Lifetime Award Limits

Many types of federal aid limit the amount of funds a student can receive over the lifetime of their aid. In addition to federal aid, Lifetime Limits can be used to impose maximum lifetime totals for other aid as determined by your institution. Lifetime Limits are first defined for groups of students based on Lifetime Limit queries built in the Financial Aid >Packaging >Prioritized >Package Criteria window. Federal guidelines are available for the current Academic Year and consist of identifying the student’s college level, type of program the student is pursuing, and more. These are values that will be included in lifetime queries. Unlimited lifetime queries may be created to ensure all groups of awards and students are included.

Once lifetime queries have been defined, lifetime award limits are set in the Financial Aid >Packaging >Prioritized >Lifetime Limits window. This is considered to be basic setup and should occur at the beginning of the Academic Year, prior to ISIR records being imported.

When Lifetime Limits are set, Current Limits are imported during ISIR Direct import process. This prevents over-awarding during the Priority Packaging process. If active ISIR records exist prior to running the Update Lifetime Limits process, any current limits from active ISIR records will also be updated.

Create Financial Lifetime Queries

From the CAMS Enterprise Home page, click Financial Aid >Packaging >Prioritized >Package Criteria. The Packaging Query Builder window opens.
Right click to add a Lifetime Limit query or double-click an existing query to modify. The Student Criteria Query Builder window opens.
Click the Financial Limit check box to designate this query for Financial Lifetime Limits. Any queries with Financial Limit checked will automatically display in the Lifetime Limits window.

Set Financial Lifetime Limits

From the CAMS Enterprise Home page, click Financial Aid >Packaging >Prioritized >Lifetime Limits. The Financial Lifetime window opens.
Select the Academic Year and Financial Aid Year, and then click Find. Any Financial Lifetime queries built in Financial Aid >Packaging >Prioritized >Package Criteria display.
Highlight the appropriate query in the Financial Lifetime Queries grid, and then right-click to add an Award Limit or double-click to modify an Award Limit in the Award Types Grid.
Select the Award Type from the drop-down list, and then enter the Lifetime Limit amount for the award.

Note: For Unsubsidized loans, the Lifetime Amount in this set up should be a total of the student’s actual Subsidized and Unsubsidized lifetime amount limits.

Click Add or Update to save the award limit, or Cancel to exit without saving.
Click the Initiate tab, and then click the Initiate button (nothing else appears on this tab). A message displays to remind you that students must have a financial status record in order to continue. The Update tab displays with students affected by the Lifetime Query with the Lifetime Max amounts for each award.
Double-click on a student record to modify the Lifetime Max if needed or right-click in the data grid to add a new student lifetime maximum amount. Use the search icon to locate the appropriate student. Click Update or Add to save the record, or Cancel to exit without saving.
Click Update Financial Lifetime table to update the Current Lifetime Amounts from active ISIR records for that Academic and Financial Aid year. If subsequent ISIR records are imported and are active, the Current Lifetime amount will automatically update with the new active ISIR record limits.