Financial Aid for School of Professional Studies – Albright College

Financial Aid for School of Professional Studies

Applying for Financial Aid

FAFSA is a yearly requirement for students who are interested in applying for financial aid. The application is available after October 1st of any given year. The FAFSA can be found at www.fafsa.ed.gov and you will need both your FSA ID and your parents’ FSA ID. We strongly recommend completing the FAFSA prior to May 1st to stay up to date with the aid process for the following year. The Albright College Federal School Code for your FAFSA is 003229.  DO NOT FORGET! The FAFSA is required for all sources of financial aid.

Pennsylvania State Grant (PHEAA)

If you are a state resident, it is important to have your FAFSA completed prior to May 1st. The PA State Grant program has a strict application deadline of May 1st. For more information on this program please visit www.aessuccess.org or 1-800-692-7392.

Verification

As an upper-class student, if you are selected for Federal Verification, you are required to provide documents to the Office before financial aid awarding.  The Albright College Office of Financial Aid completes verification year-round and maintains no deadline for completion; however, it is recommended that you submit verification documents no later than three weeks after notification, and no more than two months before a given Fall or Spring first billing.  Federal verification can change the value of federal grant, loan, and work study awards as well as the amount of need-based College grant aid.  If verification changes any component of your financial aid award, you will receive an updated award letter on your Albright College student email account.  If you are selected, verification is not an optional process if you desire to participate in the student aid programs.  You have the right to opt out of federal verification and the federal aid programs.  You should notify the Office of Financial Aid, Albright College, in writing of your wishes in this regard.  Failure to complete verification will result in the loss of all federal aid programs up to and including Pell Grant, Direct Student Loans, SEOG, and Federal Work Study.

 

Declining Aid

Students have the right to decline any awarded financial aid per academic year. If a student would like to decline any financial aid, they must email us at awarddecline@albright.edu. We will make the requested adjustments and send you a revised letter for your records.

Disbursement

Grants, scholarships, and loans administered by the Office of Financial Aid are first applied directly to your student account to support charges for tuition, fees, and other College charges. Financial aid awarded for a specific term can only pay for charges in that term.  Disbursements of financial aid occur weekly on Thursdays except when a Thursday falls on a holiday, a period of time when the College is closed, or when another day is better suited to the College’s academic calendar.  The Office of Financial Aid can advise you at any time regarding the day of the next financial aid disbursement.

SAP (Satisfactory Academic Process)

As a participant in the federal financial aid programs you are required to progress towards a degree in a defined way.  The Office of Financial Aid tests your progress towards a degree each June using qualitative measures (your cumulative GPA) and quantitative measures (your rate of progress: the relationship between the cumulative units you’ve attempted to complete and those units you actually completed).  Your qualitative progress is defined as academic good standing at the College, or grade attainment of 1.7 after your first year of attempted units, 1.9 after your second, and 2.0 thereafter.   Quantitative testing requires that an aid recipient complete 67% of all units attempted, year-in, year-out.   An aid recipient must display progress in both the qualitative measure and the quantitative measure.  If either test fails, the student is not making acceptable progress.  Students considered not to be making progress and who successfully appeal will be placed on financial aid probation for a period of one academic year.  To receive one year of probationary status, the student must be working through an approved academic plan designed in coordination with the Albright Academic Learning Center, or an approved Albright academic administrator.  If no plan is in place, the student will be reviewed again after one semester.  While regulations do not stipulate that multiple appeals of SAP are impossible, please note that seeing more than one approved appeal is exceptionally rare.  In these circumstances a second appeal will only approved if the Albright ALC (or approved academic administrator) is able to define a specific route to graduation for the student.

Appealing Financial Aid

You have the right to appeal your federal financial aid award based on circumstances beyond control of your family.  Some examples of valid appeal grounds include significant out-of-pocket medical and dental expenses, catastrophic financial losses associated with a designated natural disaster, death of a parent applicant, change in marital status, and employment changes.  An Albright College document Process and Procedure for Appealing Need-Based Financial Aid posts yearly on the Albright website.