Federal Aid

1.  Eligibility-Federal Financial Aid - The U.S. Department of Education calculates your expected family contribution (EFC), which is an index number used to determine what financial aid the student is eligible for. The EFC calculation focuses primarily on household size, number in college, taxed and untaxed income, taxes paid, assets, etc.

2.  A-B Financial Aid Requirements and FAFSA - We are sometimes required to verify information you reported on the FAFSA . We ask you to provide us with your tax figures and we compare them with what you put on the FAFSA; hence what seems a duplication of figures you provide. If everything is correct, verification is completed and you are notified of the results. If corrections need to be made, we make them and then notify you.

3.  Parental Information and FAFSA - You have to include parent information if you cannot answer yes to at least one of the following questions: Are you 24 years old or older?  Will you be working on a degree beyond a bachelor's degree at the beginning of the academic year?  As of the day you completed the FAFSA, are you married? (Answer yes if you are separated but not divorced)  Are you an orphan, or are you or were you (until age 18) a ward/dependent of the court?  Are you a veteran of the U.S. Armed Forces?  Do you have children who receive more than half of their support from you?  Do you have dependents (other than your children or spouse) who live with you and receive more than half of their support from you, now and throughout the academic year?  Your independent/dependency status is not determined by whether or not your parents claim you on their federal tax return or whether they actually contribute to your cost of education.

4.  Changed Circumstances and FAFSA - If you or your family has unusual circumstances (such as loss of employment or major medical expenses) that might effect your need for student financial aid, check with the financial aid office for a special circumstance form. 

5.  FAFSA Mandatory for Financial Aid - A-B requires a student to complete the FAFSA form each year before any federal, state, or institutional financial aid is awarded.

6.  Eligibility-Subsidized Stafford Loan - Subsidized Stafford Loans are based on need. Eligibility for a subsidized Stafford Loan is determined after verification is complete and the expected family contribution (EFC) determined according to the following formula:

If your costs of education are being met, as in the example above, you are not eligible for a subsidized Stafford Loan. You would then have only unsubsidized Stafford Loan eligibility.

7.  Warning or Probation

a.  Satisfactory Academic Progress

Federal regulations require schools to establish, publish, and apply reasonable standards for measuring whether students receiving financial aid are maintaining satisfactory academic progress (SAP) in their courses of study. In keeping with these regulations, A-B has implemented three separate methods of measuring satisfactory academic progress: one is based on academic grades (Academic Standing); another is based on the rate of progress toward a degree or certificate, determined by examining the percentage of course work completed to graduate in a timely fashion (Rate of Progress) and the third deals with the total number of attempted credit hours (Credit Hour). We have attempted in the paragraphs below to summarize our SAP policy at A-B. The complete document can be viewed by clicking on the link at the bottom of this page. 

b.  Evaluation Measures

Newly admitted students (including entering freshmen or transfer students) are eligible for financial aid during their first year at A-B. At the end of that enrollment, as are all applicants for financial aid, they will be evaluated to determine if they are making satisfactory academic progress toward a degree or certificate. Evaluation measurements for Academic Standing, for total Credit Hours, and Measurement for Rate of Progress are taken at the end of each academic year, in May. Failure to meet any of the three standards may mean that you become ineligible for financial aid for the next term of attendance, even though it may have been awarded.

c.  Appeals and Requalifying for Aid

If you are found to be ineligible for financial aid, you may appeal to receive aid when there were unusual, extenuating circumstances that prevented you from making satisfactory academic progress. Possible reasons for an appeal might be an injury or a medical or family emergency. You must initiate the petition to be reinstated for financial aid. You begin the process of petitioning through the Financial Aid Office.

If you wish to request an override of the 192 credit-hour limit, you generally must file a copy of your approved graduation plan from your department along with your petition. Other documentations may be suggested or required, depending on the nature of your request (i.e. medical condition, pay stubs, etc.).

Timing can be very important when submitting a petition. In order to be eligible for the semester or term you are currently enrolled in, you must file the petition before the enrollment ends. For example, if you were found to be on financial aid probation after spring term (and therefore ineligible for financial aid fall semester) you would need to file a petition during the fall in order to receive aid for fall. If you waited until January or February, for example, you could never be paid for that fall semester.

8.  Return Title IV - The Financial Aid Office is required by federal statute to recalculate federal financial aid eligibility for students who withdraw, drop out, are dismissed, or take a leave of absence prior to completing 60% of a payment period or term. The federal Title IV financial aid programs must be recalculated in these situations.  

If a student leaves the institution prior to completing 60% of a payment period or term, the Financial Aid Office recalculates eligibility for Title IV funds. Recalculation is based on the percentage of earned aid using the following Federal Return of Title IV funds formula:

Percentage of payment period or term completed = the number of days completed up to the withdrawal date divided by the total days in the payment period or term. (Any break of five days or more is not counted as part of the days in the term.) This percentage is also the percentage of earned aid. 

Funds are returned to the appropriate federal program based on the percentage of unearned aid using the following formula:  Aid to be returned = (100% of the aid that could be disbursed minus the percentage of earned aid) multiplied by the total amount of aid that could have been disbursed during the payment period or term.

If a student earned less aid than was disbursed, the institution would be required to return a portion of the funds and the student would be required to return a portion of the funds. Keep in mind that when Title IV funds are returned, the student borrower may owe a debit balance to the institution.

If a student earned more aid than was disbursed to him/her, the institution would owe the student a post-withdrawal disbursement which must be paid within 120 days of the student's withdrawal. 

The institution must return the amount of Title IV funds for which it is responsible no later than 30 days after the date of the determination of the date of the student's withdrawal. 

Refunds are allocated in the following order:

• Unsubsidized Federal Stafford Loans
  
• Subsidized Federal Stafford Loans
  
• Unsubsidized Direct Stafford Loans (other than PLUS loans)
  
• Subsidized Direct Stafford Loans
  
• Federal Parent (PLUS) Loans and Graduate Plus
• Direct PLUS Loans
  
• Federal Perkins Loans
  
• Federal Pell Grants for which a Return of funds is required
• ACG Grant
• SMART Grant
  
• Federal Supplemental Opportunity Grants for which a Return of funds is required
  
• Other assistance under this Title for which a Return of funds is required (e.g., LEAP)

 Satisfactory Academic Progress (SAP) Policy