FA - Packaging Status (Y/N)
Packaging Status (Y/N) shows whether or not a student has received their initial financial aid offer for a given academic year. If the student has submitted a FAFSA and received their initial financial aid offer, they will have the value of "Y." If the student has submitted their FAFSA but does not have a financial aid offer yet, it will show the value of "N." If the student has not submitted the FAFSA, the value will be blank. The intention of this data point is to offer more clarity around a student's financial information. There are several important things to remember when referencing this data point:
- You should not use this data point as a qualification. Doing so might negatively impact students in the process of completing verification.
- Even if a student has received their financial aid offer (i.e. has a "Y"), their financial aid offer may still change. OSFA is required by federal regulations to adjust student financial aid offers if a student receive additional financial aid (ie. scholarships, fellowships etc) after they receive their initial financial aid offer. A student may also experience a dramatic change to their financial situation (i.e. parent retiring, loss of parent's job) that might cause a re-evaluation of the student's financial aid offer.
- When summer enrollment begins in late spring, you may see some students who were previously marked as "Y" move to "N." Summer financial aid offers use the same FAFSA data as the preceding academic year. These students still have their academic year offers. For next year offers (so the future academic year), this will not be an issue.