Application Process

In order to receive financial aid, a student must complete the following for each academic year (July 1- June 30 of a given year):

• Complete the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA)
• Complete the Institutional Application for Financial Aid
• Complete the Verification Process (if selected)
• Complete, sign and return the financial aid award letter

PLEASE NOTE: You must be officially accepted to the University in order to receive any form of financial aid. Students who have not completed the admissions process will not be awarded financial aid until the admissions process is complete!

Or:

• Completing a paper FAFSA application booklet, available at the One Stop Office, your local high school or an area community college/university. Also, if you receive a Renewal FAFSA in the mail you are welcome to apply with that form.

*We urge students to get a PIN and complete the FAFSA online because it takes much less time to process the information. The average time it takes for the Department of Education to process a FAFSA completed on the web is three days. The average time needed to process a paper FAFSA is three weeks (or more) – about SEVEN times longer!

Verification

After submitting your FAFSA, you may be selected by the Department of Education (DOE) for a process called verification. This means that we have been asked by the DOE to verify that the information that you reported on your FAFSA is accurate. If you are selected, you will be contacted by our office to provide additional documents (see below). Please be aware students that have been selected for Verification cannot be awarded any financial aid until they have provided the requested documentation and the verification process is complete. If your FAFSA information is not accurate, it will have to be re-processed for corrections before you can be awarded.

The documents typically required for the verification process include:

• Parent’s / Student’s/ Spouse’s Federal Income Tax Return for 2006 (including W2s) – copies must be signed and complete for all required parties – if filed
• Verification Worksheet – completed and signed
• Other documentation as requested by the Financial Aid Office – may include but not limited to: Sibling/spouse or parent enrollment verification; Social security benefit statement; verification of other untaxed income; divorce decree for child support, etc.

Notification

Students that complete the financial aid application process and who qualify for aid will receive an award letter. This letter will list the type and amount of aid the student is eligible for, based on the enrollment that was reported on the student’s Institutional Application for Financial Aid.

In order to receive the aid detailed on the award letter, the student must return a completed signed copy of the letter to the Financial Aid Office. Incorrectly completed award letters (awards not marked as accepted or declined, not signed, etc.) cannot be processed, and will be returned to the student.

Many times, a student’s award will change throughout the year (due to changes in enrollment, FAFSA corrections, etc.). When this happens, a revised award letter will be sent to the student. The revised award letter must be completed and returned to the Financial Aid Office.