Financial Aid Counselor

SUMMARY OF POSITION:
The Financial Aid Counselor will, through a courteous, helpful, unbiased, and professional manner, serve students, staff, parents and community members through Student Financial Aid, working on a broad array of student service issues, including: student accounts, financial aid, loans, SC state aid programs, payment plans, orientation, admissions and registration. The Financial Aid Counselor works with prospects, students and families to navigate the financial aid process each year from application to awarding to counseling and on financial literacy.

The Financial Aid Counselor works directly with the Associate Director of Student Financial Services to provide support with office operations, policy and procedure development, preparing reports, attending meetings, seminars, conferences, and other assigned by the Associate Director of Student Financial Services or the Associate Vice President for Student Financial Services.

The Financial Aid Counselor will perform such duties such as verification of Title IV recipient eligibility, Federal, Federal Direct Loan Administration, , SC Commission for the Blind program administration, and SC Vocational Rehabilitation program administration. The Financial Aid Counselor must remain up-to-date on federal and state regulations to ensure compliance and must be able to communicate well with students, faculty and staff, and outside agencies.

The Financial Aid Counselor must be able to organize, control and follow through on major projects. Excellent computer skills are required and the candidate must perform complex computer operations and write reports. Oral and written communication skills are necessary.

ESSENTIAL DUTIES/ NON
- ESSENTIAL DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES:

Coordination of the University's Student Employment Program (10%) - Essential

* Coordinate all aspects of the student employment program including federal and casual work study.

* Monitor departmental budgets and expenditures to ensure compliance with budgetary limits.

* Ensure campus supervisors submit the required mid-term and final student performance evaluations.

* Reconcile monthly wages with the payroll department and enter those wages into the Power

FAIDS system.

* Ensure compliance with annual wage reporting of FWS student employees to the Common Origination & Disbursement (COD) system with the US Department of Education.

* Perform final reconciliation in preparation to submit data to the Associate VP for preparation of the FISAP by August 15th of each year.

Supervision of Student Financial Services Student Employees (5%) - Essential

* Supervise office student workers. This includes organizing student employees work schedules to provide optimal support to the office, assigning work and projects, monitoring performance.

Coordinate Vocational Rehabilitation and SC School for the Deaf and Blind Programs in cooperation with the Sr. Financial Aid Counselor (5%) - Marginal

* Coordinates all aspects of the Vocational Rehabilitation and SC School for the Deaf and Blind programs assisting students with all aspects of eligibility, verification, documentation and reconciliation.

Coordinate Alternative Loan Programs (10%) - Essential

* Performs all duties related to the administration of all alternative (private loan programs) to include:

* Student eligibility review

* Common Line origination file transmission via the ELM platform

* Transmit and receive files using the ELM platform

* Monthly reconciliation of the program with a report to the Associate Vice President for Student Financial Services.

Perform all duties related to the SC State Financial Aid Programs (25%) - Essential

* Must remain informed and knowledgeable concerning all SC State Financial Aid Programs to include:

* South Caroline Tuition Grant

* SC Life and Enhancement

* SC Palmetto Fellows and Enhancement

* SC Hope

* SC Foster Care Waiver

* Evaluate student application, admission, and other financial aid criteria to determine eligibility.

* Review continuing student eligibility by June 15th of each year.

* Prepare invoices to the SC Commission on Higher Education for payment of scholarship to the University.

* Prepare all statistical…