Financial Aid Counselor

Position Summary

Provides processing and customer service support for the Office of Financial Aid to ensure that all students, staff, faculty, and community are well served and in a timely manner.

Description of Key Responsibilities

All members of the financial aid team will be cross-trained to provide the following support to the office’s function. The depth and extent of time each member will individually perform each duty, will be determined based on business needs and an ongoing evaluation of workload and team functions. Among his/her duties, each team member will have a set of core functions for which they serve a primary role, but also be able to support other constituencies as needed at peak times of the cycle.

1. Offer exceptional customer service in a timely and accurate manner to current students, prospective students, parents, and guiding them through the financial aid process.
2. Serves as primary point of contact for current and prospective students
3. Counsels and advises students about financial aid eligibility, application procedures, aid programs, costs, and indebtedness
4. Conducts verification review for selected students according to federal regulations
5. Stays up to date on financial aid information by attending Financial Aid workshops.
6. Works in conjunction with the Admissions Office and other offices on student recruitment as it relates to the financial aid process. This includes participating in events on and off campus.
7. Engage in professional behavior that enables the achievement of individual work responsibilities while fully and positively supporting the dynamics and progress of the financial aid unit
8. Demonstrate and reflect an understanding of and commitment to the mission and core values of North Central College.
9. Programmatic responsibility as assigned.
10. Other job-related duties as assigned.

Required Knowledge, Skills and Abilities

1. General knowledge of state and federal financial aid regulations
2. Strong written and verbal communications with proven ability to maintain collaborative relationships with internal and external constituents in order to provide support for the office and the students it serves required.
3. Ability to quickly grasp knowledge of the College organization and operation, both administratively and academically, relating to financial aid.
4. Ability to deal with several tasks and work with a large number of individuals concurrently, often without direct supervision. This requires a person who is well organized, detail oriented, flexible and able to effectively prioritize tasks.