When I went to London, England, I rented a car so I could reach my final destination. This was my first time in England, and my first time ever driving on the wrong side of the road. I could see the highway I needed to take to get to Daventry, but getting there was a pain. I had never driven through round-abouts. I must have passed that stupid Concorde jet monument outside of Heathrow ten times before I found my way. It was the most frustrating time I have ever had trying to get from point a to point b.

I’m sure that making your way around SONIS can feel a bit like trying to get out of Heathrow when accepting financial aid awards. You have probably circled the “Financial” tab on the left side of the page a hundred times and not figured out how to accept.

Without further delay, allow me to give you step-by-step directions through the round-abouts of SONIS Financial Aid.

  1. Login to SONIS using your student account information.


  2. When you reach the Bio page, click on the “Financials” tab and then "Semester Statement".





  3. Before we accept any awards, let’s look at our award letter and find out what we’re looking at. Click the “Award Letter” button at the bottom-right.



 

  1. Now that we have seen the value of our awards and understand the terms of our acceptance, on the billing page, click on the button labeled “Pending Awards”.



  2. When you reach the Pending Awards page, select the proper action next to each award.




    The above selections will result in me receiving the Pell Grant award, declining the Asher Matching, and the Church Matching Scholarship will remain unapplied because I took no action.




    As a result of my selections, the above image shows that I can still accept the Church Matching Scholarship, but the Asher Matching Scholarship I declined is no longer available to me. However, the Pell Grant has now been accepted. The Church Matching Scholarship still shows on the billing page because it is an anticipated award. Eventually it will no longer be there if I do not accept it.


It is important that you follow-through on these steps when you receive an award. Your acceptance and/or denial of awards is a legal responsibility on the part of the student and the institution. Your acceptance and/or denial of any award through this interface is also considered an electronic signature of approval or denial.

As always, if you have any difficulty with this process, contact the help desk by emailing [email protected].