Financial Aid Counselor

Position Summary:

Financial Aid Counselor - Shape Student Futures & Transform Lives at Adams State University!!!

Are you a passionate student advocate ready to make higher education accessible to all people, places, and perspectives? Adams State University is seeking a dedicated Financial Aid Counselor to join our Enrollment Management team in breathtaking Alamosa, Colorado, where Great Stories Begin Here. Reporting to the Assistant Director of Financial Aid, this role drives student success and opportunity across our campus community.

What You Will Do

As an impactful Financial Aid Counselor, you will empower students and families across Colorado's San Luis Valley and beyond:

• Guide Student Success: Serve as a Financial Aid Counselor managing an assigned alpha-based caseload, providing personalized one-on-one advising across the entire financial aid lifecycle—from FAFSA completion through need analysis, packaging, verification, and disbursement.
• Solve Problems with Impact: Function as a proactive Financial Aid Counselor exercising independent professional judgment to evaluate special-circumstance requests, resolve FAFSA verification requirements, and clear C-Flags.
• Lead Community Partnerships: Act as a mission-driven Financial Aid Counselor conducting FAFSA workshops, hosting campus orientations, and delivering tailored support for specialized populations, including first-generation students and our Prison Education Program.
• Optimize Systems: Work as a tech-savvy Financial Aid Counselor maintaining accurate student records in Workday and supporting federal systems reconciliation.

What You Bring

• Education & Experience: Associate's degree or equivalent college credit (Bachelor's degree preferred) with 1–2 years of experience in financial aid, student services, or customer-facing roles.
• Core Competencies: Strong organizational skills, discretion with confidential student information, and proficiency in Microsoft Office and Workday.
• Preferred Assets: Experience with federal databases (NSLDS, COD, CPS). Every successful Financial Aid Counselor at Adams State brings empathy and cultural competence to serving our diverse student body.

Why You’ll Love Working Here

• Campus & Location: Located in Alamosa, CO, Adams State offers an exceptional high-desert mountain lifestyle with 300+ days of sunshine, minutes from Great Sand Dunes National Park, world-class hiking, fly fishing, and Wolf Creek skiing.
• Compensation & Perks: Salary range of $35,568–$42,700 (Full-time, 1.0 FTE exempt). Our robust benefits package includes medical, dental, vision, disability insurance, flexible spending accounts, life insurance, and retirement savings plans. Visit our HR Benefits Page

Ready to Join Us?

If you are excited to thrive as our next Financial Aid Counselor, we welcome your application! Every Financial Aid Counselor at Adams State plays a direct role in advancing equity and institutional excellence.

Application Priority Date: 11/15/2026

Completed applications include:

• Cover letter
• Resume

Apply today! For questions, please contact Russell Shawcroft [email protected]

Click Here for full Job Description

Adams State University is committed to building and expanding the talent of its professional staff and actively seeks qualified applicants who bring unique perspectives, experiences, skills, and attributes that can augment the perspectives of our current faculty and staff and can contribute to serving and preparing our students to engage and thrive in their learning, leadership, and service.

We strive to create a more representative workforce that mirrors the people who study, work, and lead our institution and welcome applications from candidates from all walks of life, especially members of communities who fall within state and federally protected classes such as: women, BIPOC, LGBTQ+ individuals, veterans, and people with disabilities.

We value qualified candidates, with varied language skills, who have a record of successful experience with varied communities and student populations, and who have a deep understanding of and commitment to the unique geographical and historical characteristics of the place we are situated in and the intersecting perspectives that define our university being a low-income, first-generation, and Hispanic-serving, rural anchor university. Therefore, we seek individuals committed to intentionally supporting students and colleagues who possess these characteristics through their teaching, service, and scholarship.

The successful candidate will join a campus that is dedicated to inclusive excellence and acknowledges Adams State’s purpose to foster the educational goals of its students and the well-being of the surrounding community.

Additional information about the university and the academic mission may be found at

Disclosures:

In compliance with the Immigration Control Act of 1968 candidates for positions must provide proof of eligibility to work before an offer of employment can be made final.

Adams State University is committed to providing a safe and secure environment for its students, faculty, staff and visitors, and to protecting its funds, property and other assets. Well-informed hiring decisions contribute to this effort. Therefore, Adams State University has adopted a policy on background screening for its prospective, continuing, and returning employees as well as students in certain circumstances. Offers of employment will be contingent upon the completion of an acceptable background check. The information received in response to a background check will be treated as confidential to the extent provided for by law.

Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 and Part 106 of the Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) prohibits discrimination on the basis of sex, including in admission and employment. Inquiries about the application of Title IX and CFR 106 to Adams State University (ASU) may be directed to ASU's Office of Equal Opportunity, and/or to the Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights of the Department of Education. Support resources for sexual misconduct, ASU's sexual misconduct policies, contact information for the Adams State University's Office of Equal Opportunity & Title IX, as well as a detailed procedure for filing a grievance due to discrimination on the basis of sex may be found online at . These procedures also describe the University's response to reports and/or complaints of sex discrimination or sexual harassment.

Adams State University is an Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action employer. Applications are sought from all qualified persons regardless of race, color, sex, disability, and, as covered by law, veteran status. In addition, University policies prohibit discrimination on the basis of religion, national origin, ancestry, age, sexual orientation including transgender status and gender expression, marital status, and parental status.