Financial Aid Refund Checks

It has been a few weeks since my last blog post which can be directly attributed to the rush of Fall registration. Over the past few weeks I have been getting numerous comments and questions every day through this blog that pertain to financial aid. These comments have been wonderful and I am very appreciative for all of your feedback. Recently though, the vast majority of these comments have surrounded one topic: REFUND CHECKS. This is the time of year for financial aid refund checks to go out so I wanted to shed a little light as to how these checks work.

The basic concept is that if you are awarded financial aid over and above what your tuition costs are, you may be eligible to receive that overage in the form of a refund check, which you can then use to cover other educational expenses (IE. housing, transportation, textbooks, personal expenses). Many of you may be wondering if you have a refund check available. The simplest way would be to consult your award letter. If you have awards showing on your award letter that total up to more than your tuition costs are, more than likely, you will receive that amount in a refund check. You also can check your account summary on Campus Cruiser which will show an updated amount of a refund. It is important to note, that not all types of aid are able to be refunded to students. Lottery tuition assistance can only be used to credit tuition and many scholarships have a stipulation that they cannot be refunded to the student. So if you have a question about your particular refund, please contact our office at financialaid@gvltec.edu

The majority of students who receive some form of a refund, do so by obtaining a student loan. Student loans are processed differently than grant and scholarship aid and therefore, the refund checks are also processed differently. Scholarships and grant aid are automatically applied to student accounts on our disbursement date which is 9/8/09 for the Fall 2009 semester and 2/1/09 for the Spring 2010 semester. Loans are also disbursed on that date, but only if they have been certified. The certification process takes 4-6 weeks from the date that you turned in your award letter. When we certify a loan we send a request to the lender that you have chosen, and request the loan amount that you have signed for on your award letter. Once the money is released from your lender, those funds come to us and we then transfer those funds to our business office for them to process a refund check.

Our business office legally has 10 business days to process a refund check. This means that even after your financial aid has been credited to your account, it may still be up to 2 weeks before your refund is actually mailed out or direct deposited. Our business office sends out refunds every Friday. For the Fall 2009 semester the first batch of refund are slated to be sent out on September 18^th, 2009. Refunds will be sent out every Friday after until the end of the semester.

I hope this answers some of the questions that I have heard regarding financial aid refund checks. As always, if you have further questions do not hesitate to leave a comment and a financial aid advisor will respond as soon as possible. Thank you for your time!

How This Blog Works...

When I began the process of creating this blog I really did not have a clear and defined picture of what all this blog could accomplish. I knew what the goal was, to provide financial aid information to you, our students, and provide an interactive community where financial aid questions and topics are discussed, but I did not realize how much impact it could have. The overwhelming response of comments and feedback from this blog have encouraged and empowered me to do more.

With that said, I would like to take an opportunity to give a quick display of all of the features on this blog, and explain how you can use this blog in the most effective manner possible!!

First: Read the Posts! The goal is to update this blog with new and current information via a post 1-2 times per week. Within these posts I will cover a wide spectrum of financial aid topics. I also will be sure to include a post for any new or pressing information within financial aid that you need to know.

Second: Search the Blog! With over 16 posts, and constantly growing, there is a mountain of information at your fingertips. Simply put in your keyword search on the search bar at the top of the blog, and you will be directed to any posts that contain the keywords you are interested in. If you do not feel like reading through all of the posts this is a great tool for you.

Third: Search the Topics! If you have a question about a specific topic check out the "Most Popular Topics" links on the right hand column. If you see your topic listed there, simply click on that link and you will be directed to all of the posts which contain information regarding that topic. This is great as a reference tool.

Fourth: Subscribe!!! If you are like me, you have way too many things to do in one day and sometimes they all run together. Wouldn't it be nice to be notified every time that this blog is updated....sort of like your own personal assistant. Well you can accomplish this by simply clicking on the "Stay Connected" links on the right hand column and subscribing to this blog. Any new posts will be automatically directed to your viewer of choice. How easy is that!?!

Fifth and Final: Comment!! This is the most effective and therefore most popular feature on this blog: the ability to interact with financial aid officers as well as fellow students. If you read through a post and have a question about a financial aid topic, simply leave a comment with your question and a financial aid officer will respond via a follow-up comment. You can have personal access to the financial aid office without leaving the comfort of your living room... You can also find previous comments left by financial aid officers very useful for answering your questions.

I hope this has given you a small taste of the impact this blog can have.

We are always searching for ways to improve and become better, so please feel free to leave a comment and let me know what you would like to see in this blog!

Sign up for Direct Deposit!!

The Greenville Tech Business Office has just unveiled their new direct deposit system. Our direct deposit system will work just like any other direct deposit system that you may have in place at your job. The main goal of this new system is to streamline the financial aid refund check process.

Hundreds of students receive financial aid refund checks every semester, and up until now, all of those checks have been printed on paper, and then mailed to those students. This new system will allow student's refund checks to be directly deposited into their bank accounts once the refunds are processed through the Business Office. This will eliminate any checks being lost in the mail and will also decrease the time that it takes for students to receive their financial aid refunds.

We feel that this new system will allow us to provide even better customer service through a decreased wait time in our lobby from students waiting for refund checks. It is our goal to continuously improve our processes and we feel that the new direct deposit system will be a great improvement to our financial aid refund process.

So, hopefully I have convinced you that you should take part in this exciting new opportunity, the next question is: “How do I sign up for direct deposit?” Easy! Simply log onto Campus Cruiser, then click on the Web Advisor tab at the top of your screen. Scroll down to the Financial Aid section on the left hand column and then click on “FA Refund Direct Deposit”. This will bring up a screen that will prompt you to input your bank account numbers and routing numbers and other information. Once this has been submitted, you should receive a confirmation, and everything is set up! Now you can sit back and relax, because your financial aid refund will come directly to your bank account once it has been processed.

As always, if you have any questions about this new direct deposit system or any other financial aid topics, please contact us at financialaid@gvltec.edu or for immediate assistance, 864-250-8128. Thank you!

What Do I Do Next?

Registration for the 2009 Fall semester started last week and student traffic in the financial aid office is beginning to increase. We have seen a huge increase (already 34%!!) in the number of FAFSA applications that are sent to our office and we anticipate that this will equate to an increase in the number of students who receive financial aid in the next academic year. Since many of you have already applied for financial aid and many of you have already received an award letter from us, I wanted to tackle the topic of: “What to do now?”

You submit your FAFSA early; you complete your verification; you receive your award letter back in the mail; you accept all of your financial aid and complete your promissory note and entrance loan counseling so you will be able to borrow a student loan; you register for your classes; you are now done with all of your necessary steps and cannot wait to begin your classes……but what do you do next?

Many students decide to use a book voucher which allows them to purchase their textbooks using an advance on their financial aid awards. If you have completed your financial aid you should have a book voucher available to you when they begin on August 12 at 10:30 AM immediately after Convocation.

Many students who receive financial aid rely solely on financial aid to cover their tuition bill. If you have registered for classes for the Fall 2009 semester you have already received a billing statement from our Business Office. This statement serves to inform students that 1.) They have an outstanding tuition bill because they registered for classes and 2.) If students do not have confirmed financial aid then they will need to make plans to pay for their tuition by the dates specified on the billing statement. If you have submitted an award letter back into financial aid accepting your awards, this means you have confirmed financial aid. We will transfer financial aid awards to the Business Office in the beginning of September and pay off your tuition bill if you have sufficient financial aid to cover your tuition bill.

So, if you have completed all of these steps then a “Congratulations!” is in order. You can now sit back, relax, and prepare your mind for your Fall classes.

The Importance of Financial Aid

It seems like every time we switch on the news all we hear about are more lay-offs, another bad day on the stock market, another swindler stealing billions more of our hard earned money, or another sign that we are spiraling downward, further into a recession. This might not seem like encouraging news, especially first thing in the morning, but with the current state of our economy, financial aid has become more important than ever.

Financial aid may have the reputation of being only for those who do not make any money or for those who only want to take out student loans, but in reality we have a lot more to offer. We do have numerous programs, such as the Federal Pell Grant, the Federal Supplemental Educational Opportunity Grant, Federal Work Study and the SC Need Based Grant that are based on a student's financial need. However, we also offer the SC Lottery Tuition Assistance which is not income contingent. In addition to grants we administer hundreds of scholarships every year. Many of these are awarded through the GTC Foundation. Many other scholarships are awarded by organizations from around our community.

If you have sought out all of the grants and scholarships that you are eligible for and still have a need for additional funds, we do offer loans through the Federal Stafford Loan Program. These loans have low interest rates between 6.0%-6.8% and you can defer the payments until 6 months after you graduate.

The most important piece of advice I would offer concerning financial aid is simply to apply! By not applying you virtually erase any chance of receiving any sort of financial aid. You can complete an application at www.fafsa.ed.gov .

If you have any specific questions please refer to other posts on this blog where I have tackled various financial aid programs and offered numerous hints and tips on how to make your financial aid experience the best it can be.

As always, please contact us at financialaid@gvltec.edu with any additional questions!

A Week of Rest

Next week, June 29-July 3, Greenville Technical College will be closed. It will be a great opportunity for the entire college to get rested and rejuvenated before the rush of the Fall semester begins. As students, you can also take this week to be proactive with your financial aid.

• If you have not submitted a FAFSA for 2009-2010 you should do so next week. You can go to www.fafsa.ed.gov to complete one.
• If you have submitted your FAFSA and have gotten a request back for more information, please gather those documents and return them to our office on July 6th.
• If you have gotten an award letter for the 2009-2010 academic year, please sign the letter and return it to our office on July 6th.
• If you have any questions regarding your financial aid awards please consult our website at http://www.gvltec.edu/financial_aid/ . There is a wealth of information available here that should answer most of your questions.
• If you would like to take out student loans and have not received them in the past, please complete an entrance loan counseling session at http://mappingyourfuture.org/ and a promissory note with your lender.

Hopefully these quick tips will help you get ahead while the college is closed. When we return on July 6th, we do anticipate an increased volume of student traffic. With that in mind, please strive to make every trip to the financial aid office productive. Make sure you have all of the requested documentation with correct signatures. Please make sure you know what questions you would like to have answered so you can avoid return trips.

Overall, we are excited about entering into Fall registration. We have a full staff this year who are ready to serve you. We have made some changes in financial aid over the past year that are intended to make your financial aid experience much more efficient and effective.

As always, if you have any questions, please contact the financial aid office at 864-250-8128 or financialaid@gvltec.edu .

Let us know how we can serve you!

Am I being audited by financial aid???

No you are not being audited. However, you have been selected for verification. You can think of this as a similar process to being audited, except at the end you won't have to pay back money and fees if the numbers don't add up!

If you receive a letter in the mail from the Financial Aid Office informing you that you have been selected for verification, then you are joining roughly 30% of students around the country who have to go through this process. The reason you were selected is so the Department of Education can verify that the information you submitted on your FAFSA is accurate according to your tax returns. Any discrepancies can be cleared up during this process. While we will look at your financial information, we will also verify your family situation. Many times students are selected for verification because of a unique family situation that we need additional clarification on. This is just to ensure that we can give you the maximum amount of financial aid that you qualify for.

One of the most important aspects of verification is the paperwork (I know you are excited!!). However, by turning in ALL of the requested documents and verifying that the appropriate signatures are in place, you can ensure a smooth verification process.

One more note: whenever you receive notice that you were selected for verification, turn your documents in as soon as possible. The quicker you turn them in, the quicker we can process them, and the quicker we can get your file completed and award you your financial aid!

Look at this process as quality control. Without these benchmarks built into our system we would not be able to offer the extensive options within financial aid that allow you to go to school!

As always, if you have any questions regarding this process or anything else concerning financial aid, please contact our office at 864-250-8128 or financialaid@gvltec.edu.

Thank you and we look forward to hearing from you!