How To Receive Your Financial Aid

1. To receive your financial aid credit each term, you have to have been sent an award notification letter and you have to (if borrowing a Federal Stafford Loan) activate your student loan(s). Your financial aid will be applied to your tuition approximately 10 days before the start of the semester.
2. If there is a credit on your account after tuition is paid, you may use that credit at the bookstore as long as you have your EagleCard and class schedule.
3. If an amount remains after tuition and books are applied, the balance of scholarships, Federal Pell Grants, Federal SEOG, Federal Perkins Loans and Federal Stafford Loans will be mailed to your local address when your attendance is verified.
4. You should note that checks for first time Federal Stafford Loan borrowers cannot be sent until the mandatory 30 day wait period from the start of the semester ends. However, those funds are available at the bookstore if the loan has been activated.

Terms and Conditions for All Financial Aid Recipients

1. You must be enrolled as at least a half-time* student in a program six months or longer in length.
2. The amount of Federal Pell Grant depends upon the number of credit hours in which you are enrolled.
1. Fall and Spring semesters--Full-time is 12 credit hours or more. Three-quarter time is 9 through 11 credit hours. Half-time is 6 through 8 credit hours.
2. Summer semester--Full-time is 9 credit hours or more. Three-quarter time is 7 through 8 credit hours. Half time is 5 through 6 credit hours.
3. Beginning with the 2009-10 award year, student may receive no more than eighteen semesters of Pell Grant awards.
4. To remain eligible for a Federal Stafford Loan, you must be enrolled at least half time during the entire period for which the loan was processed.
5. State programs are subject to the availability of funding from the state and can be reduced if that funding is reduced by the state. This applies to the Iowa Vocational-Technical Grant, the Iowa Grant, the All Iowa Opportunity Scholarship, the All Iowa Opportunity Foster Care Grant, and National Guard Benefits.
6. If other sources of assistance or additional resources are received after your financial aid application is completed, you are required to notify the Financial Aid Office immediately.
7. A default status for any previous Federal Student Loan or any unpaid repayments for previous financial aid awards will cause automatic rejection for present aid consideration.
8. Your award is based on projected funding from institutional, state, and federal sources, and is subject to change.
9. You may lose eligibility if you are convicted of a state or federal offense involving a drug posession or sale that occurred while you are enrolled in school and receiving financial aid.
10. One of the requirements for receiving financial aid is that you attend the classes for which you are registered. Attendance is monitored in all classes. We will disburse financial aid based on the number of credits you have been reported as attending. If you have late start classes, some of your pro-rated awards will not be sent until you are attending those late start classes.
11. Students who are enrolled less than full time are considered part time students. For part time students, a lower cost of attendance will be used to determine eligibility for financial aid awards. If your attendance level changes up to the end of the second week of classes, this may change the amounts of your awards.

* Depending on your eligibility level, you may receive a Federal Pell Grant with less than half-time status.

Satisfactory Academic Progress

Federal regulations require students to make reasonable satisfactory academic progress in their course of study in order to continue to receive financial aid funds. For more information, go here.