The process of enrolling in university courses and going through the maze of filling out paperwork is complicated. Applying for federal financial aid can top even that.
When you are preparing to go to school, you painstakingly fill out your FAFSA and submit your additional paperwork in the hope that you will qualify for as much financial aid as possible. In some circumstances, however, you might find out you aren’t eligible to receive aid at all. This would be devastating news to any student, but for those with families it can be even harder to swallow. To help ensure that you are eligible to receive aid in the future, we’ve compiled a quick list of the top five roadblocks that will prevent you from receiving aid.
Why aren’t you eligible to receive financial aid?
1. You have not completed your FAFSA
You have either not completed your FAFSA or it is incomplete. If you have completed your FAFSA, it may be missing the university school code (003184 for the University of Oklahoma). If you do not fully complete your FAFSA, you will be required to complete it and then resubmit it to your university. An incomplete FAFSA is the first and foremost reason that you might not be receiving aid.
TIP: Selecting IRS Data Retrieval on your FAFSA could potentially increase your processing time.
2. You are in default on student loans
If you are in default or forbearance and have not met your forbearance requirements, or you owe a refund on a state or federal educational grant, you will not be eligible to receive financial aid.
If you are in default, you can work with your lender to discuss payment options to get out of default and become eligible for aid. Often, paying down or consolidating your loans can resolve this issue.
To verify you meet the necessary requirements for forbearance, please visit this student aid website.
3. You did not satisfactorily complete credit hour requirements
To continue being eligible to receive financial aid as an undergraduate, you must complete at least 70 percent of your courses by the end of the semester. For graduate students, the minimum is five credit hours per semester. Failure to meet these requirements will cause you to lose future aid.
To redeem your eligibility, you may be required to complete two or three courses on your own without financial assistance.
4. You are not in a degree-seeking program
You must be in a degree-seeking program to be eligible to receive financial aid. You cannot be solely seeking certification or licensure.
5. Your Satisfactory Academic Progress (SAP) status automatically disqualified you
An undergraduate student must have a minimum Grade Point Average (GPA) of 2.0 and a graduate student must have a minimum GPA of 3.0 to receive aid.
If you do not meet this requirement, you may not be eligible to receive financial aid. This means you have to complete one, two or even three classes without assistance and satisfactorily complete the courses to bring up your GPA. This will reinstate your eligibility for financial aid.
It is important to remember that your eligibility to receive financial aid is based on specific requirements, a few of which are listed above. Think of these five points as your personal checklist on the road to receiving financial aid. It’s no question—applying for financial aid can be a time-consuming, strenuous process, but double-checking that you meet all of the necessary requirements can make it a little bit easier.