Financial Aid Policies
According to federal requirements, financial aid defines enrollment status as:
- Undergraduate-less than half time - 5 or less credit hours attempted
- Undergraduate-half time - 6-8 credit hours attempted
- Undergraduate-3/4 time - 9-11 credit hours attempted
- Undergraduate-full time - 12 or more credit hours attempted
- Graduate-half time - 3 credit hours attempted
- Graduate-full time - 6 or more credit hours attempted
All financial aid recipients should contact the Financial Aid Office before dropping a class. Dropping a class may result in cancellation of certain types of grants, scholarships or loans and you will be responsible to pay these funds back to the program.
Family Education Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA)
To protect your privacy, all records and conversations between the student and Office of Financial Aid are confidential. No public announcement shall be made of need-based amounts awarded to students. No information concerning the students' financial aid records will be released to anyone outside of the Office of Financial Aid without the students' permission in accordance with FERPA. If the student wants information released, a letter of consent must be submitted.
Unusual Enrollment History
What does this mean?
Our Lady of the Lake University must review the student’s enrollment history and determine whether or not the student is enrolling only long enough to receive cash refunds of federal student aid. º«¹úAV is required to review the National Student Loan Data System (NSLDS) to verify the names of all schools attended during a certain period of time. This information will be compared to the post-secondary academic transcripts submitted to º«¹úAV. If all academic transcripts have not been submitted, eligibility for financial aid cannot be determined.
How to resolve
Students with this requirement should ensure that all post-secondary academic transcripts have been submitted to Our Lady of the Lake University. If Federal Pell Grants were received and credit hours (passing grades: A – D) were not earned at each institution attended during these award years, the student may be determined ineligible for further federal financial aid.
Appealing the ineligibility determination
Students who have been notified that they are ineligible for aid because they have failed to earn academic credit at an institution during the period of enrollment under review should contact the Financial Aid Office.
Regaining federal student aid eligibility
Students whose aid eligibility is denied as a result of their Unusual Enrollment History can be re-considered for federal student aid after the completion of the unusual enrollment academic requirements:
- Enrolling for three consecutive academic terms of enrollment only in courses that are required by their program; and
- Maintaining GPA of at least 2.5 for each of these academic terms; and
- Not withdrawing (officially or unofficially) from any courses after the term begins; and
- Meet all other eligibility requirements for federal aid
All Awards are Subject to Change
The most common reasons for adjusting aid include insufficient enrollment, change in residency status, and receipt of aid from other sources (tuition discounts, outside scholarships, VA benefits, etc.). Awards may also be reduced or canceled due to changes or inaccuracies in any of the information provided, failure to maintain degree-seeking status, make Satisfactory Academic Progress, or comply with other federal, state and institutional guidelines.
The Financial Aid Office reserves the right to replace ALL GIFT AID (grants and/or scholarships) awarded by º«¹úAV with other gift aid sources in the same amounts in order to maximize limited resources. Please note that the total amount of gift aid awarded will not be reduced.
Verification Policies and Procedures
Students who are selected for verification are notified automatically with Datatel Colleague’s Communication Management System. The system creates a missing information letter that asks students for needed documents when selected for verification. Students need to complete the requested documents as soon as possible but no later than two weeks before the end of the term they are attending. Failure to provide documents needed for verification will result in forfeiture of your financial aid.
During the verification process, if changes need to be made to the students SAR, financial aid will make the changes for the student. The student will be notified by receiving a new SAR.