Student Systems 2012 SME QUESTIONNAIRE :: DIRECT LOANS

DEPARTMENT INFO ::
Your Name: SME Area of Expertise: Department Name: Your Job Title: Who Are Your Customers: Miscellaneous:

Silvia Marquez Direct Loan Processing FAO Electronic Data Analyst Students, parents, staff

Todays Date:

02/07/07

# of People in Department: # of People Reporting to You: # of Customers:

70 0

Direct loans are educational loans from the Department of Education. They certify the amounts which are predetermined based on students academic level. The type could be subsidized with no interest or non-need based (unsubsidized with interest). FAFSA determines student need. They are responsible for: making sure all requirements are met prior to disbursing the funds booking the loan (reconciling it with the department) within 30 days of disbursing the loan to the students

NSLDS: National Student Loan Database System aggregate of all student loan information for a lifetime. Refer to make sure recipients are not over their lifetime maximum amount for loans: who disbursed them what school what standing theyre in (repaid, defaulted etc.) Pell Grant information ACG & SMART Grants (new grants in their first year that will eventually be held there) Parent loan information

PLUS loan: loans for graduate students and parents of undergraduate students EdExpress: Federal web-based software used to communicate and translate the files they get from the Department of Educations COD (Common Originations and Disbursment).
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MPN: Master Promissory Note Loans are paid by semester, not by year. The exception is students who are only here for one semester and they are graduating in that semester they get two half payments pro-rated based on enrollment. This is usually not a big issue in the Spring, but in the fall there are several hundred of these that need to be manually adjusted in SAMS.

FOR EACH MAJOR JOB ACTIVITY OR TASK::

Task Description Frequency e.g., 10/day Fall term Automated System End Result of Task and Follow-up Additional Features and Capabilities

1.

Review Daily Add Report of loans to be originated.

1-2 daily (2 runs on the days there are payments)

Yes

File of student/PLUS loans ready to be originated and sent to COD for response; resolution of loan problems for origination with next add report creation.

File can be used to identify/research/resolve loans that were sent in a previous add file that were not originated in Ed Express software. File also tracks pending or updated credit check information for PLUS loans. Also helps with monitoring of paper PLUS MPNs for the creation of manifest in Ed Express and for reconciliation.

This is a custom in-house developed report that is pulling data from SAMS. This shows everyone that is ready to be sent to the Department of Education to originate a loan. It also shows anyone who is not ready to get their loan and what the reason is (e.g. expired Promissory Note etc.) If theres something that can be resolved (like expired Promissory Note) the student is contacted to update and correct. Note: ConSAMD(the D refers to Direct Loan) is the icon on Sylvias desktop she uses to access this software. It formats the file of students that are ready to go out so it can go intoEd Express and eventually go out through EdConnect. All she does is refresh the tab for Add Report and then download the file so its ready to go. 2. Using Edconnect, transmit response files from the SAIG mailbox. Files include origination responses, credit 1-2 daily Yes Import all responses for loans that were sent in prior days add file, which may impact
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overrides, confirmation receipts, reconciliation files, MPNs, booking, and payment to servicer files from COD to R drive (Transmission of batched data files between UCB and COD) payment on SAMS (PLUS). This process may import Pell/SMART/ACG records as well, however, this process is managed by EDA French from this point.

EdConnect is federal software that is used to send and retrieve information to/from the federal SAIG mailbox. This is a shared mailbox and items have descriptors to identify them (but not always clear whether they are related to loans or Pell Awards). When a loan is ready to be originated, the process is to go through ConSAMD and put the information into EdExpress and EdExpress will set up a file, not just for loans but any changes anyone else might have made (reductions, anything else thats ready to go out). After that the file goes into EdConnect to send to the federal SAIG mailbox. ConSAMD is an FAO designed program When logging onto EdConnect, the first step would be to retrieve anything that the feds are sending back (all response files approval or rejection of loans and Pell Awards) then go back to EdExpress and set up the data that is ready to go then go back to EdConnect to send it out. After sending them out, the last thing is to run the EDE program to update SAMS on what was done (whether a loan sent out or a loan that came back approved or rejected). This happens once a day on Monday and Wednesday and twice a day on Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday. They pay out on Tuesday, Thursday and Sunday. 3. Using Edconnect, transmit files to COD (Transmission of batched data files between UCB and COD) 1-2 daily Yes Export files from EdExpress that include loans to be originated, adjustments, corrections, disbursements, data corrections, etc.

Loans that are rejected have a reject code that explain the reason. This requires troubleshooting to figure out why it wasnt approved. Usually its something that can be corrected by going into the web-based COD and adjusting loan amounts until it comes back approved. Promissory notes and credit checks can also be looked up and adjusted here. Loans that are approved are loaded automatically into SAMS (just by clicking an icon.) 4. Use COD/DL Servicer site to import Loan Counseling On going Yes Update SAMS for loan counseling sessions and
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Session & MPN information MPNs student/parent recently completed and required for loan borrowers. Download file to R drive and use inhouse program to load information to SAMS. (This is currently done by another staff person, but I am the back up for this vital process.)

The federal government requires that a first time borrower goes through a counseling session to understand what it means to borrow, when you repay, default etc. The feds can send a file of these people but they have a program that takes the information from the federal sites and uploads it into SAMS. So for example, they might take all the promissory notes that were done in the last month and upload them into SAMS every other night. This is done on a schedule; there is not flag to indicate it needs to be done. Students are made aware of their direct loan requirements on BearFacts plus they get email reminders. These things can also be done manually if necessary (e.g. pulling in one promissory note by going into COD and getting that ID# and cutting and pasting it into SAMS). The loans that would be treated differently would be the PLUS loans because there is more paperwork to turn in besides a promissory note. There are reports that show who has or hasnt completed their paperwork. Edit reports show if some of the information is mismatched. With the PLUS loans there could be hundred or thousands that are like this so those arent individually followed up on. But loans where two of the three pieces of information are in place would warrant attention to resolve. 5. Miscellaneous

GradPlus Loan. New for this year. Grads are limited in the amount of money they can borrow and their budgets are a lot higher so they need more money. Prior to this year the only other option was a private loan. The Feds are now offering their own version. Similar to the undergraduate PLUS loan in that theres a credit check and no additional paperwork for the student. Theres no aggregate limit to the amount they can borrow. Parents have two additional pieces of paper to submit in order to initiate the process. Verification happens upfront before they make a package. There are some rare cases where they may do verification later if theyve made a package and then a student makes a change to FAFSA and they have to verify that later.

SAMPLES OF MATERIALS USED IN YOUR JOB ::

Name Purpose Recipient

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1. Review numerous (in-house) systems reports Research, resolve problems preventing loans from originating, paying, i.e. run through normal processing cycles. Includes eligibility issues, overawards, annual limits, aggregate issues, 120 day cancellation adjustments, etc.

These reports show things like the student having too much money (over annual amount). Loans can be adjusted down within four months of paying out. If a student wants to cancel a loan, if its before 120 days have elapsed they can do it directly with UCB (so that changes are made in SAMS), after 120 days they have to go to the Department of Education to cancel. Report code AL = over the annual limit. Other exceptions: they want to give a student more than the maximum they can have (e.g. if a parent applies for a plus loan and gets denied they may have the option to get some additional loan). Need to check the AL on report to find out if it can be overridden. Reports run everyday, twice a day. If a student withdraws a report gets issued. Receive reports from the Feds of anyone that has a loan that is booked (reconciled). There is 30 days from the time the students are paid to get the information to the Feds. The payment date is in SAMS so there is a report that shows when anyone is approaching the 30 days. Similar to AddFile there will be a file of disbursements (all the people that have been paid in the last few weeks). File may be in EdExpress. Booked = reconciled Pending = waiting for something else (e.g. a promissory note). The reasons for pending arent usually very clear. Usually requires a phone call to the Feds to find out the reason for pending status. Could be because the name might be slightly different, the date of birth off by a digit etc. Might require sending a copy of the parents drivers license etc. Once the necessary information is obtained and sent, the Feds will send back a booked status. Unbooked = person didnt get reconciled (hasnt shown up on this report yet.) If this were to happen the Feds would send a separate paper letter about it. The only case where something like this might happen is if parents are not filling out the information online and have paper promissory notes. Then this information has to be manually loaded back into SAMS so the Feds wont book the loan until they have the actual physical promissory note. So if that information is in transit, the loan could come up as unbooked. 2. Review reports from EdExpress, reconciliation reports Transmission of DL data between UC Berkeley and federal processor. Research and resolve all rejected or pending origination records in response report. Resolve any unbooked loans in booking reports.

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