How To Become A Finance Aid Advisor: What It Is and Career Path

What is a finance aid advisor and how to become one

Updated January 8, 2025

4 min read

Quoted expert

John Clark Ph.D., CFA, CFP

The primary duty of a finance aid advisor is to help clients to understand financial aid programs available in educational institutions. Their clients are mostly students and parents. They conduct interviews with students to assess their background information and financial histories. Moreover, they coordinate different services while adhering to the institutions' policies and regulations. Most financial aid advisors find employment in public and private higher educational institutions like professional schools, universities, colleges, and junior colleges.

Besides the one to three years of experience, you will need a bachelor's degree in counseling, education, finance, public administration, or a related field. Asides from that, you must be skilled in communication, problem-solving, presentation, and leadership. You must be familiar with federal and state laws, regulations, and policies that impact financial aid regulations. These professionals make an average salary of $34,850 per year, approximately $16.75 per hour. This ranges from $26,000 to $45,000.

What general advice would you give to a finance aid advisor?

John Clark Ph.D., CFA, CFP

Chair, Dept. of Finance, University of Nevada - Las Vegas

Show you have experience. Doing an internship is a great way to increase your starting salary. I always advocate for doing applied research, this is research that you can show has implications for society - science for the sake of science is not good science! Obtaining an MS degree is also a good way to increase your salary, especially if your MS degree is relevant to your future job.

ScoreFinance Aid AdvisorUS Average

Salary

3.0

Avg. Salary $37,791

Avg. Salary $59,228

Stability level

8.0

Growth rate 7%

Growth rate 0.3%

Diversity

5.4

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 0.48%

Asian 6.35%

Black or African American 9.13%

Hispanic or Latino 15.82%

Unknown 4.63%

White 63.59%

Gender

female 70.43%

male 29.57%

Age - 44

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 3.00%

Asian 7.00%

Black or African American 14.00%

Hispanic or Latino 19.00%

White 57.00%

Gender

female 47.00%

male 53.00%

Age - 44

Stress level

8.0

Stress level is high

7.1 - high

Complexity level

8.7

Complexity level is advanced

7 - challenging

Work life balance

6.8

Work life balance is good

6.4 - fair

Key steps to become a finance aid advisor

Explore finance aid advisor education requirements

Most common finance aid advisor degrees

Bachelor's

55.6 %

Associate

22.3 %

Master's

9.2 %

Start to develop specific finance aid advisor skills

Skills	Percentages
Financial Aid	16.41%
Customer Service	14.99%
FAFSA	5.69%
Financial Aid Programs	4.71%
Student Loans	4.17%

Complete relevant finance aid advisor training and internships

Accountants spend an average of 1-2 years on post-employment, on-the-job training. New finance aid advisors learn the skills and techniques required for their job and employer during this time. The chart below shows how long it takes to gain competency as a finance aid advisor based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data and data from real finance aid advisor resumes.

Research finance aid advisor duties and responsibilities

Manage project for the development and implementation of a university-wide scholarship database, STAARS.
Review incoming student ISIR, notifying students of the required documents need to complete the financial aid process.
Assemble files according to school and distribute to designate coordinators.
Perform cross-selling of banking products to help maximize company's profits.

Prepare your finance aid advisor resume

When your background is strong enough, you can start writing your finance aid advisor resume.

You can use Zippia's AI resume builder to make the resume writing process easier while also making sure that you include key information that hiring managers expect to see on a finance aid advisor resume. You'll find resume tips and examples of skills, responsibilities, and summaries, all provided by Zippi, your career sidekick.

Choose from 10+ customizable finance aid advisor resume templates

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