Associate Director, Financial Aid & Academic Advising

Department
 

Harris School Academic and Financial Aid Advising Sub Group

About the Department
 

Why policy? For a better world. Why Harris Public Policy? Because when it comes to better policymaking, evidence matters. We work at the frontiers of data collection and analysis, using the latest technology and social science methods to design policies that work for society. We conduct rigorous inquiry in an environment of innovation and risk taking, fearlessly questioning the status quo. We collaborate across the private, public, and nonprofit sectors, adopting new methodologies to drive better solutions. We engage with our city, our world, and our leaders every day to evaluate and test our ideas. And we lead with our passion for driving social change, knowing that passion alone does not equal impact. With passion and precision, we figure out what’s best for society—and get it done. This is Harris Public Policy: Social impact, down to a science.

Job Summary
 

The Harris School of Public Policy is known for its outstanding student support. This role oversees financial aid administration for the school and serves as an academic advisor to graduate students in public policy. This is a managerial role with oversight of one full time staff person.

Reporting to the Associate Dean of Students for Academic Services & Advising, the Associate Director of Financial Aid & Academic Advising will be responsible for advising a caseload of public policy master’s students and supervising one Assistant Director of Academic Advising & Financial Aid. This positon works within a team of academic advisors in the Harris Public Policy Dean of Students’ team, and will manage financial aid operations for the Dean of Students office.

Academic advisors are key to the student experience, serving as a central point of contact for advisees’ questions on nearly all elements of their academic experience. In addition to the key work of assisting with course selection and tracking students’ progress toward the degree, Harris advisors also provide support to students facing personal challenges that impact their academic progress and create programs and systems to help students get the most out of their graduate school experience and become maximally impactful policy leaders.

The Associate Director of Financial Aid & Academic Advising is integral in helping students to achieve their academic and personal goals and will contribute significantly to initiatives that enhance the overall student experience at Harris. They will work on a highly collaborative, high-performing, and student-focused team.

Responsibilities

• Coordinate the submission and monitoring of merit scholarships and other award funds for incoming and current masters and PhD students, including adjustments for leaves of absence, reduced course loads, unapplied aid, or other irregular enrollments.

• Collaborate with the Admissions team on the final decision regarding aid/awards to facilitate effective recruitment.

• Coordinate Harris Finance Working Group meetings to oversee the awarding of merit and restricted scholarships to incoming students, encourage collaboration, and troubleshoot complex financial aid issues.

• Participate in Harris TA Working Group meetings to coordinate fellowship stipend and Teaching Assistantship obligation disbursements for PhD students.

• Coordinate with academic advisors to maintain updated enrollment notes in a database/CRM system (Salesforce).

• Maintain accurate scholarship information in a database/CRM system (Salesforce).

• Report updated scholarship projections monthly.

• Conduct quarterly reconciliation with Finance team.

• Assist students in understanding their tuition bill, acting as a liaison to the Bursar’s Office as necessary.

• Represent Harris in cross-campus student financial aid working groups and committees.

• Create strong working relationships with administrative and academic units who share financial aid responsibilities (e.g., Graduate Financial Aid, Bursar, UChicagoGRAD, etc.).

• Oversee the Harris Emergency Scholarship Application process, ensuring that applications are reviewed in a fair and consistent manner with an eye to overall budget limitations.

• Disseminate information about merit award policies and programs to currently enrolled students.

• Serve as academic advisor to 100-150 master’s students.

• Serve as first point of contact for all needs for assigned advisees. Learn essentials of registration and campus services to best assist students.

• Conduct intake advising meetings with all advisees at the beginning of the year.

• Keep accurate advising notes and enrol