What's New in Financial Aid for 2012-2013?
Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA)
IRS Data Retrieval, available at the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) website, is now available two (2) weeks after filing your 2011 income taxes electronically. Use this helpful tool to avoid having to manually load your income tax information on your FAFSA.
Verification
If you are selected for the "verification" process, you must submit a copy of your and/or your parents' 2011 IRS Tax Return Transcript. To obtain a copy, call toll free 1-800-908-9946, or visit the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) website.
Additional changes in verification include providing documentation of the following:
- Food Stamps (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program [SNAP]), if receipt reported on FAFSA
- Child support paid, if amount reported on FAFSA
- Copy of Form W-2 if worked and earned income but did not file a tax return
Note: Financial Aid Offices can no longer accept copies of tax returns. The tax returns must be an official IRS tax return transcript.
Satisfactory Academic Progress (SAP)
The SAP Standard changed July 1, 2011. Students who do not meet SAP have:
- One semester of a warning.
- Suspension for the second semester if not meeting SAP, with option to appeal for probation.
- Suspension for third semester if SAP remains unmet. Will receive funds only if meeting requirements of pre-determined academic plan.
Repeated Coursework
If you have taken and passed a course (with a grade of D or higher), federal financial aid will now only pay for you to repeat this course one time. Should you decide to repeat a course for a second (or more) time, federal financial aid will not cover the cost of that course.
If you are currently enrolled in a repeated course for the second time, and you passed the course the first time you enrolled in it, your financial aid may be revised.
Elimination of Year Round Pell Grant
The Year Round Pell Grant program has been eliminated. Students who receive Pell for full time enrollment for both fall and spring will have exhausted all Pell for that academic year and therefore will have no Pell Grant eligibility for summer.
12 Semester Lifetime Limit for Federal Pell Grant
On December 23, 2011, President Obama signed into law the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2012. This law reduces the number of semesters that a student is eligible to receive a Federal Pell Grant from 18 semesters to 12 semesters (or 600 percent) and is effective with the 2012-13 award year. However, the calculation of Lifetime Eligibility Used (LEU) will include all years (fall, spring, summer) that a student has ever received Federal Pell Grant funding.
The Department of Education will calculate the LEU of each of the annual percentages of a student's disbursed award. When 600 percent is reached, a student will no longer be eligible to receive any Pell at any level of college (community college and/or university).
If you'd like to see your LEU, you can log on to the National Student Loan Data System (NSLDS®) using your Federal Student Aid PIN and view your LEU. The LEU will be found on the Financial Aid Review page.
