Volume I, Section 2 - COD

Overview of Changes from

2007-2008 to 2008-2009

Overview of Changes from 2007-2008 to

2008-2009
The following tables provide an overview of the changes made from 2007-2008 to 2008-2009 for
Common Origination and Disbursement (COD). The change descriptions are organized by the
following three categories: Added, Modified, and Removed. The first column provides a description of
each change. The second, third, fourth and fifth columns indicate if the change affects the Pell Grant,
Academic Competitiveness Grant (ACG), National Science and Mathematics Access to Retain Talent
(SMART) Grant, or Direct Loan Program respectively.

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 Table of Changes from 2007-2008 to 2008-2009 for
Common Origination and Disbursement
National
Pell Direct
ACG SMART
Grant Loan
Description Program Grant
Program Program
Program
Added
Implement new edits for Inconsistent Identifiers on PLUS X X X X
Awards
Updating MPN Expiration Date for Award Discharges X
Additional Unsubsidized Indicator functionality X
Scheduled Award Amount, Percent Eligibility Used by X X
Scheduled Award, Total Percent Eligibility Used by
Academic Year Level for ACG, and National SMART
Grant
Common Record Response Tags (Year to Date X X
Disbursement Amount, Total Eligibility Used)
New Rigorous High School Program Codes X
New Eligible Majors X
Modified
Updated all Award Year indicators X X X X
• Message Classes
• Valid date ranges
Pell Grant Verification-W cut-off deadline date X
functionality
Break Edit 16 into separate edits X

Multiple Reporting Record Layout, Year-To-Date Layout X X X

PLUS MPN Print Specifications X
Removed
n/a

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Added
Inconsistent Identifiers on PLUS Awards
The COD System will enforce more rigorous edit logic when processing originations and maintenance
records for PLUS awards for Award Year 2008-2009 and forward. If the value in the SSN identifier tag
on the student block matches the value in the SSN identifier tag on the borrower block, the system will
treat the award as a Grad PLUS origination and execute new edit logic comparing the other student and
borrower identifier tags. If the value in the SSN identifier tag on the student block is different from the
value in the SSN identifier tag on the borrower block, the system will treat the award as a Parent PLUS
award and execute new edit logic comparing the other student and borrower identifier tags.

Additionally, maintenance records submitted for all programs that change a Person’s Date of Birth may
trigger new Reject Edit 149 if the Person is either a Student or a Borrower for a Parent PLUS award that
currently exists on the system.

For more information regarding student and borrower identifier requirements, please reference the
Identifiers topics in Volume II, Section 1- Implementation Guide of this Technical Reference. The new
edits are described in detail in Volume II, Section 4 - Edits.

Updating MPN Expiration Date for Award Discharges

The COD System will update the MPN Expiration Date and MPN Status when an award is discharged
due to Discharge Reasons of Death, Unauthorized Signature/Unauthorized Payment, and Identity Theft
(D, G, or I).

COD processes a discharge reversal when a Discharge Transaction (DDS) record with a Discharge Type
of R. The transaction will reverse all of the effects of the original discharge transaction and COD will
recalculate the MPN Expiration Date and MPN Status that were inactivated by a previously received
discharge.

For more information, please reference the Loan Discharge topic in Volume II, Section 1 -
Implementation Guide.

Additional Unsubsidized Indicator Functionality

New edits (154, 156) will be introduced to limit the amount of funds awarded to students when the
school is not awarding additional unsubsidized funding. These edits will be based upon combinations of
Additional Unsubsidized Indicator, Dependency Status, Grade Level, and Award Amount. The new
edits are all at the Award Level, but on different tags, and can therefore be triggered simultaneously if
more than one edit applies.

Dependency Status and Additional Unsubsidized Indicator are now required fields.

Additionally, a new edit (Edit 157) will be returned when an award is submitted for a dependent,
undergraduate student causing the sum of award amounts for subsidized and unsubsidized loans exceeds
the Base Annual Loan Limit and the student is not eligible to receive Additional Unsubsidized Loans.
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The new edits are described in detail in Volume II, Section 4 - Edits.

DL Rebuild File
The DL Rebuild file will display the following fields in the specified positions:
• Additional Unsubsidized Indicator in field position 164
• MPN Expiration Date in field position 926-933
• PPCI in field position 934

The DL Rebuild file will be updated as follows:

Rebuild Origination Detail Record—Import from Common Origination and Disbursement System
Field Name and
Field # Start Position End Position Field Length Valid Field Content Justify
Description
16 164 164 1 Additional Required for unsubsidized 2008- Left
Unsubsidized Indicator 2009 and forward:
‘Y’ = Yes
‘N’ = No
Blank for unsubsidized 2007-2008
and prior, and all subsidized and
PLUS
17 165 172 8 Full Participants: 0-9 Right
Not applicable Can be blank
Full Participants: always blank
145 926 933 8 MPN Expiration Date Format is CCYYMMDD Date
Valid for 2008-2009 Award Year
and forward.
146 934 934 1 Pre-Professional Valid for 2008-2009 awards and Left
Coursework Indicator forward:
(PPCI) ‘Y’ = Yes
‘N’ = No
Can be blank
147 935 958 24 Filler For ED Use Only Left

For more information, please reference the Performing Annual Loan Limit Edits topic in Volume II,
Section 1 - Implementation Guide. A complete modified layout of the DL Rebuild file will be available
in Volume VI, Section 8 – COD Reports.

Scheduled Award Amount, Eligibility Used, and Total Eligibility

Used for ACG and National SMART Grant
Beginning with the 2008-2009 award year and forward, the COD System will calculate Percent
Eligibility Used by Scheduled Award (EU) and Total Percent Eligibility Used by Academic Year Level
(TEU) for all ACG and National SMART Grant awards. The Scheduled Award Amount will also be
added for all ACG and National SMART Grant Awards. EU and TEU will be calculated slightly
differently for ACG and National SMART Grant than it is for Pell. The EU calculation will be driven
by Academic Year Level as well as by the Student’s Award, Attended School, and Award Year, and the
TEU calculation will be driven by Academic Year Level, across all Schools, across all Award Years.

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The COD System calculates EU and TEU for ACG and National SMART Grant as follows:

EU % = 100% × (Sum of Actual Disbursements of Award - DMCS Repayments of Award)

÷ Scheduled Award Amount
Note: Scheduled Award Amount is the maximum award amount by Academic Year Level and
Award Year.

The TEU calculation for ACG and National SMART as follows:

TEU % = Sum of all EU %’s at each applicable Academic Year Level

Note: The COD System considers Academic Year Levels 0 and 1 to be the same when calculating
TEU %.

For more information regarding ACG EU and TEU, please reference the Submitting ACG Disbursement
Information and Disbursement Release Indicator topic in Volume II, Section 1 - Implementation Guide.
For more information regarding National SMART EU and TEU, please reference the Submitting
National SMART Grant Disbursement Information and Disbursement Release Indicator topic in Volume
II, Section 1 - Implementation Guide.

Please note that COD plans to perform a one time cleanup in order to populate the TEU, EU, and
Scheduled Award Amount within the COD System for ACG and National SMART Grant for Award
Years 2006-2007 and 2007-2008. Once this cleanup is completed the COD web site will display this
data. No school reports prior to the 2008-2009 Award Year will have this data populated for the Pell,
ACG, or National SMART Grant Programs.

The updates to the TEU, EU, and Scheduled Award Amount for ACG and National SMART Grant for
Award Years 2006-2007 and 2007-2008 will also be sent to NSLDS for Award Years 2006-2007 and
2007-2008 in a separate cleanup. This cleanup will be completed on a scheduled date after the 2008-
2009 award year begins in March 2008.

Common Record Response Tags

Beginning with the 2008-2009 Award Year, the COD System will return the TEU % in the tag
<TotalEligibilityUsed> in the Common Record Response in the Response section of the Award
block, as well as in the Negative Disbursement Response for the ACG and National SMART Grant
Programs. The COD System will also return the Year-to-Date Disbursement (YTD) Amount for each
ACG and National SMART award beginning with Award Year 2008-2009 and forward. This amount
will be returned in the tag <YTDDisbursementAmount> in the Common Record Response in the
Response section of the Award block, as well as in the Negative Disbursement Response. This value
will be the sum of all the Actual Disbursements for that specific ACG or National SMART award.

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Rigorous High School Program Codes
Effective beginning in 2007-2008, the following Rigorous High School programs are eligible:

Missouri Missouri Show Me Scholars MO6001

New Hampshire New Hampshire Granite State Scholars NH6001
South Dakota South Dakota Scholars SD6001
Wyoming Wyoming State Scholars WY6001

A complete list of Rigorous High School Program Codes can be found in Volume VI, Section 9 –
Rigorous Secondary School Programs of Study, and Eligible Majors.

Eligible Majors
Effective beginning in 2007-2008, the following majors are eligible:

01.1001 Food Science

01.1002 Food Technology and Processing
03.0104 Environmental Science
03.0301 Fishing and Fisheries Sciences and Management
03.0502 Forest Sciences and Biology
03.0509 Wood Science and Wood Products/Pulp and Paper Technology
03.0601 Wildlife and Wildlands Science and Management
30.1001 Biopsychology
30.1901 Nutritional Sciences
42.1101 Physiological Psychology/Psychobiology

A complete list of Eligible Majors can be found in Volume VI, Section 9 – Rigorous Secondary School
Programs of Study, and Eligible Majors.

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Modified
Updates to Reports
The COD System will update the following reports for Award Year 2008-2009 and forward to display
values for the Scheduled Award Amount, Percent Eligibility Used by Scheduled Award, and Total
Eligibility Used by Academic Year Level:
• Pell, ACG, National SMART Grant Multiple Reporting Record (MRR)
• Pell, ACG, National SMART Grant Year to Date (YTD)

The tables below only highlight changes that have been made for the 2008-2009 Award Year and
forward. For the updated, complete Record Layouts, please refer to Volume VI, Section 8 – COD
Reports.

Multiple Reporting Record Layout

The following modifications have been made to the Pell MRR layout:
• The Eligibility Used field has been renamed to Percent Eligibility Used by Scheduled Award
• The Eligibility Used in field position 381-385 has been expanded to 7 bytes and moved to
position 442-448
• Positions 381-385 are now an unused field

The Pell Multiple Reporting Record layout will be updated as follows:

Pell Grant Multiple Reporting Record
Field Length
Positions (# of Type Field Name Description Valid Values
First Last Bytes)
381 385 5 A Unused Reserved for future expansion Constant spaces
442 448 7 N Percent Eligibility The percentage of the student’s Format = 0000000 The last 4 digits
Used by Scheduled eligibility used represent less than 1 percent. Field does
Award not include decimal point or %.
449 450 2 A Unused Reserved for future expansion Constant spaces

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The following modifications have been made to the ACG and National SMART Grant MRR layout:
• The unused in field position 321-327 has been renamed ACG (or National SMART Grant)
Scheduled Award
• Positions 463-469 have been added and populated with the Percent Eligibility Used by
Scheduled Award
• Positions 470-476 have been added and populated with the Total Percent Eligibility Used by
Academic Year Level
• The total record length will be increased to 476 bytes from 462 bytes (14 bytes increase)

The ACG and National SMART Grant Multiple Reporting Records have been updated as follows:
ACG, National SMART Grant Multiple Reporting Records
Field Length
Positions (# of Type Field Name Description Valid Values
First Last Bytes)
321 327 7 N ACG (or The Maximum Award Amount set prior to Range = 0000000 to AWARD
National SMART the beginning of the Award Year. AMOUNT MAX
Grant) Scheduled
Award
463 469 7 N Percent Field is calculated by summing all of the Format = 0000000 The last 4 digits
Eligibility Used accepted and funded disbursement records represent less than 1 percent. Field
by Scheduled for an award, subtracting any DMCS does not include decimal point or %.
Award repayments for the award, and dividing that
amount by the Scheduled Award Amount
for the award.
470 476 7 N Total Percent Total Eligibility Used across ALL Schools Format = 0000000 The last 4 digits
Eligibility Used and Award Years for each applicable represent less than 1 percent. Field
by Academic Academic Year Level. does not include decimal point or %.
Year Level

Year-To-Date Layout
The following modifications have been made to the Pell Year-To-Date Record (Disbursement) layout:
• Positions 66-72 are populated with the Percent Eligibility Used by Scheduled Award
• Positions 73-79 are populated with the Total Percent Eligibility Used

The Pell Year-To-Date Record (Disbursement) layout has been updated as follows:
Pell Grant Year-To-Date Record (Disbursement)
Field Length
Positions (# of Type Field Name Description Valid Values
First Last Bytes)
66 72 7 N Percent Eligibility The percentage of the student’s Format = 0000000 The last 4 digits
Used by Scheduled eligibility used by the scheduled award represent less than 1 percent. Field
Award at an institution. does not include decimal point or %.

73 79 7 N Total Percent Total Eligibility Used across ALL Format = 0000000 The last 4 digits
Eligibility Used Schools. represent less than 1 percent. Field
does not include decimal point or %.
80 103 24 A/N Unused Reserved for future expansion Constant spaces

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The following modifications have been made to the ACG and National SMART Grant Year-To-Date
(Origination) layout:
• The unused in field position 252-256 has been renamed ACG (or National SMART Grant)
Scheduled Award

The ACG and National SMART Grant Year-To-Date Records (Origination) have been updated as
follows:
ACG, National SMART Grant Year-To-Date Records (Origination)
Field Length
Positions (# of Type Field Name Description Valid Values
First Last Bytes)
252 256 5 N ACG (or National The Maximum Award Amount set prior Range = 0000000 to AWARD
SMART Grant) to the beginning of the Award Year. AMOUNT MAX
Scheduled Award

The ACG and National SMART Grant Year-To-Date Records (Disbursement) have been updated as
follows:
ACG, National SMART Grant Year-To-Date Records (Disbursement)
Field Length
Positions (# of Type Field Name Description Valid Values
First Last Bytes)
66 72 7 N Percent Field is calculated by summing all of the Format = 0000000 The last 4 digits
Eligibility Used accepted and funded disbursement records represent less than 1 percent. Field
by Scheduled for an award, subtracting any DMCS does not include decimal point or %.
Award repayments for the award, and dividing that
amount by the Scheduled Award Amount
for the award.
73 79 7 N Total Percent Total Eligibility Used across ALL Schools Format = 0000000 The last 4 digits
Eligibility Used and Award Years for each applicable represent less than 1 percent. Field
by Academic Academic Year Level. does not include decimal point or %.
Year Level
80 103 24 A/N Unused Reserved for future expansion Constant spaces

Verification-W Cut-Off Deadline Date Functionality

The Verification W cut-off deadline date (Last Day to accept W) has been created to prevent
Verification W records from being accepted into the COD System after a specified date (the annual
Federal Register Notice published COD processing deadline date, which normally is September 30,
2009). The COD system will reject all Pell Award originations, award increases, maintenance records
which change the verification status of the Pell Award to ‘W’, disbursements, or disbursement increases
for awards with a verification status of ‘W’ if the record is submitted after the specific Verification W
cut-off date. Beginning with the 2008-2009 Award Year, new Reject Edit 145 for origination/award
errors and new Reject Edit 146 for disbursement errors will be returned.

For the 2008-2009 award year and forward, but before the annual Verification W cut-off deadline date,
COD will allow a school to increase the disbursement back from zero without triggering Reject Edit 114
if the award has had its disbursements reduced as a result of the Verification W Reduction job. Edit 114
has been changed to only trigger for award years less than or equal to 2007-2008.

For more information regarding the above, please reference the Deobligation of Funds Due to
Verification Status “W” topic in Volume II, Section 1 - Implementation Guide. The new Edits are
described in detail in Volume II, Section 4 - Edits.

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Separate Edit 016
Beginning with Award Year 2008-2009 and forward, the COD System has divided Edit 016 into four
separate and more specific edits: 150, 151, 152, and 153. This will allow COD to provide more specific
and accurate edit messages to schools explaining why their record was rejected.
The new edits are described in detail in Volume II, Section 4 - Edits.

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