Maryland Annual Collections - MAC2

FINANCIAL AID INFORMATION SYSTEMS (FAIS)

A. Collection Description

The Financial Aid Information System (FAIS) provides information and will support analysis describing financial aid recipients and the amounts of aid they receive during each academic year. A student is to be reported through this unit record system if he/she receives financial aid. The information reported for each student includes the student’s identification number, the amounts of financial aid received through individual financial aid programs and information to determine the level of need.

B. Adhere to Due Dates and Record Frequency

Due Dates:	Annual: November 15th
Collection Period:	July 1st – June 30th
Record Frequency:	One record per student per award type and amount submitted one (1) time per year.

C. Comply with the Selection Criteria

1. Who to include:

a. Undergraduate or graduate students for which financial aid is disbursed during the collection period.

b. Include all students with any federal, state, or institutional aid who were reported in the Enrollment Information System (EIS) or the End-of-Term System (EOTS) files.  This includes students receiving experimental Pell or have subsidies from the local school systems for dual enrollment.

c.  Include students enrolled in credit-bearing courses who are also taking noncredit workforce sequence courses, include noncredit awards in the FAIS file. See 2b.

2. Who to exclude:

a. Undergraduate or graduate students for which financial aid is only awarded and not disbursed

b. Students enrolled exclusively in non-credit courses such as Continuing Education, Workforce Sequence courses or Adult education, etc., do not include any awards for that student in the FAIS file.

D. Helpful Insights

Helpful Insight to Reduce Errors – This list only includes select data elements or statements that are prone to errors. Please review the documentation page for full FAIS layout links and details for more extensive reporting information.

1. Do not insert a space between commas when a data element is not reported.
2. Only codes published on the Aid Category Award Chart for a specific collections year will be accepted.
3. Include aid in FAIS that was actually disbursed not awarded in the Financial Aid Disbursement Amount (DD85).
4. The FAIS file contains aid awards for students enrolled in credit-bearing courses. They may or may not be degree seeking, and the coursework may or may not fulfill a degree requirement but the basis for the course is credits.
5. Include students with any federal, state or institutional aid who were reported in the EIS or EOTS files.
6. When Financial Aid Application Status (DD77) is “0” meaning the student did not apply for financial aid by filing a FAFSA, the following data elements should be reported as follows:

• Parent 1 Highest Grade Level Completed (DD142)	Report as blank
• Parent 2 Highest Grade Level Completed (DD143)	Report as blank
• Family Size (DD78)	Report as blank
• Dependency Status (DD79)	Report as “0”
• Commuter Status (DD80)	Report as “0”
• Expected Family Contribution (EFC) (DD81)	Report as “9999999”
• Adjust Gross Income (AGI) (DD83)	Report as “99999999”

E. Data Collection Websites, Emails, and Responsibilities

To secure and ensure data collection integrity, it takes the cooperation of each institution partnering with the MHEC team to manage collections. Websites, specific email addresses, and established responsibilities all work together to offer guidance for data collections, reporting problems or concerns, and outlining due diligence necessary for successful data submissions and management. Detailed information about the websites, emails and responsibilities can be found on the responsibilities page of the data website.

F. Follow the File Layout

The FAIS file layout can be found on the documentation page of the data website. The required format is comma-separated values (CSV), which means each data element is separated by commas and the file extension is .csv. Data element submission details for the file layout relies exclusively on MHEC’s online data dictionary. The layout provides the item number, field length parameters, data type, name and the data definition (DD) link to the data dictionary for comprehensive, up-to-date data element guidance, explanations, and examples in some cases.

G. Include the Header Record

The FAIS header record can be found on the documentation page of the data website. It is required as part of the uploaded .csv file. It is critical that the uploaded header match MHEC’s header for data editing purposes. Headers that do not match create errors in the validation process.

H. Review the Sample Records

The FAIS sample record can be found on the documentation page of the data website. The sample records are available for your reference and serve for demonstration purposes only. The .csv version of the records shown below the samples is what a submitted record should look like. Note that if a field is empty please do not include a space between the commas.

I. Transfer the File to MHEC

To transfer a .csv file to MHEC, user credentials are required. File transfers between higher education institutions in Maryland and the Commission are secure. Please use the prescribed secure file transfer process and refrain from emailing submissions. The File Transfer page has different functional areas. Select the “Maryland Annual Collection 2 (MAC2)” link to begin the file transfer process. Use “P” to preface UserID credential. Select the option to perform either a preliminary edit or an official submission after editing is complete. Complete the form for the upload and include comments if necessary.

J. Perform File Editing Procedures

The submission process provides editing guidelines that includes an edit report for the purpose of reviewing and verifying data submitted. The report offers frequency distribution counts on selected variables that can be used to verify data counts. The edit program also checks records for proper data element ranges and position. If there are fatal errors or warnings, an explanation will be associated with the infraction and corrections should be made before a subsequent preliminary edit resubmission is performed. The correction and resubmission process should be repeated until the file is free of errors. Before submitting the official version of the file, internal institutional edit confirmations should be performed to check frequency output against uploaded data to verify the accuracy and completeness of the data. At the time of the official submission, if there are remaining fatal errors or warnings on the edit report that cannot be addressed with a correction, then comments with a detailed explanation from the institution must be included in the comments section of the upload form.

K. Check MHEC Internal Validations

The Stata syntax code used for validations can be found on the documentation page of the data website. Stata code is used to validate file submissions. Additional validation testing may be completed contingent upon the results of this baseline code. New validation steps may be added over time as the scope of the collection changes.

L. Data Cookbook

Data Cookbook is MHEC’s MAC2 On-Line Data Dictionary. It contains all data elements used in all unit record data collections managed by MHEC.  On the “Functional Areas” tab, under "Sharing" in the far right column select the definitions link to view the data elements for one of the MAC2 collections. Each data element name is listed in alphabetical order with its functional definition.

To contact MHEC for questions or support, submit an email to mac2help.mhec@maryland.gov.