Slide 9
Next, we'll review the self-service options available in your Student Portal that relate to Financial Aid and your Student Account. To get started, log into your portal at my.devry.edu with your Student DSI number.
Slide 10
The Student Portal provides several self-service options for managing your student account. You can review and print itemized statements, often needed for employer reimbursement programs, check your account balance, enroll in a payment plan and make payments, manage your direct deposit account for any financial aid credit balances, and view your awards and complete any required documentation for those awards. To get started, log into your portal at my.devry.edu with your Student DSI number.
Slide 11
Once you have logged in successfully, you will be brought to the Home page. The Quick View section to the right-hand side of the page contains several key pieces of information about your account, such as your payment summary, any active academic or financial holds that require your attention, a summary from your borrowing history through our financial awareness tool, Manage My Loans, your degree completion status and current session credit hours, and finally, a count of outstanding financial aid documents for the current academic year. We'll go over these items on the Student Finance page in more detail, but take note that you can click on the Missing Documents link as a shortcut directly into the page where your Student Finance documents are found. Let's click on the Student Finance tab to get started.
Slide 12
The Student Finance tab contains a wealth of helpful information that pertains to your student account and financial aid awards and provides many self-service options that help you manage your student account and financial aid awards. Let's take a closer look at each section.
Slide 13
The Student Account Summary section provides an overview of your overall account balance, which includes any current and past due payments, payment due date, days outstanding (if you have a late payment), date and amount of your last payment, as well as your current account balance.
For a more detailed view of your session charges, we'll head to the View Account Details section. The most recent session will be displayed by default, but you can use the View Itemized Statements dropdown menu at the bottom left of the section to select another session to view. A summary of all courses, along with all charges and credits assigned to the selected session, will be presented. If you would like to print a copy of the summary (most commonly used for tuition reimbursement programs through students' employers), select the Print link to view a summary on university letterhead with an option to print.
Next, we'll look at Student Account Action, which contains links to the Student Account center to view bills, make payments, manage payment plans, as well as sign up for direct deposit. You can also get a full history summarizing the costs of each semester in your enrollment by clicking View Account Summary By Term. Manage Account Authorizations allows you to update authorizations, such as holding cash credit balances on your student account and the ability to use federal funding to cover noninstitutional charges, such as physical textbooks. Finally, Tax Notification is where you can access your 1098-T document each year. Please note that 1098-E documents specific to loans are available directly through your loan servicer.
Next is Financial Awareness. This section contains a link to the National Student Loan Data System, which will provide a detailed status of all federal loans and grants received at all institutions. You will also find several links to prerecorded financial awareness webinars offered by our Financial Awareness team on topics such as exit counseling (if you need to complete exit counseling, joining this webinar will meet the requirement), the ins and outs of credit, and more.
Additional Resources will provide additional links that may be helpful, such as current Tuition & Fee charts, Federal Perkins Loan Servicing, and more.
Finally, we have the Financial Aid Awards section. This section will provide an overview of action items (messages), your current year financial aid award summary, as well as an overview of the information from our Financial Awareness tool, Manage My Loans, which you'll learn about shortly.
Let's take a deeper dive into the details behind the Financial Aid Awards section. By clicking View More, you will be brought into the Financial Aid detail section, which contains information about your financial aid awards, student finance action items, and the responsible borrowing tool, Manage My Loans.
Slide 14
First, ensure the appropriate year is selected. The default year will update for all students to the newest year in early July, but you can select the upcoming award year as early as late February/early March each year.
Let's review the Financial Aid Awards tab.
By default, you will be brought to the Financial Assistance page, which provides a detailed listing of all financial aid awards and the disbursement status for each. Financial Aid is grouped into Grants & Scholarships, Additional Aid, and Loans. For each award, you will see the total semester value in the top box, and directly below it, you will find the anticipated award for the individual session. When an award has not yet disbursed, it will appear in black text. Once the award HAS disbursed, the text color will update to green to reflect that a disbursement was made, and the value presented was the actual amount disbursed to your student account. If you hover over the green disbursement amount—in this example we're hovering over the Federal Direct Unsubsidized Loan for the March session—you will see the loan amount, the net disbursed amount, which is the actual amount after origination fees that will be posted to your student account, and finally, the disbursement date. Funds will post to your student account within one business day of this date.
At the bottom of the page, you will find Your Estimated Remaining Cost, which is intended to provide a high-level estimate of your anticipated costs for the semester after financial aid is applied. Estimated Direct Expenses are not your actual tuition and fee charges. These are the estimated direct expenses from your Cost of Attendance and are based on your enrollment status and location. Total Financial Assistance is the sum of all financial aid awards for the semester, and estimated remaining cost is the estimated remaining out-of-pocket expense for the semester.
If you see a credit balance in the Estimated Remaining Costs, this means you may be eligible to receive a credit balance payment after all tuition and fees have been paid. Most often, credit balances come from excess loan funds. If you do not need these excess funds for living expenses, it is recommended that you speak with a Student Support Advisor or Student Finance Consultant to discuss reducing your loan awards. By borrowing only what you need to cover the direct costs of your enrollment, you can help ensure you have the funding necessary to complete your degree program.
As a reminder, federal aid programs begin to disburse during Week 2 and disbursements extend through Week 5, institutional scholarship funds begin to post during Week 3, and other state and third party benefit programs can disburse throughout the semester. You must complete all required documentation in order for your funds to disburse, so let's review how you can find and complete your outstanding documents.
Slide 15
Click on the Messages tab to view your outstanding student finance documents and messages. The Action Required section will contain required documents as well as messages if additional action is required on your part (i.e., making a correction to your FAFSA application). Some documents are enabled for electronic completion and signature, making it easy to get your documents completed quickly. These documents will be accessible via a link within the document description.
If a document is not enabled for electronic signature, you will be able to access a PDF copy of the document, which you can print and complete. For these documents, you can use the Upload Document feature to upload an electronic version of your completed document. This upload feature can also be used to upload documents that do not have a specific form (i.e., tax return transcripts, or requests for identity confirmation, such as a driver's license or ID).
Documents that are optional are listed in the For Your Information section, and all completed documents are found in the Completed section.
Each academic year, you may be required to submit additional documentation for federal verification or for other third-party benefit programs, and if you are missing required documents, you will receive an e-mail notification asking you to review the documents in your Messages tab.
Slide 16
If you do qualify for a credit balance payment and need the funds for educational expenses, we recommend signing up for Direct Deposit. With direct deposit, we can send your credit balance payment via ACH transfer directly to your bank instead of through the mail via a paper check. To enroll in Direct Deposit, click on the Sign Up for Direct Deposit link in the Student Finance Action items section. A new window will appear and you will be logged into the Student Account Center. This is where you can make payments on your student account, view bills, enroll in payment plans, and sign up for Direct Deposit.
To enroll in Direct Deposit, click the eRefunds tab and then click Set Up Account and follow the onscreen instructions to enter a checking or savings account for your credit balance payments. By enrolling in Direct Deposit, you may receive your credit balance payments faster and eliminate the risk of a check being delayed or lost en route via standard mail.
Don't forget that credit balance payments are not free money and must be paid back. So if you spend them, put them in the bank, or do anything with them other than use them for your education, you are paying interest on the credit balance payment amount.
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