STORY

Student information system adds financial aid functions

Monday launch will lead to improved tool for matching students with scholarships
By Staff
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isis
The new Integrated Student Information System (ISIS) on Monday takes another step forward as users in financial aid offices begin setting up scholarship functions. Users will be able to input scholarship information, including due dates and eligibility criteria, and students will be able to access online applications starting next month.

More flexible and robust than the existing Student Information System, the ISIS scholarship application is better able to determine student scholarship eligibility and match students to specific aid based on interests.

The new online application will be available for newly admitted students in Boulder and Colorado Springs on Dec. 1; Denver will open its applica­tion Jan. 19. Continuing students still will use the legacy scholarship application and will have access to the new scholarship application when the campuses launch existing student portals early next year.

Another added feature of ISIS is integrated external award reporting capabilities, which enable students to report outside sources of aid such as private scholarships (for example, a local Rotary scholarship) to financial aid offices. The offices may then process the information in ISIS, eliminating the need to collect the infor­mation separately and manually update a student's record. The function will enable financial aid offices to make adjustments early and avoid situations where total aid exceeds the cost of attendance.

The new $50 million Student Information System will be rolled out in stages through the end of 2010.
Next year's rollouts will include registration and financial aid award notices, and will process transfer credits for new students in degree audit and transfer articulation system in February. Support of fall 2010 registration is scheduled for April, when most faculty, staff and existing students will begin using the new system. That will be followed by student financials in July, financial aid disbursement in August, and transcripts and end-of-term processing between September and December.

For more, see the project's Web site.