Step 4 - How Aid is Awarded

Section Contents

• Financial Aid Awards - New Applicants
• Financial Aid Awards - Continuing Students
• Eligibility for Financial Aid
• How your Eligibility May be Affected
• Expected Family Contribution (EFC)
• Standard Cost of Education
• Notice of Ineligibility
• Adjustments to your Financial Aid Award
• Declining or reducing your Financial Aid Award
• Budgeting

Financial Aid Awards - New Applicants

In order to provide you with more efficient and convenient service, whenever possible, the Office of Financial Aid will use e-mail (and the US Postal Service) to communicate about financial aid. If you are a new student we will use the e-mail address you listed on your admissions application or FAFSA. If we do not have a valid e-mail address on record for you from admissions, you will also receive paper notification of documents needed to complete your application.

The Office of Financial Aid will send you a paper award letter. Awarding will usually begin in April prior to the academic year for which aid is being requested (April 2011 for the Fall 2011).

After receiving all necessary documents, the Financial Aid Office will calculate your eligibility, including eligibility for the federal loan programs, and will mail you an award letter to complete and return (this must be done each year). More information for new applicants at Troy University.

Financial Aid Awards - Continuing Students

In order to provide you with more efficient and convenient service, whenever possible, the Office of Financial Aid will use e-mail (instead of the US Postal Service) to communicate about financial aid. We will use the e-mail address listed in the computer system for you (your Troy University e-mail address may supersede any address previously listed). You can review their financial aid using Trojan Web Express and we will use the e-mail listed on the system for you.

After receiving all necessary documents, the Financial Aid Office will calculate your eligibility, including eligibility for the federal loan programs, and will mail you an award letter to complete and return (this must be done each year). More information for continuing applicants at Troy University.

Eligibility for Financial Aid

Your maximum eligibility (or financial need) is the amount remaining after your expected family contribution and all other types of financial assistance are subtracted from your cost of education. The formula for calculating your need or maximum eligibility is:

Cost of Education

-minus

Expected Family Contribution (EFC): When your FAFSA is processed, a formula, established by law, is applied to the information you provided. The formula result is called the Expected Family Contribution, or EFC.

-minus

Other Financial Assistance

=EQUALS

Maximum Eligibility (Financial Need)

How Your Eligibility May be Affected

The actual amount of your aid could be less than your financial need for several reasons:

• Available funding and aid program regulations will not allow us to give you more.
• If you are enrolled less than full-time:
• Initial awards are based on full-time enrollment
• Eligibility for some programs may be adjusted if enrollment is less than full-time
• Less than half-time enrollment may require reduction of cancellation of the original award

Expected Family Contribution (EFC)

Financial Aid is intended to fill the gap between the cost of education and the expected family contribution.

Most federal and state financial aid programs are based on the expectation that you and your family will contribute some portion of the cost of your education.

• Your family's ability to contribute is determined by a federally approved need analysis system.
• Your family's taxed and untaxed income, assets (except for the family home), savings, family size, and the number of people who are in your household enrolled in college are some of the items considered when your EFC is calculated
• The EFC formula must be applied to each family's financial information, so we can't tell you here whether you'll be eligible for federal student aid or estimate how much aid you might get. That's why you need to apply—to find out!
• If you want to see exactly how the EFC Formula works, you can get detailed worksheets from the US Department of Education, www.studentaid.ed.gov/pubs. Click on the year under "The EFC Formula." You can also get the worksheets by contacting the Federal Student Aid Information Center (800) 4 FED AID/(800) 433-3243.

If you want an estimate of financial aid prior to applying for either admission or financial aid, you may use an expected family contribution (EFC) financial aid calculator. You will need to provide information on your household size, number of household members attending college, and income and asset information for yourself, and if you’re filing as a dependent student, for your parents as well.

Standard Cost of Education

Troy University uses standard costs rather than actual expenses for your cost of education.

Notice of Ineligibility for Financial Aid

If you are not eligible for financial aid (for example - not making Satisfactory Progress or in default on a student loan) you will receive e-mail and/or paper notification.

Adjustments to Your Financial Aid Award

The Office of Financial Aid continually receives information from other Troy University offices, outside agencies, and from you that may affect your financial aid award.

• If any of the information we receive changes your financial aid award, a paper "change sheet" will be sent to you notifying you of your adjusted award.
• You may receive several notices as changes occur throughout the year. If the information received results in a decrease in your eligibility, your aid will be revised accordingly.
• If your aid disbursed prior to the adjustment, you may have to repay federal or state funds that exceed your revised eligibility.
• Every effort is made to adjust aid before repayment is requested
• Funds are disbursed to your account based on your enrollment on the first day after the end of free drop/add. If you added courses after that point, have your site advisor notify the financial aid office.
• Pell Grant – Multi-Institution Adjustments: Awards are based on the total eligibility for the award year even if some eligibility is used at another institution. Pell Grants may be used at only one institution for the same period of enrollment. If a Pell Grant is received at another institution for the same award year, your student account will be adjusted; you will be responsible for any balance. Typically, until we bill the Department of Education for your disbursed Pell Grant, we are not informed of your use of it at another institution (until that institution also bills the Department of Education) for the same award year. You may avoid this problem by writing on your award letter that you have used part of your Pell Grant eligibility at another institution; you should indicate whether the amount you received was for full time, three quarter time, half time or less than half time enrollment and the number of quarters or semesters you received it.

Declining or Reducing Your Financial Aid Award

You have the right to decline or reduce any or all of your financial aid award. You may reduce your award by marking through the awarded amount on the award letter and indicating the reduced amount - sign, date, and return the award. You may decline the award by not returning the award letter or by writing on it that you decline all awards and returning the award letter to us.

Budgeting

Enrolling students are expected to be prepared with sufficient funds for maintenance, books and supplies for at least two weeks. Financial aid is not credited to any student accounts until after the last day of free drop/add (about two weeks after classes have begun). Credit balance checks for any funds remaining on the account after charges are paid are not issued until after the second week of classes. Book vouchers if available are through the Cashiers Office.

• Budgeting is an excellent way to make choices when you have limited funds. If you borrow to help pay for your education, you should create a budget each year to review the items you can do without.
• Remember there is interest on the funds you borrow and you will be repaying over the next 10 years.
• You must save from the aid awarded for the 9 month academic year for Summer attendance (if necessary).
• Budgeting; Can I afford to attend? Click to review your income and expenses to make sure you will be with us throughout the year.