Accepting aid in SIS (Banner) and accepting scholarships in BAM

Jane Bilezikian

Our FA Office requires students to accept their FA package in Banner self-service. (Students are also accepting loans and reviewing disclosures, etc. in Banner) There is concern that students may be confused by receiving award notifications from BAM in addition to requests from FA to accept their aid package in Banner. Is this an issue at other schools and if so, how do other schools address this? Thanks. Jane Bilezikian Wheaton College (IL)

jams allen

@Jane Bilezikianpoly clinic:

Our FA Office requires students to accept their FA package in Banner self-service. (Students are also accepting loans and reviewing disclosures, etc. in Banner) There is concern that students may be confused by receiving award notifications from BAM in addition to requests from FA to accept their aid package in Banner. Is this an issue at other schools and if so, how do other schools address this? Thanks. Jane Bilezikian Wheaton College (IL)

Yes, this issue of students receiving multiple notifications about their financial aid package is common at other institutions as well. Schools often address it by coordinating communication channels to ensure clarity. This can include consolidating notifications into a single platform or providing clear instructions and FAQs to guide students through the process

Victor Swindell

@Jane Bilezikian - As part of our Awards Process….ALL Awards (scholarships, federal, state..etc) are accepted ONLY in Banner. Our BAM to Banner interface only feeds award offers to Banner.

Awards from BAM that have been changed from OFFERED in Banner are fed back to BAM.

makes it easy…and less confusing

Michelle Marks

@Victor Swindell
If students are not logging in to BAM to accept their scholarship offers, how does that affect your Post-Acceptance process? How are they then prompted to complete thank-you letters, etc.?

Victor Swindell

@Michelle Marks- Students do log into BAM to complete any necessary information needed for scholarships… so that can log into BAM for post acceptance


per our scholarship office…

BAM sends out the post-acceptance request immediately after the scholarship is marked as "Accepted" in BAM. (Scholarships are usually marked as "Accepted" in BAM within 24 hours of being accepted in Banner.) We do not require post-acceptance to be completed before releasing funds; post-acceptance is optional, not required. The post-acceptance email may be the first communication from BAM regarding awards, but not always. Students are first notified of their awards via a Banner notification. However, they will receive a reminder email 15 days after the offer is made if they have not taken any action to accept the award. Let me know if there is anything else I can help with!

Michelle Marks

@Victor Swindell Thank you!

Mallorie Fonseca

We use a similar process and it hasn't been any issue. We just communicate with the students that the scholarship system is separate from the rest of their award letter. The automatic awards from FAFSA/State/Institutional aid are automatically entered on their award letter through Banner but the competitive awards are all completed in the scholarship system instead. We do have some students here and there not realize the process was different, but that's where the BAM emails are handy.