FINANCIAL AID INFORMATION SYSTEM .md.us

FINANCIAL AID INFORMATION SYSTEM

(FAIS)

GENERAL INSTRUCTIONS FOR THE COMPLETION OF THE UNIT RECORD SUBMISSION

FOR HIGHER EDUCATION INSTITUTIONS

August 2021

Maryland Higher Education Commission 6 North Liberty Street Ground Suite Baltimore, MD 21201

mhec.state.md.us

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Background ..................................................................................................................................... 3 Students To Include ........................................................................................................................ 3 Reporting Period ............................................................................................................................. 3 Due Date of Report ......................................................................................................................... 4 Submission of Data ......................................................................................................................... 4 General Data Formats ..................................................................................................................... 4 Data Definitions for the 2020-2021 Report .................................................................................... 7

Undergraduate Aid Categories .............................................................................................. 11 Graduate Aid Categories ....................................................................................................... 16

Background

College access for low-income students has been an issue of great concern in Maryland for a number of years. Recent efforts to address this concern include a study conducted in 2001 by the American Institutes for Research of Maryland's State financial aid programs and the work of a task force established by the General Assembly during the 2000 legislative session to study college readiness for disadvantaged and capable students. These studies noted that the statewide data collected by the Maryland Higher Education Commission was inadequate to allow comprehensive analyses to determine if the financial aid needs of low-income students were being adequately addressed and whether the State aid programs were effective. As a direct result of these findings, the 2002 Joint Chairmen's Report (JCR) directed the institutions to work cooperatively with the Commission to develop a student unit record system to collect needed data and establish a multiyear timeline for data collection, and a multi-year research program.

Toward that end, the Commission convened an inter-segmental workgroup to identify the data needed to conduct comprehensive analyses of financial aid and create the appropriate data collection mechanisms to achieve this task. This workgroup consisted of representatives from the Commission, the University System of Maryland, Morgan State University, St. Mary's College of Maryland, the independent colleges and universities, the community colleges, the Department of Budget and Management and the Department of Legislative Services and met regularly to make decisions on a wide variety of issues related to financial aid data collection pursuant to the JCR request. The workgroup examined the Commission's current data collection systems, studied financial aid data collection systems and research in other states, established research goals and objectives, determined the data elements needed for Maryland's financial aid data collection system, set appropriate data definitions, and planned a reasonable timeline for implementation of this system.

The Financial Aid Information System (FAIS) provides information and will support analysis describing financial aid recipients and the amounts of aid disbursed during each academic year. A student is to be reported through this unit record system if he/she receives financial aid. The information reported for each student includes the student's identification number, the amounts of financial aid disbursed through individual financial aid programs and information to determine the level of need. Table A contains the record layout for the new unit record system.

Students to Include

The population to be reported in the unit record submission is defined as any undergraduate or graduate student who receives some form of financial assistance as defined in these instructions. A data record must be submitted for each financial aid award disbursed for each student.

Reporting Period

The 2021 unit record submission should contain unit record data for financial aid distributed during the calendar period July 1, 2020 through June 30, 2021. The submission deadline for this year is November 15th for financial aid disbursed during the calendar period July 1st of the prior year through June 30th of the current year.

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Due Date of File

The unit record data submission file is due on or before November 15, 2021.

Submission of Data - Process for Editing and Submission of Data

Upload using the Commission's Data Web Site. This is the most secure and only method for FAIS data submission. URL is . Under the "Secure File Transfer" heading select the proper option to perform preliminary and final FAIS submissions. This selection requires a user-id and password. When this option is used, your file must have a .csv extension for a successful upload. Files with any other extension, such as zipped files (.zip), will not upload successfully. When your FAIS file is uploaded using the data web, the form completed on-line also serves as your official Institutional Certification and Specification form.

General Data Formats Institutions must report comma separated value (.csv) files for FAIS unit record data. Please see the FAIS Record layout under MAC2 Specifications located at . This format is more adaptable to desktop software tools as well as mainstream data warehouses. To upload data, institutions must log on to the Data Web Site using an assigned userid and password, select the proper header record, and then upload the file on a preliminary or official basis. If uploading officially the comment area should be used to document special circumstances or explanations.

Each FAIS record shows the most direct relationship between student individual awards to records submitted and allows the extraction to be purely on an award level. Each record will contain collection information, institution information, student information and award information related to FAIS aid categories. Each aid category has a unique corresponding 4-digit code made up of level, type, and category as defined below. The aid category chart with ranges can be found at under the MAC2 File Specs for FAIS.

Level: Indicates whether the awards were based upon student being undergraduate or graduate. The first digit will be a "1" representing undergraduate, or a "4" for graduate.

Type: Indicates the type of aid received, i.e. grant, loan, scholarship, and work-study. These types differ depending upon the level. If the level is "1" or undergraduate, then the type numbers will be grant = 1, loan = 2, scholarship = 3, and work-study = 4. If the level is "4" or graduate, then the type numbers will be grant = 6, loan = 7, scholarship = 8, and work-study = 9.

Category: Indicates the individual areas of aid within each type. It is a unique number within each and type. Regardless of the type, the category number starts with 01 and ends with the number of the last category within the type. For example, grants under the undergraduate level are as follows, Federal Pell (01), Federal SEOG (02), Other Federal (03) and so on. The same holds for all types. Here are some examples of Aid Category codes:

Undergraduate Institutional Grants Undergraduate Federal Perkins Loan Undergraduate Senatorial Scholarship

= 1108 = 1201 = 1305

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Graduate Institutional Grants Graduate Federal Perkins Loan Graduate Senatorial Scholarship

= 4604 = 4701 = 4803

There must be one record for each annual award received. In other words, the number of awards per student for the year should equal the number of records per student. A student may have multiple records if he/she has received aid from more than one category or from more than one program in the same category. For example, an undergraduate student receives the following financial aid for the year in state scholarships and institutional scholarships:

Aid Code Name of Award

(1303) (1318) (1318)

Distinguished Scholar Award Theatre Scholarship Honors Scholarship

Fall Amt.

$1500.00 $1000.00 $ 0.00

Spring Amt.

$1500.00 $1000.00 $ 500.00

Total for Year

$3000.00 $2000.00 $ 500.00

The aid categories and award amounts should be correctly reported as:

Collection Information not shown not shown not shown

Institution Information not shown not shown not shown

Student Information not shown not shown not shown

Aid Category Code 1303 1318 1318

Total Dollars 003000 002000 000500

For the year, the student above was reported once for the Distinguished Scholar award and reported two times, one for each of the two different institutional scholarships in the same category.

Reporting aid categories and award amounts this way is INCORRECT:

Collection Information not shown not shown

Institution Information not shown not shown

Student Information not shown not shown

Aid Category Code 1303 1318

Total Dollars 003000 002500

The student above was reported once for the Distinguished Scholar award and the two different institutional scholarships in the same category were incorrectly reported as one record. Do not collapse awards amounts that fall in the same aid category. The second record in this case would be incorrectly processed as a single institutional scholarship in the amount of $2500.00.

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Sample FAIS record submissions

Field# 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15. 16. 17. 18. 19. 20. 21. 22. 23. 24. 25.

Data Element Name

Sample Data Set#1

Collection Term

9

Collection Year

2021

OPEID+2

00210300

Sub-Campus Code

Identification Number (SSN)

123456789

Identification Type

1

Local Campus Student Identifier ABC1234

SASID

1234567891

Gender

1

Financial Aid Status

1

Parent 1 Highest Grade Completed

1

Parent 2 Highest Grade Completed

1

Fall Attendance

1

Spring Attendance

1

Family Size

4

Dependency Status

1

Commuter Status

1

Expected Family Contribution

3219

Cost of Attendance

29132

Adjusted Gross Income

54410

Aid Category Code

4707

Financial Aid Disbursement Amount 6192

US Citizenship

1

Hispanic/Latino Ethnicity

N

White

1

Sample Data Set#2

9 2021 00210300 A 012345678 1 123A (blank) 1 0 (blank) (blank) 1 1 (blank) 0 0 9999999 29132 99999999 4707 6192 1 N 1

What these sample records should look like when submitted:

Sample Data Set#1 9,2021,00210300,,123456789,1,ABC1234,1234567891,1,1,1,1,1,1,4,1,1,3219,29132,54410,4707,6192,1,N,1,2,,,

Sample Data Set#2 9,2021,00210300,A,012345678,1,123A,,1,0,,,1,1,,0,0,9999999,29132,99999999,4707,6192,1,N,1,,,,5

Data Definitions for the 2020-2021 Report 1. Collection Term: The period of collection (e.g., annual) for data collected. This field indicates the data collection period to distinguish different types and time periods. For the FAIS, the collection is annually based and the only valid code for this field is:

9 = annual (academic year)

2. Collection Year: The collection cycle year (e.g., 2021) for data collected. This field indicates the collection year cycle for which the report is submitted. The collection cycle year is the calendar year used to identify the data collection and is based on the Maryland Higher Education Commission's annual data collection cycle. For example, the 2020-2021 report contains unit record data for financial aid disbursed during the calendar period July 1, 2020 through June 30, 2021 and should be reported as 2021.

3. Office of Postsecondary Education Identification (OPEID) Federal Interagency Committee on Education code (FICE+2): A unique federal identification code for each institution that uses the federal OPEID identification number. It usually has the old FICE code as the first 6 digits of an 8 digit number with a "00" as the last 2 digits.

4. Sub-Campus Code: A code that allows a breakdown within institution or is used to classify students into groups. Usually an institution defined data element for its own needs. Can be blank.

5. Identification Number: This field is used to uniquely identify each student enrolled. Institutions should supply the student's SSN or Individual Taxpayer's Identification Number (ITIN). Only when an SSN or ITIN is not available then an institution-assigned student number should be used. If an assigned number is used, it should be 9-digit numeric (not all zeros "000000000") and always remain unique for the student at the assigning institution. Do not use special characters, such as "@" when assigning identification numbers. The Commission will replace the student number with a scrambled, encrypted identification number. This scrambled number will contain 7 alpha-numeric characters with 2 blank fields at the end. The Commission will maintain and control the data files on secured servers. The servers are located behind a firewall and accessible only within the Commission's local private network. Access to the data is limited to staff who require access for Commission work.

6. Identification Number Type: An indicator that determines whether the identification number is based upon a valid social security number, ITIN or an institution assigned substitute number in lieu of SSN.

1 = valid social security number 2 = assigned identification number 3 = ITIN

7. Local Campus Student Identifier: A unique institution Identifier for the use of the institution to cross reference individual students. This field should not be blank. Blank is not valid.

8. State Assigned Student Identifier: A unique state assigned student identifier (SASID)

assigned exclusively by the Maryland State Department of Education (MSDE). This SASID is

important so that Maryland will have the ability to identify each individual student within the

Maryland educational system. This field may be blank if not assigned 10 digits.

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9. Gender: Indicate the gender of the student as recorded by your institution using the following codes. Individuals missing this information must be assigned a gender. Field must not be blank.

1 = Male 2 = Female 3 = Unknown, male assigned 4 = Unknown, female assigned

10. Financial Aid Application Status: Indicate whether the student has applied for financial aid by filing the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA). Field must not be blank. The valid codes for this field are:

0 = did not apply for financial aid by filing a FAFSA 1 = applied for financial aid by filing a FAFSA

11. Parent 1 Highest Grade Level Completed: As reported on the FAFSA, the level of education achieved by Parent 1. If Financial aid status = 0, this field must = blank.

1 = Middle School/Junior High 2 = High School 3 = College or Beyond 4 = Other/unknown Blank is valid

**If FINANCIAL AID APP STATUS = 0, leave cell blank. If FINANCIAL AID APP STATUS = 1, report either 1, 2, 3, or 4.

12. Parent 2 Highest Grade Level Completed: As reported on the FAFSA, the level of education achieved by Parent2. If Financial aid status = 0, this field must = blank.

1 = Middle School/Junior High 2 = High School 3 = College or Beyond 4 = Other/unknown Blank is valid

** If FINANCIAL AID APP STATUS = 0, leave cell blank. If FINANCIAL AID APP STATUS = 1, report either 1, 2, 3, or 4.

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