CoreCampus Financial Aid vs EDExpress

CoreCampus Financial Aid is a cloud service that manages aid packaging, disbursement, loans, compliance reporting, and student communication through a connected student information system. It handles federal, state, institutional, and private aid. Teams can prepare award packages and letters, originate loans, track disbursements, reconcile them, and follow Master Promissory Note, entrance-counseling, and exit-counseling status. Document collection and reminders support missing information. Compliance workflows include SAP, 1098-T, IPEDS, FISAP, 90/10, enrollment reporting, and National Student Clearinghouse reporting. The service supports LDAP and SAML, unlimited user groups, and access restrictions by module, screen, or field. Open API connections and integrations cover billing, LMS, finance, email, reporting, document management, CRM, and other higher-education tools. Delivery is through the cloud with upgrades, updates, and security patches handled without customer IT involvement. Pricing is on request, based on average annual full-time equivalent students, with an all-inclusive monthly fee.

EDExpress is a Windows PC application provided at no charge to institutions processing Title IV student financial aid records. It handles Institutional Student Information Record data and supports packaging and management of aid records. For Common Origination and Disbursement workflows, it builds the required XML Common Record file, allows users to create or modify submitted records, imports responses, and provides reports. An automated comparison tool helps reconcile Federal Pell Grant School Account Statements against school data and identify discrepancies. The 2027–28 release includes Global, Application Processing, Packaging, and College Financing Plan functionality. In Release 1.0, Packaging and College Financing Plan are optional; Global and Application Processing install automatically. The software requires Microsoft SQL Server 2019 or newer, does not support other database systems, and does not install SQL Server. Office workstations can connect to a shared database in an organization's SQL Server environment. The Department offers the software as a single-file full download, with installation guidance in its Windows Installation Guide.