What is a Finance Aid Advisor?

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 Does a Finance Aid Advisor Do

There are certain skills that many finance aid advisors have in order to accomplish their responsibilities. By taking a look through resumes, we were able to narrow down the most common skills for a person in this position. We discovered that a lot of resumes listed computer skills, interpersonal skills and organizational skills.

Learn more about what a Finance Aid Advisor does

How To Become a Finance Aid Advisor

If you're interested in becoming a finance aid advisor, one of the first things to consider is how much education you need. We've determined that 55.6% of finance aid advisors have a bachelor's degree. In terms of higher education levels, we found that 9.2% of finance aid advisors have master's degrees. Even though most finance aid advisors have a college degree, it's possible to become one with only a high school degree or GED.

Learn More About How To Become a Finance Aid Advisor
Top Finance Aid Advisor Jobs Near You

Finance Aid Advisor Career Paths

In addition to switching up your job search, it might prove helpful to look at a career path for your specific job. Now, what's a career path you ask? Well, it's practically a map that shows how you might advance from one job title to another. Our career paths are especially detailed with salary changes. So, for example, if you started out with the role of finance aid officer you might progress to a role such as finance administrator eventually. Later on in your career, you could end up with the title business office manager.

Finance Aid Advisor

Average Salary for a Finance Aid Advisor

Finance Aid Advisors in America make an average salary of $37,791 per year or $18 per hour. The top 10 percent makes over $49,000 per year, while the bottom 10 percent under $28,000 per year.
Average Finance Aid Advisor Salary
$37,791 Yearly
$18.17 hourly
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Roles and Types of Finance Aid Advisor

The role of a finance aid advisor includes a wide range of responsibilities. These responsibilities can vary based on an individual's specific job, company, or industry.Here are some general finance aid advisor responsibilities:

  • Maintain the financial aid student information system, powerfaids, to include annual system set up
  • Effectively identify and track the current financial aid process to meet packaging goals. Improve current error rate by implementing quality assurance process
  • Maintains a financial aid applicant caseload; reviews

There are several types of finance aid advisor, including:

Finance Aid Officer

Role:

The primary responsibility of a finance aid officer is to evaluate, approve or deny, and award financial aid to students per federal, state, and university regulations, policies, and operating guidelines.They assess students' financial needs and advise students and parents regarding financial aid options, processes, and requirements. Eventually, finance aid officers also evaluate students' academic progress and arbitrate academic progress appeals.

This role requires a high school diploma or GED alongside at least five years of experience in a related field. Nevertheless, a completed degree(s) from an accredited institution that is above the minimum education requirement may be substituted for experience on a year for year basis. Financial aid officers, on average, earn $38,881 per year. However, this figure can vary significantly depending upon academic qualification, having previous experience, and possession of the aforementioned skills.

  • Average Salary: $38,163
  • Degree: Bachelor's Degree

Finance Aid Counselor

Role:

The Finance Aid Counselor, usually found at educational institutions, such as universities, is tasked with providing students and their families with financial guidance.

They will serve as the primary contact for these students and will act as their guide in terms of paperwork, applications, eligibility for financial aid, and costs. The Counselor also needs to verify the student's knowledge and abide by the university's policies and the regulations tied to financial student aid. They often deal with federal grants and scholarships, aid from charitable organizations and institutions, and may assist higher management with the changes being designed and applied to university policies.

A person seeking work as a Finance Aid Counselor generally needs to have a bachelor's degree in Finance or Counseling or a similar subject. Alternatively, an equivalent in the form of experience may be valued just as much. A good understanding of the academic community and its practices is key, as well as excellent communication, customer service skills, and computer proficiency.

  • Average Salary: $37,672
  • Degree: Bachelor's Degree

Finance Service Advisor

Role:

A financial service advisor is an individual who is responsible for helping clients invest their money. These professionals advise their clients on trading and investing in the stock market and use their knowledge and expertise to develop personalized financial plans to meet client financial goals. In addition to stocks, these individuals also guide savings, budgets, college savings, real estate planning, insurance, and tax-saving strategies. The main role of a financial service advisor is to help clients build their investment portfolios and to maximize savings and profits.

Most finance service advisors work in an office environment during a normal work week and are proficient in computers, spreadsheets, and the use of financial software. They are also adept at multi-tasking and are extremely knowledgeable of financial markets and trends, as well as tax laws and regulations. Many financial service advisors work for investment firms, banks, or as independent contractors.

Although many financial service advisors have an advanced degree in finance, business, or a comparable field, an advanced degree is not necessarily a requirement provided the individual has comparable experience and skills. A financial service advisor can make up to $73,000 per year in the US, and the field is expected to grow 4% by 2028.

  • Average Salary: $50,706
  • Degree: Bachelor's Degree
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States With The Most Finance Aid Advisor Jobs

Mouse over a state to see the number of active finance aid advisor jobs in each state. The darker areas on the map show where finance aid advisors earn the highest salaries across all 50 states.

Average Salary: Job Openings:

Number Of Finance Aid Advisor Jobs By State

RankStateNumber of JobsAverage Salary
1California5,661$44,652
2Texas3,444$32,124
3New York3,283$49,123
4Florida3,093$38,816
5Illinois2,847$36,249
6New Jersey1,848$46,327
7Virginia1,795$34,648
8Massachusetts1,778$41,674
9Ohio1,770$39,070
10Georgia1,717$34,512
11North Carolina1,681$35,614
12Michigan1,578$36,051
13Washington1,499$30,265
14Pennsylvania1,427$39,051
15Minnesota1,346$34,904
16Tennessee1,193$34,566
17Wisconsin1,124$33,193
18Missouri1,114$41,906
19Indiana1,072$33,282
20Maryland1,047$34,981
21Arizona1,044$32,020
22Colorado1,006$38,442
23Connecticut964$46,573
24Oregon875$34,059
25Alabama705$35,593
26South Carolina624$38,208
27Utah621$40,702
28Kentucky504$37,672
29Iowa431$35,416
30Louisiana409$32,243
31New Mexico350$34,551
32Nevada310$41,373
33Nebraska281$41,311
34Idaho273$30,162
35Mississippi261$42,839
36New Hampshire236$44,732
37Delaware231$46,525
38Rhode Island206$46,111
39Maine191$32,752
40West Virginia173$39,382
41Hawaii170$35,213
42North Dakota154$41,374
43Alaska125$43,983
44Wyoming111$32,574
45South Dakota106$30,832
46Vermont101$43,227
47Arkansas95$30,070
48Montana89$29,925
49Oklahoma79$30,562
50Kansas45$35,085

Finance Aid Advisor Education

Finance Aid Advisor Majors

Business
31.3 %
Psychology
8.6 %
Accounting
7.3 %

Finance Aid Advisor Degrees

Bachelors

55.6 %

Associate

22.3 %

Masters

9.2 %

Top Colleges for Finance Aid Advisors

1. Stanford University

Stanford, CA • Private

In-State Tuition

$51,354

Enrollment

7,083

2. University of Pennsylvania

Philadelphia, PA • Private

In-State Tuition

$55,584

Enrollment

10,764

3. Northwestern University

Evanston, IL • Private

In-State Tuition

$54,568

Enrollment

8,451

4. Maine Maritime Academy

Castine, ME • Private

In-State Tuition

$13,478

Enrollment

979

5. University of Southern California

Los Angeles, CA • Private

In-State Tuition

$56,225

Enrollment

19,548

6. California State University - Bakersfield

Bakersfield, CA • Private

In-State Tuition

$7,309

Enrollment

9,142

7. SUNY at Binghamton

Vestal, NY • Private

In-State Tuition

$9,808

Enrollment

13,990

8. Villanova University

Villanova, PA • Private

In-State Tuition

$53,308

Enrollment

6,819

9. San Diego State University

San Diego, CA • Private

In-State Tuition

$7,488

Enrollment

30,018

10. Bentley University

Waltham, MA • Private

In-State Tuition

$49,880

Enrollment

4,177

Top Skills For a Finance Aid Advisor

The skills section on your resume can be almost as important as the experience section, so you want it to be an accurate portrayal of what you can do. Luckily, we've found all of the skills you'll need so even if you don't have these skills yet, you know what you need to work on. Out of all the resumes we looked through, 16.4% of finance aid advisors listed financial aid on their resume, but soft skills such as computer skills and interpersonal skills are important as well.

Choose From 10+ Customizable Finance Aid Advisor Resume templates

Zippia allows you to choose from different easy-to-use Finance Aid Advisor templates, and provides you with expert advice. Using the templates, you can rest assured that the structure and format of your Finance Aid Advisor resume is top notch. Choose a template with the colors, fonts & text sizes that are appropriate for your industry.

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Finance Aid Advisor Resume

Finance Aid Advisor diversity

Finance Aid Advisor Gender Distribution

Female
Female
70%
Male
Male
30%

After extensive research and analysis, Zippia's data science team found that:

  • Among finance aid advisors, 70.4% of them are women, while 29.6% are men.

  • The most common race/ethnicity among finance aid advisors is White, which makes up 63.6% of all finance aid advisors.

  • The most common foreign language among finance aid advisors is Spanish at 68.3%.

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Best States For a Finance Aid Advisor

Some places are better than others when it comes to starting a career as a finance aid advisor. The best states for people in this position are New York, Connecticut, Delaware, and New Jersey. Finance aid advisors make the most in New York with an average salary of $49,123. Whereas in Connecticut and Delaware, they would average $46,573 and $46,525, respectively. While finance aid advisors would only make an average of $46,327 in New Jersey, you would still make more there than in the rest of the country. We determined these as the best states based on job availability and pay. By finding the median salary, cost of living, and using the Bureau of Labor Statistics' Location Quotient, we narrowed down our list of states to these four.

1. New York

Total Finance Aid Advisor Jobs: 3,283
Highest 10% Earn:
$67,000
Location Quotient:
1.43

$49,123

Avg. Salary

View 3,283 Finance Aid Advisor Jobs In NY

2. Connecticut

Total Finance Aid Advisor Jobs: 964
Highest 10% Earn:
$63,000
Location Quotient:
1.62

$46,573

Avg. Salary

View 964 Finance Aid Advisor Jobs In CT

3. New Jersey

Total Finance Aid Advisor Jobs: 1,848
Highest 10% Earn:
$64,000
Location Quotient:
1.3

$46,327

Avg. Salary

View 1,848 Finance Aid Advisor Jobs In NJ
Full List Of Best States For Finance Aid Advisors

How Do Finance Aid Advisors Rate Their Jobs?

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Top Finance Aid Advisor Employers

Most Common Employers For Finance Aid Advisor

RankCompanyAverage SalaryHourly RateJob Openings
1Broward College$48,698$23.4115
2Blackboard$46,921$22.5681
3Dorsey Schools$41,492$19.9521
4Bryant & Stratton College$41,165$19.7935
5Concorde Career Colleges$40,323$19.3918
6Ivy Tech Community College$39,613$19.0416
7Heald College$38,797$18.6549
8Lincoln Tech$38,636$18.5783
9Universal Technical Institute$37,630$18.0994
10Career Education$37,578$18.07168
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Updated April 6, 2023