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Administrator Guide
Last Updated: 2025-06-13
Concept: Financial Aid Class Standings

Concept: Financial Aid Class Standings

Class standings describe a student's progress toward completing their reporting record. Examples: First Year, Sophomore, 3L. Workday calculates separate class standings for Student Records and Financial Aid.
Workday determines the Student Records class standing by the number of either:
  • Earned units.
  • Active academic period records.
Calculating a separate Financial Aid class standing enables Workday to include projected enrollments when anticipating and awarding financial aid. To calculate the Financial Aid class standing, Workday uses a student's projected enrollment from their entire attendance plan.
To include registrations from a nonreporting record in class standings, internally articulate them into the reporting record.

Class Standing by Units Earned

As an academic period progresses, Workday uses different sets of units to calculate class standings for Financial Aid.
Point in Time
Workday Sums Units From
Before the
Actual Enrollment Usage Start
 date (AEUSD).
The typically enrolled units from the student's typical attendance pattern as of the standard start date of the academic period.
Between the AEUSD and the standard end date of the academic period.
  • In-progress registrations.
  • Completed registrations with a grade that earns credit.
  • Historical credits, transfer credits, and internally articulated credits.
After the standard end date of the academic period.
  • Completed registrations with a grade that earns credit.
  • Historical credits, transfer credits, and internally articulated credits.
When a student's reporting record changes, Workday excludes all units earned toward the previous reporting record from the new reporting record. Any units previously earned toward the new reporting record now count toward class standings.

Class Standing by Period

To calculate class standing by academic period, Workday evaluates:
  1. The number of active financial aid period records on the student's attendance plan.
  2. Whether the student's program of study is in an
    In Progress
     or
    Pending Completion
     status from the standard start date to the standard end date of the academic period.
  3. Which class standing value the number of periods correlates to, according to the class standing policy.
When calculating period-based class standing, Workday considers:
  • All the completed academic periods that fall between the start date of the academic record and the standard start date of the current financial aid period record.
  • Nonstandard academic periods, when you configure the class standing policy to include nonstandard academic period types.
Workday only considers the class standing override for the academic periods of the current academic record, and disregards overrides for the previous academic record.

Class Standing Recalculations

When registration, grading, internal articulation, or transfer credit events occur, Workday recalculates class standings for future academic periods. For current or past periods, Workday doesn't recalculate class standings.

Class Standing Overrides

Workday doesn't sync overrides for Student Records class standings and Financial Aid class standings. Overriding a Student Records class standing doesn't automatically update the Financial Aid class standing, and the other way around. You can use the
Compare Records and Financial Aid Class Standings
 report to identify class standings that are out of sync and bring them back into sync.

Federal Student Aid Grade Levels

Workday stores federal student aid (FSA) grade levels on attendance plans based on what you configure on the
Maintain Class Standing Policy
 task. FSA grade levels determine a student's eligibility to receive federal loans. For students with a class standing that maps to an FSA grade level of
1st year (Freshman)
, Workday automatically calculates whether they've attended college before or not. To be calculated as having attended college before, the student must have:
  • Any internal or external articulations with a status of
    Complete
     or
    Graded
    .
  • Any external articulations with an educational type of
    Postsecondary
    .
Workday considers applicants as having attended college before if they have at least 1 unit of preliminary transfer credit.
You can configure class standings to map directly to
1st, Year Never Attended College Before
 and
1st Year, Attended College Before
 FSA grade levels instead of having Workday calculate it for you. You might need to do this when you award internal scholarships differently for different types of first years.
Once Workday calculates a first-year grade level for a student, it remains the same until they reach the next grade level. Example: A freshman with a
1st, Year Never Attended College Before
 grade level remains that way until they reach the
2nd year (Sophomore)
 grade level. They won't change to
1st Year, Attended College Before
, even when they earn units after their first academic period.
When a student has multiple grade levels within an award year, Workday reports the grade level from the first academic period to Common Origination and Disbursement (COD).