Student Financial Aid

FAFSA UPDATES

The 2014-2015 Free Application for Federal Student Aid, or FAFSA, will provide a new option for dependent applicants to describe their parents' marital status as "unmarried and both parents living together." Additionally, where appropriate, the new FAFSA form will also use terms like "Parent 1 (father/mother/stepparent)" and "Parent 2 (father/mother/stepparent)" instead of gender-specific terms like "mother" and "father."

FAFSA Verification

Customized Verification assigned by the Department of Education based on Verification Codes.

• Items required for applicants selected for verification: * Household Size * Number in College * Child Support PAID *Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (Food Stamps)

*Identity and Statement of Educational Purpose *Income Earned

IRS Data Retrieval

IRS Data Retrieval

Online Tax Transcripts

Online Tax Transcripts

STATE UPDATES

• TEXAS GRANT-Beginning Fall 2014, public community, technical, and state colleges will no longer be able to make Initial Year (IY) TX Grant awards to students.

• TOP 10 PERCENT SCHOLARSHIP-Priority deadline is March 15.

Satisfactory Academic Progress (SAP)

Federal Regulations require that colleges establish Satisfactory Academic Progress (SAP) standards for students applying for and receiving federal aid.

Satisfactory Academic Progress (SAP)

• Sap regulations require a student’s academic history be reviewed annually to measure their academic progress towards their educational goal.

• Generally, all periods of the student’s enrollment count when assessing progress, even periods in which the student did not receive FSA funds

• SAP is a measurement of the Qualitative (GPA) and Quantitative (Credits) Academic Progress.

• Minimum GPA requirement is 2.0 and completion rate of 67%.