Financial Aid

Your school probably offers financial aid to ensure candidates and current students who have great merit but limited funds can afford to attend your school. You might accept students first and then review their financial status. Alternatively, if your financial aid budget is more limited, you'll probably limit the number of students you accept who can't pay in full and thus a candidate’s financial situation would play a greater role in the initial application.

Before you accept applications for financial aid, set up the types of financial aid you plan to offer and determine what to call your decisions.

An admissions manager can define the types of financial aid offered by the school, such as "Need-Based" and "Grant." See Financial Aid types in Candidate Profile Settings for more details and where to add more.

Admissions managers can define the terminology that is used for financial aid decisions, such as "Need-Based Aid Denied" and "Scholarship Awarded." See Financial Aid Decisions in Candidate Profile Settings.

Next enable candidates to apply for aid, submit documentation, and review their status as part of the application process.

When you create an application form, include the financial aid block and ensure it is visible. Edit the form and drag the Financial Aid block onto the section where you need it. See Application Forms for more.

See Checklists.

You can enter your school's decision from the checklist step on a candidate's checklist, or

  1. From Enrollment management, Financial Aid, and then select Financial aid awards.

  2. Use the filters to modify what data is shown in the list. Select the recipient's name in the list to be taken to their user profile.

  3. Otherwise, select Add financial aid to award new financial aid using specific user criteria.

    • Role - Candidate, Student, or Incoming. This is a Required field.

    • Entering Year - This is also a required field.

    • Entering Grade

    • Current grade

    • School decision

    • School program

    • Boarding or Day

    • International - select this option if the user is considered International.

    • Apply for Financial Aid - select this if the user is applying for financial aid.

    • Community connection - Are they related to someone involved with the school or have a sibling?

    • Name - First or Last

  4. Select Next to be taken to the Financial aid criteria and Default user options. Here you can set the Financial aid type, Amount granted, Decision, and Date requested. You can leave a comment as well. .

  5. Under that is the Individual user options area, where a list of users is displayed. You can bulk update multiple users by selecting the box next to each user, or change the options for an individual user.

  6. For each recipient, you can enter the

    • Financial Aid Type,

    • Amount Granted,

    • Decision,

    • Date Requested,

    • and a Comment.

  7. Then select Save and close. The financial aid is recorded to the candidate or student's record. Select Previous to go back to the previous screen, or Cancel to completely back out without saving any changes made.

If your school uses Financial aid management (formerly known as Smart Aid), another Blackbaud K-12 product, you can invite parents to submit documentation about their financial situation. Analysts will then verify the documentation and Financial aid management will calculate the difference between each family's ability to pay and how much they would normally be expected to pay. You can use this information to help decide how who to award aid to and how much to award.

Financial aid management is a standalone product and not integrated with the "Blackbaud's Education Management" products.