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Welcome to "Financial Aid an Introduction". In this presentation we will give you an overview of how to view your financial aid in banner and other important financial aid policies. Since the financial aid office deals primarily with Federal and State financial aid resources the first step is to complete an application. We must have an application on file to set up your eligible financial aid. We recommend you complete both the Free Application for Federal Student Aid or FAFSA and the state application known as the GSFapp. The FAFSA may be completed on the federal financial aid website studentaid.gov and the GSFapp can be found on the Georgia State website gafutures.org. Why do the FAFSA? The FAFSA is a one-stop application that not only reviews you for your federal aid opportunities such as Pell Grant and Federal Student Loans but also will allow us to review your HOPE or Zell Miller eligibility as well, however keep in mind the FAFSA must be completed each academic year. The application usually becomes available on October 1 the year prior to the start of the fall semester.

FAFSA applications are valid from fall semester through the following summer semester each year. The GSFapp only needs to be completed once and is good for 10 years but this will only allow us to review you for your HOPE and Zell Miller eligibility. It usually takes about a week for us to load a FAFSA into the student portal known as Banner. Clicking on the financial aid link will take you to the financial aid homepage. This is where you will be able to see if you have any unsatisfied requirements that need to be completed before your financial aid offer will be available. Of note the first time you log in you may see the response required question. As seen here this question provides the financial aid office authorization to apply your financial aid funding to non-institutional charges such as bookstore charges, library or parking fines, and others. Financial aid will still post to your student invoice for institutional charges such as tuition and mandatory fees and housing/food costs if you live on campus without this authorization. Continuing with the review of unsatisfied requirements you can see in this example we were requesting the social security card; most likely to resolve a conflict with the social security number on the FAFSA and the students account in Banner. If you have an unsatisfied requirement you may click the drop-down arrow for more information, which will include instructions on how to satisfy this requirement. Once your requirements are all satisfied or are "in the green", the next step is to review your financial aid offer. To view your financial aid offer click on the offer offer tab at the top of the financial aid homepage. Take note that you are in the correct Aid Year. In the top right corner you can see a drop- down box. Remember aid years correspond to academic years which begin in the fall semester and end in the following summer semester. As you review the offer information you will see a section labeled Cost of Attendance. This is an estimate of your possible costs during the Academic Year. This is not your bill with the university. Your student invoice shows the direct charges from the University and we'll discuss this in a future slide. This information is here to assist you in budgeting your finances for the Academic Year and to consider costs such as personal expenses, books/supplies, and transportation costs throughout the year. This information is based upon an average student and all items may not apply to you. If you scroll further down you'll find the grants and scholarship section. Grants and scholarships do not need to repaid and therefore your eligible amount is automatically accepted. This is an opportunity to review your financial aid offer and confirm funding you expect to be present there such as HOPE Scholarship. If you feel you are eligible for HOPE or Zell Miller but do not see it scheduled you should contact our office so we may review your eligibility. The financial aid offer you will see is based upon full-time enrollment and will be pro-rated should you take fewer hours. Speaking of HOPE and Zell Miller, let's spend a few minutes discussing the difference between the two. You may have heard recently that HOPE pays 100% of your tuition expenses. Technically it will pay 100% of the tuition rate from the previous Academic Year. There was an increase in per credit hour tuition costs for the 2425 Academic Year. The best way to understand HOPE and Zell Miller is that it pays a per credit hour rate for each enrolled hour up to 15 hours per semester. You can see the per credit hour rate for associate and bachelor degree programs at ̨Íåswag for HOPE and Zell Miller respectively. If you are a new student and were a home study student things work a little differently and it would be beneficial to contact your financial aid counselor to assist you in determining if you were eligible for HOPE or Zell Miller coming out of your program and if not how to receive the first year retroactively if eligible. Scholarships should be a part of a student's financial aid plan. If you have not yet done so please complete the new student scholarship application in our Scholarship Center. Our scholarship office will review your application to see if we can match you with a scholarship provided by one of our donors. Of course you should also be researching outside scholarships throughout your time in college. There are many free search engines that can assist you, such as fastweb.com. Some search engines may require you to create an account. They'll send you some promotional materials but remember to never pay for an application to a scholarship. Legitimate scholarships will not charge you to consider their funding. Lastly let's talk about loans. Students who complete the FAFSA should have, at a minimum, federal student loan eligibility. For the 2425 Academic Year, the interest rate is 6.53%. You may see on your financial aid offer two types of loans, subsidized and unsubsidized. These loans are basically the same in that they are offered by the federal government and have the same repayment process. The only difference is that subsidized loans do not accrue interest while you were still in school. Repayment for Federal loans begins after you are no longer enrolled for six credit hours or more for a period of 6 months. The total loan amounts available per year is dependent on a students grade level and the dependency status as shown in the chart. On the financial aid offer you will see your available loans scheduled for the year. Unlike grants and scholarships, that are automatically applied, since loans need to be repaid a few steps are required to receive them. You'll need to accept the loan in Banner but remember you do not need to accept the full amount. Only take the amount of loans required to achieve your academic goals.

To accept a partial amount simply select modify and then type in the desired amount. In the example here here we typed 200 to accept. Remember to hit the submit button to complete the process. If you are a first time loan borrower you will also need to complete Entrance Counseling and the Master Promissory Note on studentaid.gov. This is the same website you completed your FAFSA. You will see these requirements added to the financial aid homepage after accepting. Once you complete those requirements it will take a few days for the loan to fully process and post to your student invoice. It will be at that time the requirements will be changed to satisfied. After submitting your application, checking if you have any unsatisfied requirements, and reviewed your financial aid offer; the last step is to make sure your financial aid is posting to your student invoice. To view your invoice simply click on the invoice link under the financial aid section. Your invoice may look something like this. You will have the balance for the semester and then the important part is the "Estimated Financial Aid". If your financial aid is not posting or significantly less than the amount you believe you have available you should contact the financial aid office so we can review your account and see if there are any issues preventing your eligible aid from posting. If the amount looks correct, review the "Balance Including the Estimated Aid". If the number is a negative number this is great since it means your balance is covered and the negative amount is a refund that will be processed the second week of the semester. If the number is positive you still have a remaining balance that will need to be covered with an out-of-pocket payment or contact the financial aid office to see if there are additional resources available. VA education benefits are processed through the financial aid office. If you are using your benefits or are transferring them to your student the process will begin by applying for eligibility on VA.gov. Once approved for benefits by the VA the student will submit a ̨Íåswag Enrollment Certificate each semester they wish to use those benefits. This is an online form available on the financial aid website and only takes a few minutes to complete. Once we have received the certificate, we then can certify the student for their eligible VA benefits. While step-by-step instructions are available on our website we have VA specialists in our offices on the Gainesville and Dahlonega campuses to assist you. Since the FAFSA uses tax information from 2 years previous some students may have a current financial situation that is significantly different than 2 years ago. After you've submitted your FAFSA and your financial aid office has received it, you should speak to your financial aid office to see if your situation warrants what is known as a "Special Circumstances" review. Generally, this will include instances of a parent losing employment, medical expenses, or other situations that were beyond your control. If completing an application for a review it is usually necessary to provide supporting documentation. If your evaluation is approved your financial aid offer will be adjusted to reflect your current financial situation.

Once your academic career begins it is important to remember that students must maintain satisfactory academic progress toward earning their degree. This means for federal aid a student must maintain an overall GPA of 2.0 or better and earn credits in 67% of their attempted coursework. Students are reviewed after final grades are posted each semester. If you're receiving HOPE or Zell Miller scholarship, an overall GPA of 3.0 or 3.3 respectively is required to remain eligible. For HOPE and Zell Miller students checkpoints are not necessarily after each semester. If you're uncertain when your next checkpoint will be you should consult your financial aid office for more information. This concludes our presentation on the basics of financial aid. As always our financial aid office is here to help you through this process and answer any questions you may have.

There are several ways to contact us, email and calling may be the best way for quick questions, but if you would like to meet with your counselor for a longer discussion they will be happy to meet with you in the office or even schedule a zoom meeting if that works better. Thank you for watching this presentation and we look forward to seeing you on campus.