As of Jan. 1, 2016, the 2016-2017 Free Application for Federal Student Aid for the 2016-2017 academic school year is open for students interested in financial aid.
Samuel Reasee, financial aid counselor in the Office of Enrollment and Student Services, offered advice for students looking to receive financial aid for the next academic school year.
What is the FAFSA?
“FAFSA stands for Free Application for Federal Student Aid. Once students complete a FAFSA, they get a SAR, which is a Student Aid Report, and the university gets an Institutional Report. So the FAFSA is going to be broken up two ways, the students get a copy, and the school of their choice that they add on the FAFSA will receive a copy of it.”
Have there been any changes to the FAFSA for the 2016-2017 aid year?
“One major change is that one of the requirements for independent status. Students born on or before Jan. 1, 1993, will now be considered independent. So more students who will be considered independent compared to last year; the date changed from Jan. 1, 1992 to Jan. 1, 1993.”
How do I log on to complete the FAFSA?
“You should have a username and password. As of May 10, 2015, the Department of Education changed it from a PIN or four-digit number to a username and a password. Identity theft is one of the largest and fastest-growing crimes, so the Department of Education changed it to make it a little more difficult because once somebody has your information, they know everything about you. If you haven’t made that conversion already, then you will have to change it ― you’ll have to transfer from a PIN to a username and password, but you will still use that PIN to authenticate your username and password.”
Is there a deadline or priority deadline to submit the FAFSA?
“Yes because what we have here is institutional funding and state aid, which are allotted on a first-come, first-served basis, so you want to get it done before January ends. One of the things we look at is when the student submitted his or her application. We have to allocate the monies from the Department of Education to all the students who qualify for it, and one criterion is the date on which you’ve done your FAFSA. So if you wait until March to do it, and somebody else did it in January, you wouldn’t get the funding. The university likes to have the application earlier so we can give your awards out and make any provisions to make sure you’re receiving additional money. Your FAFSA goes from July 1 of the first year until June 30 of the following year, so the latest you would need to complete the FAFSA for fall 2016 would be July 1.”
What if I don’t have the latest tax information?
“Even if you haven’t done your taxes, you can still go in and estimate the amount. Then, you can go back and make corrections. We go by the first date that we actually, physically received it in our system, so you can submit it with estimated information and go back and change it by July 1.”
Do I need my parent(s) in order to fill out the FAFSA?
“If you are a dependent student, then absolutely ― your parent must sign off on it. But if you’re an independent student or there are special circumstances, then no.”
What if I live in a different state than my parent(s)?
“The FAFSA is a federal document, so it supersedes the state level, so what that means is that you could be in Florida, and your parents live in Pennsylvania, but the FAFSA guidelines — unless you have some special circumstances — require that your parents get a username and a password and sign the form if you are a dependent student.”
What documents do I need to fill out the FAFSA?
“Upfront, you technically don’t need any documents to fill it out. Later on, you might be selected for a process called verification, then you would need documents, but to complete the FAFSA up front, you just need a username and a password, be a U.S. citizen or have alien registration and have a social security number. Once you or your parents file taxes, there’s a thing called the IRS Retrieval Tool that will populate the boxes for your tax information; there’s no need to punch in any information.”
How do you make sure I’m getting the maximum amount of financial aid?
“Completing the FAFSA early because, again, there are institutional dollars at the school, and if they run out, you either go on a waiting list, or there just isn’t money for you.”
What if the financial aid award I receive isn’t enough to cover my tuition?
“We have scholarships, which can be accessed on our webpage. You can also talk to your program office or academic advising and see if there are any scholarships within their budgets. If it happens that we have no money, there’s something like the alternative loan, such as a Parent Plus loan or a Sallie Mae or Discover loan. But when some students who apply to go to NSU end up not coming here, we have to reconcile our account balances and reallocate the money, and that’s how those on the waiting list get scholarships.”
If I go over my loan cap in undergrad, will that affect my loan amounts in grad school?
“No. For an independent undergrad student, the loan limit is $57,500. If you are a dependent undergrad student, it’s $31,000. Once you get to the graduate level, depending on the program, that amount increases. If you’re in finance, for example, you get $138,500 — that’s your aggregate loan amount. If you’re in the health professions, you get $224,000. There’s a difference based on the program that you’re doing. After you get your undergrad bachelor’s degree, if you exceed the loan limit while you’re pursuing your master’s degree, then there’s what you call a Graduate Plus loan, another federal program, which will help until you complete the program. There are ways to help you finance and fund your education; you may run out of federal dollars in undergrad, but you can get alternative money or loans. But at the graduate level, you would just get the Graduate Plus loan.”
For any additional questions, contact the Office of Financial Aid at 954-262-3380 or toll-free at 800-806-3680, or email finaid@nova.edu. To submit your FAFSA, visit https://fafsa.ed.gov/index.htm.
Federal loan limits per year (annual)
Dependent students:
First-year undergraduate students―$5,500 ($3,500 max. in subsidized loans)
Second-year undergraduate students―$6,500 ($4,500 max. in subsidized loans)
Third-year and beyond undergraduate students―$7,500 ($5,500 max. in subsidized loans)
Independent students:
First-year undergraduate students―$9,500 ($3,500 max. in subsidized loans)
Second-year undergraduate students―$10,500 ($4,500 max. in subsidized loans)
Third-year and beyond undergraduate students―$12,500 ($5,500 max. in subsidized loans)
Graduate and professional degree students―$20,500
Maximum total (aggregate) loan limits
Dependent undergraduate students―$31,000 ($23,000 max. in subsidized loans)
Independent undergraduate students―$57,500 ($23,000 max. in subsidized loans)
Graduate students―$138,500, or $224,000 for graduate students in certain health professions programs ($65,500 max. in subsidized loans)
*According to the U.S. Department of Education
