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QUICK STEP BY STEP Reference For Financial Aid
In our office we get many questions about "what to do next". Hopefully the chart below will help serve as a quick reference for many of the common questions:
Step #1: If you are wishing to look into all possible Federal Funds (Pell, LEAP, SEOG, Work Study, etc.) and / or student loans you MUST fill out a FAFSA form (this can be done by hand or online). Now, you can also fill out a FAFSA to be eligible for HOPE, but if you wish to ONLY recieve HOPE then please read more on our HOPE information page.
Step #2: OK, so you've completed your FAFSA form. If you have completed the form online and placed our school code to be submitted it will be processed and your information will be realesed to our office. If you completed the FAFSA by hand and sumbitted it to our office we will take care of your submission. Processing time can take anywhere from two days to a week or more depending on the time of year. If you wish to receive HOPE please also complete the VSU HOPE Processing Application. All of your information will be available with current updates through BANNER (please check here first for updates)
Step #3: Once we have recieved your FAFSA information we will contact you if we require further documentation (income tax returns, 1040 forms, W-2 forms, etc.) from the previous tax year. This additional information is also listed on BANNER (please check here first for updates).
Step #4: After we have recieved all of the required information, a financial aid counselor in our office will look over your file and verify all of your information. Once this is complete (sometime 1-7 days to process) we can then make your financial aid award.
Step #5: Once you have been awarded, an award letter will be mailed out to you with all of your amounts as well as other documentation explaining information on the type(s) of aid you are eligible for. All of your information will be available with current updates through BANNER (please check here first for updates)
Step #6: Alright, so now you have been awarded and received an award letter or have reveiwed your award information online. Now what? If you have been awarded federal funds (HOPE, PELL, SEOG, LEAP, Work Study, etc.) these are automatically applied to your account once you have registered for classes (some of these amounts may be adjusted based on the number of hours you are registered for). You will need to speak with the Work Study Coordinator in the Financial Aid Office. If you do not wish to take out any loans, you are done.
Step#7: What if you want to take out loans? Inside your award letter you will receive a Loan Request Form. This needs to be completed and returned to our office to start the loan process. The Loan Request Form is also available online through our Forms Menu. Once this has been done, your loan will be created. You will need to make sure you have also completed Loan Counseling. This can be done right on our office or online as well (click here for online loan counseling info).
Step #8: Once you have completed loan counseling and you loan has been genereated you will need to sign a promissory note. If you have had loans inthe past you do not need to complete another not and you're done. If you do need to fill out a promissory note, we will mail these to you for you to sign and return to us. We will need the original so sorry NO faxes of these forms will be accepted. The promissory note can be completed online as well (click here for information for completeing the promissory note(s) online).
Step #9: You are now ready to receive financial aid. Once awarded you can used your excess aid to purchase books here on campus as well as other items through the VSU One Card Office. Excess funds for fiancial aid awards are usually direct deposited or mailed out no later than 30 days after classes begin each semester.