1. Financial Aid and Your Students Brett Cline and Aaron Young

2. Tasks of the FA Department Package new students Contact students for initial/follow-up FA visits Assist students with completion of all required forms Present Estimated Financial Aid Award worksheet Assist with completion of payment plans or other follow-up documents Initial Processing to fund new students Collect verification or other follow-up documents Build all academic years and all awards in CV Build budgets in Global and submit to Global File Review Address any errors or budgets rejected by Global Continued processing to all students Build and submit separate Global budgets for all continuing students for each academic year (every 30 weeks or less) and crossover (every July 1 st ) Meet with students for repeat courses, LOAs, schedule changes and re-do the budgets as described above. Revise current student budgets if new grade level is reached during existing budgets Work with students who lose funding due to attendance or academic ineligibility (set up payment plans).

3. Continued Tasks of the FA Dept *Certify VA students Twice or more each term for most veterans *Collect new FAFSAs for all in-school students (yearly), collect updated verification and other follow-up if needed, and build/submit crossover Global budgets *Track Past Due – continual/ongoing May be due to attendance or academic holds May be ineligible due to student not attending during the add/drop period of any separate term or class May be duplicate funds related to the transfer of Global data to CV May be due to Global budget rejections, errors, or changes *Disbursement Review (daily) – review all incoming disbursements for eligibility *Review ledgers for all upcoming grads each term Must perform exit counseling within 30 days of grad date *Answer in-school student questions/complaints/issues *Compile and submit drop packets daily Collect docs as needed from registrar and accounting, determine eligible aid for term and submit to corporate

4. Initial Enrollment Packaging Independent or Dependent? This is more complex than “how old are you?” or “do you have kids?” Students may come in to FA believing they are ‘Independent’ but have no way to substantiate or document this Students (and FA administrators) are required to resolve any conflicting data -- i.e. prove their dependency status or any other possible discrepancies. ECs must refrain from discussing or speculating on this with students

5. Possible “C” Code Issues “C” codes relate to other eligibility issues that must be resolved. Default Student is in default on one or more prior student loans. Overpayment Student received an overpayment of grants at a prior institution Prior Loan Discharge Student discharged previous loans due to a medical condition Aggregate Lifetime Loan Limit Student is close to the lifetime limit for undergraduate student loans – will have eligibility greatly reduced Student has reached lifetime limit – no further loans for undergrad work Student has exceeded lifetime limit – ineligible for any FA until this is paid down Lifetime Pell Limits Student may have limited or no remaining eligibility for Pell grants based on prior use Unusual Enrollment History Student may be required to provide transcripts from all schools at which they received Pell since 2010-11 and submit for Corporate approval before they can receive any further aid Selective Service Males over the age of 26 who did not register are ineligible for FA with a few exceptions

6. FAFSA Challenges/Issues Taxes Filed Correctly? Taxes not filed at all -Students (or spouses, parents, or parent’s spouses) may have been required to file taxes with the IRS if they earned income over a certain yearly threshold. Often this comes to light when they come in to complete a FAFSA but did not file taxes as required with the IRS. IRS filing status – Students (or spouses, parents, or parent’s spouses) are often found to have filed incorrect or fraudulent taxes with the IRS based on marital status. These students will not be eligible for FA until this is corrected with the IRS. “Why do you need my (spouse’s/parent’s/step-parents’) Taxes?” The FAFSA requires a snapshot of all yearly household income as of the FAFSA filing date. This may mean providing prior year tax returns for someone the student or parent just married yesterday, even if that person was not part of the family in the prior year. *This may affect continuing students during the FAFSA renewal process even if it was done correctly the previous year.

7. Attendance / Grades FA eligibility is based on meeting SAP as well as following the attendance policy. Students who violate the catalog policies can become ineligible for FA. We cannot fund terms with no attendance in the add/drop period We cannot fund individual classes with no attendance in the add/drop period Ok to fund: Cannot fund:

8. Attendance Holds Attendance holds are term-specific They do not roll over terms. A student missing 14+ consecutive days at the end of a class cannot be funded for that class after the fact. They will also need an R2T4 done and be reported as a drop to NSLDS even if they receive grades for the term. Students who return after more than 14 but less than 24 days to the same term/class may have the hold removed but this must be done manually. Students who wish to return after 24+ missed days to the same term need an attendance appeal to remove the hold. Students who missed 24+ days during the term who do not have attendance appeals resolved during the term will also need an R2T4 done and be reported as a drop to NSLDS even if they receive grades for the term.

9. Attendance Appeals If a student returns to all courses prior to missing 24 consecutive days, you can email Danielle Toner and request that the hold be removed. If the student has only returned to one course and not other courses, the hold may not be able to be removed as it may affect FSA eligibility. Please do not submit an attendance appeal prior to the student returning to school. The hold cannot be removed until the student attempts to return to school. Students who are allowed to return to school after missing 24 consecutive days should always have an attendance appeal. Otherwise, the student’s financial aid can be affected and he/she may have a large debt that leaves the student very frustrated and unhappy.

10. Satisfactory Academic Progress (SAP) To be eligible for FSA & VA funds, a student must make satisfactory academic progress, per school’s SAP policy. A student must meet both standards of SAP - Qualitative Component (CGPA) Quantitative Component (completion rate) SAP is evaluated/calculated at the end of each term by registrars running the SAP wizard - SAP Met SAP Not Met If SAP is not met, a student may still be eligible for aid in the following statuses – FA Warning/Academic Warning – Status assigned after failing SAP one term FA Probation/Academic Probation – Status assigned after failing SAP at least two terms consecutively and the student has an approved SAP appeal. Students may be placed on probation for more than one term (academic plan)

11. SAP Appeals Students may be eligible to appeal for SAP terms of probation. The appeals packet should include: Student letter of appeal that is signed. The letter must state the mitigating circumstance and a resolution to that circumstance/s that caused the student to fail. Documentation to support the mitigating circumstance. No documentation is needed for the resolution. FA warning academic plan FA probation term/s academic plan Most current copy of transcript

12. Questions?