Searching for Student Records

You can search for a student or group of students by name (any combination of first, last, or preferred), Social Security Number (SSN), or student ID.

1. In the search box at the top of the application, enter the single name, SSN, or student ID of the student or students you want to find, or enter a list of any of these

   Note: In previous versions of PowerFAIDS, searching for multiple students using a set of SSNs or other identifiers was accomplished using a grid search. This type of search can now be accomplished using the basic search functionality in PowerFAIDS Cloud. Simply enter multiple names, SSNs, or student IDs in a single search to find all associated students.

2. Select the search icon and your search results will populate in the left navigation column.

Example: Basic Search by name

When searching for a student by name, you don't have to enter the entire name. You are only required to include a minimum of three characters. For example, entering the letters "carp" in the search field will result in the window displaying student names that start with that combination of letters.

Advanced search allows you to search using data associated with a student record. This gives immense flexibility when trying to narrow down your search for a specific student or groups of students. Advanced searches can also be saved as selection sets for repeated use.

Some useful elements within Advanced Search include:

• Using connectors to combine search criteria: Using "and" as a connecter allows you to require multiple search criteria, while using "or" as a connecter looks for students who meet one of many search criteria. You can even reverse criteria to specify results to exclude certain results.
• Organizing rules in visual groups: Additional power is given to search by organizing rules into groups. This allows you to make an initial query and then refine your results by evaluating those results against other search criteria, all within the same advanced search.
• Creating selection sets to save specific student population searches: By saving your advanced search as a selection set, you can streamline your future searches for common population categories within your institution.

Example: Adding rules and groups to an advanced search

Perhaps you want to create an advanced search that identifies all students who are both independent and legal residents of Virginia. Both of those conditions (independent status and Virginia residency) would be their own rules in the advanced search.

Note that because we’re searching for year-specific data points - in this case, values from the ISIR file - we’ve also added a rule to specific the associated award year. For more information, see Year-Specific Selection Sets.

You can also group rules in your advanced search by selecting Add Group. Groups are nested searches within an advanced search that allow you to group rules together, similar to how parentheses function in a mathematical equation. The rules inside the group are evaluated first without regard to the rules outside the group.

Expanding on the previous example, perhaps you want to create an advanced search that identifies all students who are either independent and legal residents of Virginia, or dependent with parents who are legal residents of Virginia. To achieve this using grouping, you would create two groups within the advanced search to identify those two cohorts of students.

Note that the And connector (1) is used within both groups because you are searching for students who meet both conditions within those groups. However, because you are identifying students who fall into either group, the Or connector (2) is used to connect the two groups.

Additionally, to ensure you are using the correct connectors, you can visually check the connection by looking at the brackets in the user interface, or you can read through the corresponding logic statement shown at the bottom of the advanced search (3).

For step-by-step information on how to create advanced searches, refer to Creating an Advanced Search.

Selection Sets are searches saved for later use. They can either be saved directly from an advanced search or built within the System Administration module in the Tools section.

Some ways to utilize selection sets include:

• Creating unique and dynamic workflows based on your school’s specific needs
• Enabling quick identification of records with discrepancies
• Monitoring automated processes.

Once a selection set is created, it is available in the Selection Sets menu located in the top navigation bar. Selecting a saved search from this list will run the query and display the results in the left navigation column of the Student module.

For additional information on selection sets and how to create them, refer to Selection Sets and Creating a Selection Set.