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APPLYING
COMPLETING
THE FAFSA
AWARDING
FINANCIAL AID
APPEALS
GENERAL
APPLYING
Q. What is LCSC’s school
code?
A. LCSC’s
Federal school code is 001621.
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Q. What is
financial aid?
A. Financial aid
is money provided to help fill the gap between your
own resources and the amount needed to pay for the
cost of attending college. The primary
responsibility for meeting the cost of a college
education rests with the student and family to the
extent they are able to pay. A formula established
by Congress and written in law, takes into account
your family income and assets. Financial aid may
include grants, loans, scholarships and work-study.
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Q. Should I
apply?
A.
Most
students are eligible for some sort of financial
assistance whether it is gift aid such as grants or
self-help aid in the form of student loans and/or
college work-study.
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Q.
How do I
apply for financial aid?
A. You must
complete the FAFSA (Free Application for Federal
Student Aid). We recommend you complete the FAFSA
on-line at
www.fafsa.ed.gov.
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Q. What is the
FAFSA “Priority Deadline”?
A. The priority
deadline for LCSC is March 1st. To be
considered for priority the Central Processor must
receive your FAFSA by March 1st. You
must also be admitted at least tentatively to LCSC
by March 1st.
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Q. What does
“Priority Deadline” mean?
A. This means
you may be considered for additional financial aid
if you qualify and funds are available. This would
include work-study, Perkins and Nursing loans, SEOG
grants, LEAPP grants, In-State merit-based
scholarships, and Western Undergraduate
Exchange and Out-of-State Waivers (if you are a new
student to LCSC).
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Q. How
often do
I need to apply for financial aid?
A. A FAFSA must
be completed for each academic year. The new FAFSA
is available on January 1st of each
year. If you completed a FAFSA the previous year
you will only need to complete a Renewal FAFSA which
can be found on the FAFSA website.
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Q. What is a
PIN
and how is it used?
A. A PIN is your
Personal Identification Number. It can be used to
sign your FAFSA electronically. If you are a
dependent student, a parent must also have a PIN.
Your PIN can also be used to sign your Master
Promissory Note on-line should you take out a
student loan.
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COMPLETING THE FAFSA
Q. My parents
are divorced. Whose information do I put on the FAFSA?
A. Use the
income/information of the parent with whom you lived
with more during the last 12 months. If you did not
live with one parent more than the other, use the
income of the parent who provided more financial
support during the last 12 months or during the most
recent year that you received support from a parent
(including money, gifts, loans, housing, food,
clothes, etc.). If the parent whose information is
reported is remarried, the student must also include
the step-parent’s income information.
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Q. Why do I have
to provide parent information?
A.
Parent
information is used because Congress has said that
families have primary responsibility for funding a
college education. Parent information is not
necessary if you are independent. If there are
extenuating circumstances as to why a dependent
student cannot list their parental information
please contact the Financial Aid Office.
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Q. I will be
getting married. How should I fill out my FAFSA?
A.
FAFSA
requires that students file at their current marital
status as of the date it is completed. If students
are not married as of the date they file the FAFSA,
they must file as single. If you need to
update your marital status, you need to see the
Financial Aid Office. Students may want to discuss the pros and
cons of filing as single or waiting and filing as
married with their financial
aid advisor prior
to submitting the FAFSA.
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Q. What if my or
my parent’s financial circumstances have changed?
Is there anything I can do to update the
information?
A. If you have
changes in your financial circumstances (i.e. job
loss, loss of child support, death in the family,
divorce, disability or other extenuating
circumstances) since your completed the FAFSA you
may appeal to have your situation reviewed by the
Financial Aid Office. If approved, your aid
eligibility and financial need may be recalculated,
based on the new information. Please contact the
Financial Aid Office for more information.
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AWARDING
Q. I
have a
work-study award. What is “work-study?”
A. Federal and
Atwell Parry work-study are awarded to students who
demonstrate financial need and want to work while
attending college. The work-study program provides
on-campus jobs for students and allows you to earn
up to a specific dollar award. You will earn at
least federal minimum wage salary and be paid by the
hour on the payroll schedule like all LCSC
employees. You may not work in excess of 20 clock
hours per week while classes are in session.
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Q. How do I
apply for work-study?
A. Complete the
FAFSA by the March 1st Priority
Deadline. If you are not initially awarded
work-study, you may complete a Work-Study Request
Form in the Financial Aid Office. If you have a
department that would like to hire you, that
department should also turn in a request to the Financial
Aid Office
stating they would like to hire you.
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Q. How do I
apply for an Out-of-State
Tuition Scholarship or Western Undergraduate
Exchange waiver?
A. New incoming
students who meet the March 1st Priority
Deadline will automatically be considered with no
separate application required. Returning students
and students who missed the Priority Deadline need
to complete a Supplemental Scholarship Application
at the Financial Aid Office and will be considered
on a funding availability basis.
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Q. Will
scholarships and other resources impact my other
financial aid awards?
A.
According to
Federal Regulations scholarships and other outside
resources that help students with their
educationally related expenses are used in
calculating eligibility for federal aid. The most
common types of resources are scholarships,
veteran's benefits, athletic awards, vocational
rehabilitation awards, tribal awards, etc. The
demonstrated financial need (as determined through a
processed FAFSA) to meet education costs is reduced
as a result of these scholarships and other
resources. If scholarship or outside resource
information is received after initial awarding has
taken place, the amount of federal aid awarded (with
the exception of the Pell Grant) may be required to
be reduced or canceled if the total amount of all
awards exceeds the annual cost of attendance.
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FINANCIAL AID APPEALS
Q. Do I have to
complete an appeal if I am on
Financial Aid Warning?
A. No.
Warning is a status that indicates the student has
not completed the minimum credits or has a
cumulative GPA below a 2.00. Students who are
on warning may
still receive financial aid, however, students who
do not pass the minimum required credits during the
next semester will be suspended from financial aid
and will be ineligible to receive further financial
aid.
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Q. What
form do
I need to complete to appeal suspension of financial
aid?
A. Financial Aid
Satisfactory Academic Progress Appeal Forms can be
picked up at the Financial Aid Office or may be
printed off the LCSC Financial Aid website. Along
with the form you will need to make sure and submit
a letter of explanation detailing the reasons you
are appealing as well as any supporting
documentation and/or medical releases.
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Q. If I have
completed the credits I owe, how do I get my
financial aid reinstated?
A. Students
whose suspension time has elapsed or who have
successfully corrected the deficiency must notify
the Financial Aid Office and submit a grade
transcript for review. Reinstatement of aid will be
subject to funds available at the time the completed
file is reviewed.
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Q. What is
maximum time frame?
A. Students will
be eligible for financial assistance for a specific
number of credits, regardless of whether any aid
is received. This is inclusive of ALL previously taken
credits no matter the time lapse (including all
credits transferred from other institutions). At
LCSC the limit is 192 credits for a
Bachelor degree, 96 for an Associate degree and
64 for Post Baccalaureate students. Students
who enroll part-time will have their eligibility
pro-rated. In all cases, credits for which a
student was enrolled and subsequently withdrew shall
be considered to be attempted credits for which the student was
enrolled for calculating maximum time frame.
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Q. How do I
request an extension to
maximum time frame?
A. Complete a
Financial Aid Satisfactory Academic Progress Appeal
Form and submit it to the Financial Aid Office for
consideration. Be sure to include a letter of
explanation detailing why you were unable to
complete your intended degree in the allowed time
frame as well as a plan of study listing the
courses/semesters required until graduation.
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Q. What is the
deadline for appealing for reinstatement?
A. Students
appealing for reinstatement of financial aid must
have begun the appeal process by the Friday of
the first full week of the semester to be reviewed for consideration for
that semester.
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GENERAL
Q. What do I
need to do to allow my parents/spouse access to my
financial aid information?
A. Because the
Family Education Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA)
limits the information that can be released
concerning a students records without written
permission we advise students to complete an
Information Release Form if they wish parents and/or
spouses access to their records. An Information
Release Form must be on file with EACH office a
student would like access given.
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Q. How
many
credits do you have to take to be considered full
time?
A. For financial
aid purposes full time is 12+ credits.
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Q. Do I have to
attend full time to receive financial aid?
A. No.
Financial aid is awarded based on the number of
credits a student is enrolled. There are four
levels: full time is 12+ credits, three-quarter
time is 9-11 credits, half time is 6-8 credits, and
less than half time is 1-5 credits.
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Q. I want to
attend less than half time. Can I still take out a
student loan?
A. No. In order
to qualify for a loan you must be enrolled at least
half time (6 credits). However, it is possible to
receive a Pell grant award for less than half time
if eligible.
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Q. Why was I
selected for verification?
A. Students at
LCSC are selected for verification in two ways per
federal regulations. Students may be selected based
on certain criteria established through the Quality
Assurance Program or if the Financial Aid Office
detects any conflicting or incomplete information in
incoming FAFSA information.
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