For Financial Aid Counselors ·
What you'll accomplish
You'll set up a Claude Project loaded with your institution's financial aid policy manual, procedure guides, and commonly used federal policy references. When you or a colleague has a policy question, you can ask it in plain English and get a clear, policy-consistent answer in seconds instead of flipping through hundreds of pages.
Think of it as a 24/7 policy colleague who has read every document in your office and never gets tired of questions.
What you'll need
What you should see: A new Project with a chat interface and a "Project Knowledge" or "Project Instructions" panel
You are a financial aid policy assistant for [Institution Name]. Your role is to help financial aid counselors quickly look up and understand policy and procedures.
You have access to our institution's financial aid policy manual, procedure guides, and selected sections of the Federal Student Aid Handbook.
When answering questions:
- Cite the specific section of the policy document where the answer comes from
- If the question involves federal Title IV regulations, note whether the answer comes from institutional policy or federal regulation (these are different)
- If you're uncertain or if the question is complex, say so and recommend verifying with the Financial Aid Director or NASFAA
- Keep answers clear and actionable. Counselors need to make decisions quickly
IMPORTANT: Never provide final decisions for professional judgment cases. Those require a human counselor's judgment and proper documentation. You can summarize the relevant policy framework.
What you should see: Documents listed in the Project Knowledge panel. Claude now has access to these when answering questions
Troubleshooting: PDF files over 10MB may need to be split. Use Adobe Acrobat's split function or upload specific chapters separately.
What you should see: An answer that cites a specific section of the policy document, not a generic answer
Troubleshooting: If answers are generic (not citing your institutional documents), try rephrasing: "According to our institution's policy documents, what is..." This phrasing triggers Claude to search the uploaded files first.
Policy lookup: "What is our institutional policy on [topic]? Cite the relevant section."
Federal vs. institutional: "For a [describe situation], what does federal Title IV regulation require vs. what does our institutional policy allow?"
Documentation checklist: "What documentation is required for a [type of appeal/exception] at our institution?"
Staff training: "Explain our SAP policy to a new counselor who has never worked in financial aid before."