entering the cost of attendance adjustment rules into Colleague, the system that determines the student financial aid awards.
Repeat Finding: No
Recommendation: We recommend that a second person review the cost of attendance adjustment rules for accuracy after they are entered into Colleague.
Views of responsible officials and planned corrective actions: A Corrective Action Plan (CAP) was implemented to address an error in the Cost of Attendance (COA) assignment for 130 students in the 24/25 award year. Due to changes in the FAFSA, a housing question was removed, causing some students to be incorrectly assigned a "dependent living with parent" budget instead of the correct "dependent living off-campus" budget, resulting in an inadvertent $3,778 COA increase. However, no students were over-awarded financial aid. Corrective actions included updating system rules, implementing a secondary review process, and adding safeguards to prevent future errors. Additionally, periodic reviews and ongoing staff training will ensure continued accuracy in financial aid processing.