ISIR Program Levels

ISIRs indicate that a student is either Graduate (GR) or Undergraduate(UG). 

Regent Award considers an ISIR to be a Graduate-level ISIR when a student answers "Yes" to the FAFSA question 48, ISIR field "Working on a Master's or Doctorate Program?" If a student answers "No" or leaves that question blank, Regent Award considers the ISIR to be an Undergraduate-level ISIR. The ISIR's level is shown by the "Graduate" Y or N value on the /wiki/spaces/REM/pages/7012869. A value of "X" in the "Graduate" column indicates the student was "grandfathered in" (to the functionality/logic prior to the introduction of this feature) and the ISIR can be used for packaging both Graduate programs and Undergraduate programs.

Awarding and Mismatched ISIR Program Levels

For proper awarding to occur, the ISIR program level needs to match the Regent Award program type. For example, if a student has a Graduate ISIR, but enrolls in an Undergraduate program, Regent Award will not use the Graduate ISIR for packaging the student's Undergraduate awards. Regent Award also cancels any of the previously packaged awards that had used the "mismatched" undergraduate ISIR. The same behavior occurs if a student has an Undergraduate ISIR and enrolls in a Graduate program. Regent Award cancels any previous awards created with the mismatched graduate ISIR, and will not package new Graduate awards with an Undergraduate ISIR. If a school is configured to award based on an "Estimated" EFC, Regent Award will still try to create Estimated awards for the program based on the existing ISIR's EFC. Regent Award also notes the ISIR-program mismatch as a warning in the packaging log. When Regent Award users are processing a Program Change and no matching active ISIR is available, the Program Management Wizard (PMW) will display an alert and prompt the user to select an active ISIR.

A mismatched GR/UG ISIR will not block packaging on a non-grandfathered student. However, the student will not have any Title IV aid awarded for a non-matching program. A Packaging Log error message will be created. 

Note: Regent Award considers “post-bachelor’s licensure” credentials to be Undergraduate programs, for awarding purposes.

Program Changes

When a student changes between UG/GR program levels, the student needs two ISIRs – one for each program - in order to be awarded Title IV aid within Regent Award. Each ISIR needs a different response to the FAFSA question “Working on Masters or Doctorate Program.”

For example, a school is configured to not award any Estimated Title IV aid when a student does not have a valid (matching) ISIR. So, if a student only has a Graduate ISIR that says they are working on a Masters degree, but the student enrolls in an Undergraduate program, Regent Award will cancel any Title IV awards for the Undergraduate program. Later, when an Undergraduate ISIR is loaded with a new response to “Working on Masters or Doctorate Program,” Regent Award will use that Undergraduate ISIR for awarding any Undergraduate-level Title IV aid.

When a Regent Award user processes a program change, and there are multiple Active ISIRs, Regent Award will prompt the user: "The active ISIR is not consistent with the grade level of the new program. Click here to update active ISIR." See /wiki/spaces/REM/pages/7012435.

If the student’s Undergraduate ISIR is corrected, using the ISIR Verification/Correction Wizard, to become a Graduate level ISIR, Regent Award will not use the corrections on that ISIR to repackage the student’s Graduate awards. This allows Regent to maintain the integrity of Undergraduate ISIR data required to properly package any Undergraduate enrollments within the same FAY. When the corrected Graduate ISIR is imported, it will be applied to the student’s Graduate enrollments. Likewise, if a student has a Graduate ISIR that is corrected to become an Undergraduate ISIR, the corrections will not be used by the system in order to maintain the integrity of the Graduate ISIR data for properly packaging Graduate awards within the FAY. When the corrected Undergraduate ISIR is imported, it will be applied to the student’s Undergraduate enrollments within the FAY. 

ISIR Corrections

When the ISIR Verification/Correction Wizard is used to change a student’s program level from Undergraduate to Graduate, and the “Package Using Corrected active ISIR, Transmitted” or the “Package Using Corrected Active ISIR Not Transmitted” option is selected, Regent Award will not use the corrections on that ISIR to package the student’s Graduate awards. This allows Regent to maintain the integrity of Undergraduate ISIR data required to support eligibility determinations for any Undergraduate enrollments within the same FAY. When the corrected Graduate ISIR is imported, it will be applied to the student’s Graduate enrollments. Likewise, if a student has a Graduate ISIR that is corrected to become an Undergraduate ISIR, the corrections will not be used by the system to repackage the student in order to maintain the integrity of the Graduate ISIR data for any Graduate awards within the FAY. When the corrected Undergraduate ISIR is imported, it will be applied to the student’s Undergraduate enrollments within the FAY. This furthers our unique ability to support both Undergraduate and Graduate ISIRs in the same FAY.

Grandfathered Students

To ease the transition for this enhancement, existing students who currently have a mismatched ISIR in the system were "grandfathered in" to prior system functionality that did not require two ISIRs for two different program levels. The affected students currently have an active Graduate ISIR in an Undergraduate program, or have an active Undergraduate ISIR while in a Graduate program. For those students' current ISIRs only, Regent did a one-time data update. The data update allowed the students to continue to be packaged as if their existing active ISIR correctly matched their program level. Those students can continue using that mismatched ISIR as long as it remains their Active ISIR. If any subsequent or corrected ISIRs are loaded for those students, the new ISIRs will need to match and have a correct answer for “Working on Masters or Doctorate Program.”  Any other, future students with mismatched ISIRs will also need to correct their response to “Working on Masters or Doctorate Program." 

Grandfathered ISIRs are marked with an "X" in the "Graduate" column on the /wiki/spaces/REM/pages/7012869.