How to Keep Your Funding
If you earn average or better grades, complete your courses each term, and finish your program or degree on time, you should have no trouble maintaining your financial aid. It’s a good idea to check with the financial aid office before you drop classes to make sure that you will not lose any aid.
Some types of aid, especially scholarships, require that you maintain full-time enrollment and make satisfactory academic progress. Dropping or failing a class might jeopardize all or part of your financial aid unless you are enrolled in more credits than the minimum required for financial aid. Full-time financial aid is often defined as twelve credit hours per term. If you initially enrolled in fifteen credit hours and dropped one three-hour course, your aid should not change. Even so, talk with a financial aid counselor before making the decision to drop a course, just to be sure.
Remember that although the financial aid office is there to serve you, you must be your own advocate. These tips should help:
- File for financial aid every year. Even if you don’t think that you will receive aid for a certain year, you must file annually in case you become eligible in the future.
- Meet all filing deadlines. Students who do not meet filing deadlines risk losing aid from one year to the next.
- Talk with a financial aid officer immediately if you or your family experiences a significant loss (e.g., loss of a job, death of a parent or spouse). Don’t wait for the next filing period; you might be eligible for funds for the current year.
- Inquire every year about criteria-based aid. Many colleges and universities have grants and scholarships for students who meet specific criteria. These might include grants for minority students, grants for students in specific academic majors, and grants for students of single-parent families.
- Inquire about campus jobs throughout the year, as these jobs might be available at any time, not just at the beginning of the term. If you do not have a job and want or need to work, keep asking.
- Consider asking for a reassessment of your eligibility for aid. If you have reviewed your financial aid package and think that your circumstances deserve additional consideration, you can ask the financial aid office to reassess your eligibility. The office is not always required to do so, but the request might be worth your effort.