Independent Consultant Writing Assignment
Independent consultants must have strong narrative and technical writing skills. The assignment below is designed to assess your writing ability in both areas.
Writing Assignment: Part 1
Describe a time you made a mistake, how you handled it, and what happened as a result. Please be descriptive, but limit your response to 1-2 pages.
Writing Assignment: Part 2
Please demonstrate your research, interpretation, and writing skills by evaluating two of the following scenarios. Compose your response as if you are writing to the financial aid director and provide appropriate context that the director can use in other conversations across the institution. Include current, relevant citation text and note any assumptions made in your response.
Scenario 1
Our institution is a traditional semester-based university. One of our academic departments has approached the financial aid office to ask about a new academic program it intends to add to the curriculum for the upcoming award year. The new program will contain two 14-week terms and one 7-week term during the fall through spring academic year. Students enrolled in this program will not be able to cross-enroll in semester classes. What factors should we consider when advising the academic department as it establishes the new program? What are the requirements and options for awarding and disbursing aid in each of the Title IV aid programs—Federal Pell Grants, TEACH Grants, Direct Loans, and campus-based funds? Are there other considerations?
Scenario 2
Our school operates on a traditional academic year calendar. We offer 16-week classes and two 8-week modules within each semester. Currently we use one census date (freeze date or Pell Recalculation Date), which is one day after the end of the "drop/add" period for the semester. We pay aid based on enrollment in the semester plus both modules as of that date. We have a student who was enrolled in twelve credit hours (full-time) on our census date for the fall semester. We awarded her a full-time Federal Pell Grant. She was also selected for verification, so we didn't actually disburse the Pell Grant. She completed the fall semester with only six credits. She failed one course because she failed the final exam. She failed the other course because she never attended it. She acknowledged that she never attended because she said she didn't realize the class was on her schedule. She's petitioning the Registrar's Office to have the course removed from her transcript. She is enrolled full-time and completed verification in the spring semester. We now want to disburse her Pell for fall and for spring, but we aren't sure what her enrollment status should be for fall. Do we disburse the Pell Grant at full-time, but then reduce it if the Registrar's Office approves her appeal and removes the class from her schedule?
Scenario 3
Our school currently reviews SAP by payment period and over the course of the last few years our student population has grown significantly in both undergraduate and graduate programs. Both the financial aid office and the academic dean’s offices have seen a significant increase in SAP reviews that need to be completed each semester. Leadership at our campus have asked us to analyze what impact evaluating SAP annually will have. Is there a difference or benefit to evaluating SAP annually or by payment period? What are the challenges?
Scenario 4
We have a student who keeps repeating a course and each time has applied for federal aid to pay for it. The student initially took the course and earned an F and received federal aid. The second time he took the course he earned a C and received federal aid. The third time he took the course he withdrew from it and received federal aid. The fourth time he took the course he earned an F and received federal aid. He wants to take the course a fifth time. Is he eligible to receive federal aid for it? What other areas should the school consider?