Tuition Assistance / Financial Aid

The preferred method for capturing and presenting Tuition Assistance is on the contract. However, there are a few potential issues with this:

Tuition Assistance awarded weeks or month after the contract is issued and signed
Tuition Assistance that is awarded on a per parent basis rather than on a per Student basis, particularly within the context of split households.

Options Based on Different Processes

Tuition Assistance on a per-student basis & awards are made before contract issuing.

If the Tuition Assistance is awarded on a per-student basis before the contract being sent out, the easiest way to add financial aid to students is to use the built-in fields to display the award on the contract. The payment plans will calculate off the net balance after the award. Check out our Financial Aid Management article to learn how to add aid to a student.

Tuition Assistance on a per-student basis & awards are made after issuing the contract.

If the Tuition Assistance is awarded after contracts are generally issued, there are several options available. Which option you choose depends on your school’s process and timeline.

Option 1: Use an intent to enroll form and issue the contract once Tuition Assistance has been awarded.

Option 2: Issue the contract, have the parent/guardian sign, and then re-issue an updated contract once the award has been made. This process works well as long as the awards are made and the contracts are due back prior to the start of any payment plans. The downside is having the parent go through the contract process twice, especially with multiple signatures. However, the contract will save previously submitted answers so generally it should be quicker to sign. It may increase the need to follow-up with parents if they don’t realize they need to re-sign the updated agreement.

Option 3: Manually apply the award to the parent’s billing account. The award will not be reflected on the contract.

Tuition Assistance on a Per-Parent Basis (Finalsite Enrollment Billing)

For Schools that use Finalsite Enrollment Billing: If you'd like to assign aid on a per-parent basis, we recommend utilizing the Split Contracts feature. Please check out our Billing: Split Contracts article to learn about this in depth.