How Financial Aid Offices Can Thrive in a New Era of Student Expectations

Sitting at the intersection of rapid regulatory change, heightened student expectations, and constant pressure to do more with fewer resources, financial aid offices are quietly carrying one of the heaviest loads in higher education. At many institutions, those external pressures are compounded by outdated internal systems—workflows that depend on spreadsheets, communications that can’t be automated, and oversight processes that require too much manual intervention. As a result, colleges and universities are taking a closer look at cloud-based, automated financial aid systems.

These solutions promise to reduce bottlenecks, improve compliance, and free staff to focus on guidance rather than data entry. But with so many systems on the market, how can institutions determine which ones truly address the realities financial aid teams face every day? Below, we outline the core challenges and highlight what modern systems must deliver—alongside a real example of how one institution approached its transformation.

Examining the Pressures on Today's Financial Aid Teams

While each institution’s context is unique, several pressures are widespread.

• Rising student expectations: Students expect a simple, mobile, transparent financial aid experience. They want to upload documents from their phone, receive deadline reminders, and understand where they are in the process.
• Increasing regulatory complexity: Frequent updates and compliance changes require systems that can keep up. Siloed data only makes this work harder.
• A glut of manual work: Many aid offices still rely on spreadsheets and emails. Staff may update student records one by one, manually track documents, and stitch together information from multiple systems

This was the case at Oklahoma Wesleyan University. Director of Financial Aid Shala LaTorraca and her small team were spending significant time tracking information across emails and spreadsheets, updating documents individually, and managing processes that were vulnerable to bottlenecks and errors.

What Makes a Modern Financial Aid System Effective

From Oklahoma Wesleyan University’s experience, a few key capabilities make a difference. First is automation. When repetitive tasks are handled by the system, staff can focus on supporting students instead of chasing documents. Second is student-centered design. Students expect mobile-friendly, intuitive tools that clearly show what’s required and outline next steps. Third, a modern solution must integrate cleanly with the institution’s SIS. Disconnected systems create bottlenecks and errors; seamless integration ensures data flows efficiently and staff can collaborate easily.

But perhaps the most important feature of a modern financial aid system is that it needs to be cloud-native. Cloud infrastructure keeps everything current with compliance requirements, simplifies audits, and reduces institutional risk—without adding manual work for staff.

For Oklahoma Wesleyan, these needs led to one solution: Jenzabar Financial Aid.

The Real-World Impact of a Cloud Financial Aid Management System

Before modernizing, Shala LaTorraca’s team dealt with manual, slow, and error-prone processes. After adopting a modern system, their work became smoother and more consistent. Errors dropped, communication sped up, and staff gained time to focus on advising and student support. As Shala notes, “[Jenzabar Financial Aid] and the built-in logic have cut down on errors, reduced bottlenecks, and help us communicate faster and more clearly with our students.” Her story shows a broader truth: when manual work is minimized, staff capacity grows—and student relationships improve.

Modernizing your financial aid system is about more than technology: It’s about creating an environment where students get clarity, staff can focus on higher-value work, data is reliable, and teams across campus collaborate effectively. Institutions that invest in cloud-native, automated systems position themselves to respond quickly to regulatory changes, enrollment shifts, and peak processing periods, all while improving the experience for everyone involved.