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BIO Table

(dwsfa.fa_bio)

Explanation
The Biographic File (BIO) contains one record per applicant, listing biographic and demographic data, such as name, birthdate, and address. This information is generally not repeated in other files to maintain data integrity, but is used to produce reports, labels and letters. Because of its importance, a Bio record must exist for each student before student-related processing (i.e., Tracking, Evaluation, Packaging) can occur in SAM. Since this data is not particular to any Aid Year, only one Biographic record is kept regardless of the number of years the student applies for aid.

Common Usage examples

• Get the names of students for a financial aid report.
• Find students applying for financial aid who are from Philadelphia.
• Report on the number of early decision students who applied for financial aid.
• Find students in special admissions populations (e.g., Questbridge).
  
  

SID
     

SPECIAL_ADMISSIONS_GROUP

UGRAD_ADMISSIONS_GROUP

FA_APPLICATION

FA_AWARD_TERM

FA_OTHER_SCHOOLS_APPLIED

FA_BORROW_PRIOR_TO_PENN

• Although SID is the record key, it is a protected field, and cannot be seen or used in Data Warehouse reports. Tables in the Business Objects universe are joined on Penn_ID.
• In September 2019, the column formerely called "High Need Indicator" (with Y/N values) was changed to "Need Level Indicator" to indicate a change in the way the finaid workflow processes records. Values are now "HN" = High Need,"ML" = Medium,"CL" = Complex. Historic data with the old Y/N values are not being changed.

Source

• Data are extracted nightly from the Student Aid Management system (SAM) on the administrative mainframe. Some of the data in the SAM Bio file originate in the Undergraduate Admissions system.

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