I. Academic Scholarships

a. Academic Scholarship Database and Early Offers

1. Creating a table shell for the Access scholarship database
   a. Copy the previous year’s Access database from the FINAID folder in the K:drive
   b. Paste it into the folder, but label the new file with the new year
   c. Open the “Complete Application” and delete all of the old data
   d. Call the Information Resource Consultant in Computer services (Troy) for assistance
   e. Save a copy of the Access scholarship database to the desktop

 2. Populating the database to make an offer

a. Open the “Complete Applications

b. If the student cannot be found or this is an early offer, manually populate the appropriate fields by entering (last four digits of the student’s SSN, scholarship name, amount, date offered, renewal and enrollment status, and any special waivers).

c. Close and proceed to creating the letters using mail merge in Word.

b.  Scholarship Offer

1. Scholarship Cover Letter Using Microsoft Office 2007 Mail Merge:

a. Go to “K:\FINAID\20XX-XX Academic Scholarship,” choose the appropriate scholarship agreement, “mailings,” “select recipients,” “use existing list,” “data source,” “desktop,” “Scholarships 20XX-20XX,”  select the appropriate list of notification.  Return to the word document and “edit recipient list” to choose the new recipients, the “preview “ and complete the merge.

b. If the student is receiving or has received multiple offers, or this is a replacement scholarship, enter an “X” next to the appropriate place on the individual agreement.

c.Print two copies from the default printer.

d. Mail the signed cover letter and both agreement forms to the recipient.

c. Loading Returned Agreements

1. When signed scholarship agreement forms are returned, date stamp, check accept o decline, and update the “received date” field in the Access scholarship database with the date stamped, and close.  Initial the agreement form.

2. Go to screen 10, enter the correct term, fund code, minimum hours, and award amount.

a. Abbreviate the scholarship name on the comment line and initial the agreement

b. Make a comment on screen 3 for multiple scholarships loaded under the same fund code

3. Take to the file room for scanning.

d. Populating the database from the mainframe in early February.

1. Contact Institutional Effectiveness (IE) in mid-January to verify student list and special indicators databases are ready to “freeze” for the February 1 deadline.
2. Check with Admissions to verify all runs have been completed
3. After receiving a “freeze” date from the Financial Aid Director, “freeze” the student profiles from https://iesecure.usca.edu/facstaff/reports W0001Z.aspusing your computer login and password.

a. Because the database updates weekly, to “freeze” the data, open and save the entire file using an Excel format

b. Import the students’ SSN, last four digits of SSN, Last and First name, and complete address from the Excel file into the Access database created in A1.

i. Save the Excel file again with only columns to export to Access.  Retitle to match Access columns exactly

                        ii. Close Excel

iii. Open the Access database created in A.1.  Go to External Data and Import Excel

                        iv. Browse and select Excel file created to import

v. Select Append a Copy and select Complete Table in drop down box

                        vi.  Click OK

                        vii.  Delete any duplicates from the early offers

1. Also open and save the Special Indicators list form: https://iesecure.usca.edu/facstaff/reports/W0016X.asp and send them to an Excel format to the HAS committee
2. Contact Institutional Effectiveness (IE) for access if denied
3. Call the Information Resource Consultant (Cheryl) for help in exporting the student list into Access

 II.  Departmental Scholarship Recommendation Request

a. Sort or filter the entire Excel file of the student profile list by major, and copy each major into an Excel file.  This list will accompany the scholarship recommendation request outlined below.

b. The Office of Advancement will update the scholarship list in Access and send a Word document of the criteria for the scholarships via email.

c. Mid-February, send each department head the list of students in their department created from the Excel file and the scholarship criteria from the Office of Advancement, along with a cover email.

d. Also send the following organizations an email with the cover letter and their respective scholarship(s) criteria; however, they will not have a list of students

i. Athletics: R. Warrick

ii. Disabilities: C. Justen

iii. Student Activities: A. Samaha

iv. Intercultural: A. Malik

e. Recommendations are sent in a variety of ways.  Keep a record o all recommendations in the scholarship notebook and create a separate scholarship folder in your Microsoft outlook inbox.

f. Queries

i. Parameters are already set and will update when pulled

ii. Open “Queries” from the Access scholarship database.  Select the appropriate query, make adjustments to the margins and paper size, and print on legal size paper.

iii. Upon the Financial Aid director’s request, print the “Complete Application Query: Offers and Accepts” alphabetized by student’s last name or by scholarship name.