Payment Period Selection

When one or more payment periods are selected, the Compare Awards grid appears and displays financial aid and award information associated with the selected payment periods.

There are two ways for payment periods to be selected. First, a user can select the checkbox in the first column of the payment period selection list. Each selected payment period will display in the Compare Awards grid to allow for a side-by-side comparison. Alternatively, users can select a loan period from the Analyze Loan Period dropdown, which automatically selects all of the associated payment periods.

Regent recommends selecting payment periods using the Analyze Loan Period dropdown for most cases. This is because the Totals column of the Compare Awards grid displays differently depending on how payment periods are selected. When payment periods are selected individually using the checkboxes, the Totals column displays the sum of each row, even if the selected payment periods are not part of the same academic period. When payment periods are selected using the Analyze Loan Period dropdown, the Totals column displays values that were calculated during the most recent packaging run for the period as a whole. This is especially important to consider when reviewing direct cost, unmet cost, census unmet cost, unmet need, and census unmet need.

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Pell COA

For both term and non-term programs, the Pell COA will be displayed based on the Pell COA Setup configuration. 

• If the amount being used for the payment period is the FT Pell COA amount, an icon will display to the right of the value that contains the letters "FT".

• If the amount being used for the payment period is the LTHT Pell COA amount, an icon will display to the right of the value that contains the letters "LTHT". 

• If the amount being used for the payment period is an overridden Pell COA Amount (see Pell COA Override), a manual icon will be displayed to the right of the value. 

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Cost of Attendance (COA)

For term-based programs, COA will be calculated/recalculated during packaging until Term Start, Census, or End of Term, depending on the COA Recalculation option configured in Institution Setup.

At the time of Term Start or Census, packaging will run and COA will be recalculated based on the units at the time. If packaging is not successful, Regent will continue to recalculate the COA until the next time packaging is successful. Once packaging is successful, COA will not be recalculated again.

• Exception: COA will recalculate any time the ‘Force one-time COA Recalculation’ option is selected in the Cost Adjustment Wizard, Course Adjustment Wizard, or Resource Adjustment Wizard.

For term-based programs that use modules, durational COA items (costs applied based on weeks or months of enrollment) are calculated using the student's actual instructional weeks of enrollment. For monthly COA items, a factor of 4.345 weeks per month is used. For per-term COA items, an "enrolled percentage" (calculated by dividing instructional months by total term months) is used to prorate the cost amount.

For non-term programs, there are configuration options to ‘Freeze COA recalculation for all except Monthly/Weekly COA items’ and ‘Freeze Monthly/Weekly COA items for slow student progress’ in Institution Setup. However, the "Force one-time COA Recalculation" option is not available for non-term programs.

Census COA displays the student's cost of attendance as it existed as of the Census Date for the term.

Direct Costs

Direct cost amounts display differently depending on how the payment periods were selected. If the payment periods were selected using the checkboxes, then the amount, calculated as the sum of COA items marked ‘Direct Cost’ and cost adjustments marked ‘Direct Cost,' is displayed for each payment period individually. The Totals column is then the sum of the direct costs of the selected payment periods across the row. If the payment periods were selected using the Analyze Loan Periods dropdown, then direct costs are not displayed for each individual payment period, and the Totals column reflects the sum of COA items marked ‘Direct Cost’ and cost adjustments marked ‘Direct Cost' for the entire period as calculated during the most recent packaging run.

Student Aid Index (SAI)

For 2024-2025 and later FAYs, Expected Family Contribution (EFC) is replaced by Student Aid Index (SAI).

For term-based programs, the SAI displayed on the award tab is the SAI from the active ISIR. The single SAI value is applied to all loan periods for FAY 2024-2025 regardless of the loan period length.

For students using a Provisional SAI dependency model (dependency status code “Z”), the Award Details display the Provisional SAI value instead of the SAI.

For FAYs 2023-2024 and earlier, the EFC was calculated and displayed.

Unmet Need

Unmet Need = COA - SAI - Resources - Total Awards

• Awards and Resources marked ‘Exempt’ are excluded from the calculations.

• Non-need based loans may offset all or a portion of the SAI in the calculation.

Unmet need displays differently depending on how the payment periods were selected. If the payment periods were selected using the checkboxes, then the amount is displayed for each payment period individually, and the Totals column is then the sum of the unmet need values of the selected payment periods across the row. If the payment periods were selected using the Analyze Loan Periods dropdown, then unmet need amounts are not displayed for each individual payment period, and the Totals column reflects the unmet need for the entire period as calculated during the most recent packaging run.

Census Unmet Need displays the student's unmet need as it existed as of the Census date for the payment period.

Unmet Cost

Unmet Cost = COA - Resources - Total Awards

• Awards and Resources marked ‘Exempt’ are excluded from the calculations.

• Non-need based loans are included in the Total Awards in the calculation.

Unmet costs amounts display the same whether payment periods are selected individually or via the Analyze Loan Periods dropdown.

Census Unmet Cost displays the student's unmet cost as it existed as of the Census date for the payment period.