Financial aid qualifications
The term "financial aid" defines as an instrument that provides all types of loans, money and work-study programs for students. Financial aid can assist the students in paying the tuition fees and living expenses. In simple words, financial aid is available to abolish the cost barriers and offering support to fulfill your educational goals. Financial aid may be need-based or warded-base on the financial needs of a student. Financial need is determined through a federal formula of "Cost of Attendance Expected Family Contribution". This formula can help to the analysts in assessing the family's financial strength, ability and contribution for the student's educational costs and goals.
The Financial aid is supported by the federal government and colleges by contributing money to the students in the form of student loans, grants, scholarships, and work-study jobs. But, if the student holds a loan or work-study, he/she should repay the amount either in terms of monetary or work obligations, while grants and scholarships do not. A student can obtain both federal and college aid. Additionally, financial aid can be broken down into two categories such as need-based and merit-based. Need-based, does depend on child's financial need for his/her studies, and merit-based is awarded according to child's academic, athletic, musical, or artistic merit. In general, most of the financial aid is need-based.
Qualifications: Getting financial aid is free and convenient. The first and foremost step in acquiring financial aid is that submitting the required application form. The evaluation for the eligibility of financial aid is mainly depends on the information provided in the application especially the Expected Family Contribution (EFC). The EFC is considered as the financial strength or ability of the candidate's family and how much they can contribute money for his/her studies.
The minimum qualifications for financial aid are as follows:
The candidate should be accepted for admission in a university or college.
The candidate should have good academic standing or track record.
The candidate should be a U.S. citizen or eligible non-citizen (should be a permanent resident).
The candidate should certify compliance with Selective Service Registration requirements
The candidate should not have any education loan or owe a refund on any grant made under any Title IV program
The candidate should have a valid social security number
The candidate should have a high school diploma or recognized equivalent.
The candidate who wants to acquire financial aid from a particular school or college or university he/she should know about the FAFSA form, PIN (Personal Identification Number), FAFSA4caster, FAFSA on the web worksheet, National Student Loan Data System, repayment plans and calculators etc. The factors such as total assets of the family, number of students from the same family and how close the head of the family is close to retirement age also play a vital role in obtaining financial aid. However, the current income of the family is the prime factor in determining need of a financial aid.