Financial Aid Resilience in Action at PowerFAIDS User Conference

College Board’s PowerFAIDS User Conference gathered hundreds of aid professionals from across the country in Atlanta, Georgia, last month.

Dave Meade, vice president of Financial Aid Programs and Services, kicked off the conference by emphasizing the critical importance of financial aid to student access and success. He further recognized the work of financial aid professionals during a year of change and turbulence has never been more important.

“Financial aid was at the forefront of the enrollment funnel in offices across the country, and it really showed this year that the detailed, compliance focused work of financial aid is the backbone that supports student success into and throughout their educational journey.”

The conference focused not only on technical training for financial aid and IT professionals but highlighted lessons learned from simplification and opportunities for the upcoming 2025-26 award year. Key segments from the event offered insights in impacts from the past year, a look into the future with PowerFAIDS Cloud, and opening doors to possibilities as the 2025-26 year launches.
 

A Year of Impacts

Most institutions at the conference shared their financial aid office was mostly up to date and on track with 2024-25 processes but had concerns about correcting FAFSA data.

The work to remain on track required investment—in an average year, the PowerFAIDS system would have roughly 20 data fields requiring updates, compared to this year’s 500+ fields. The significant uptick in system changes required both processing adjustments and additional software releases to schools.

Justin Draeger, senior vice president of affordability at Strada Education delivered a compelling keynote address where he offered perspectives on the impacts of FAFSA simplification, college affordability, and the importance of transparency in the aid process.
 

The Launch of the Cloud

PowerFAIDS is the financial aid management system of choice for a wide range of institutions representing the breadth of the higher education landscape, from selective private four-year schools to two-year community colleges to four-year publics and technical colleges. The financial aid team at College Board has been carefully building a technological transformation of the system—PowerFAIDS Cloud—to support the rapidly evolving needs of institutions into the future.

PowerFAIDS Cloud successfully launched this past year while delivering on functionality and compliance during historic change to financial aid regulations and processes. On main stage, attendees saw the development of Student Portal, the student-centric, mobile-first platform that will allow schools to optimize the financial aid experience at each step of a student’s higher education experience.

PowerFAIDS Cloud Learning Lab offered conference goers an innovative opportunity to walk through the new system and complete training modules designed to support new users. And the conference’s number one attended break out session “All Aboard: Destination PowerFAIDS Cloud” discussed the process PowerFAIDS schools can expect as they make the move to the cloud. With institutions already managing the shifting priorities of enrollment goals, the PowerFAIDS team has worked to make the transition to the cloud as seamless as possible through training and migration support.
 

Pivoting into Possibilities

Presenters and attendees also looked to learning opportunities from the past year in sessions from both PowerFAIDS experts and financial aid industry leaders. 
In main stage session PIVOT! Lessons Learned from FAFSA Simplification. PowerFAIDS institutions shared effective strategies and tips, including:

• Increasing staff training and group discussions to review regulatory guidance 
• Leveraging PowerFAIDS functionality, including custom data fields and selection sets
• Deploying more frequent and creative communications to families to inform, educate, and reduce anxieties. 
• Shore up need analysis knowledge including deep dives into federal SAI calculations

And higher ed governmental relations experts Emmanuel Guillory of American Council on Education and Timothy Powers of Consortium on Financing Higher Education offered reflections on current and future federal policy activities impacting financial aid. Led by executive director of Financial Aid Engagement and Services, the panel addressed a variety of pressing topics, including the federal student loan environment, impacts on ED’s regulatory processes after recent Supreme Court decisions, and congressional policies on federal funding. 

With so much on the plates of aid professionals, training opportunities like the ones offered at this year’s User Conference offer invaluable support in creating efficient, time-saving processes. Next year’s PowerFAIDS User Conference will be hosted in Anaheim, Calif., supporting financial aid professionals in their technical skill development and sharing campus best practices in financial aid management. 

As College Board continues to deliver innovative solutions to aid offices, technological supports like PowerFAIDS offer higher education accessible processes and student-centered enrollment experiences.