Financial Aid Frequently Asked Questions
- How do I get financial aid?
- How long will it take to receive my financial aid?
- Will I get my money before school starts?
- Do I need to file my taxes before I apply for aid?
- My parents make too much money. Is it worth filling out the form?
- My parents aren’t helping me at all with school. How can I file as an independent student?
- My parents are divorced. Who should fill out the form?
- What does it mean if my file has been selected for verification?
- What do I do if something changes after I file?
- How do you decide what aid I will get?
- I think that I am going to get a scholarship. Will that affect my aid?
- I can only attend part-time. Can I still get financial aid?
- I want to find a job to help pay for my education. Can you help me?
- If I enroll as a special/non-degree student can I still get financial aid?
- How will my Veteran’s benefits affect my aid?
- I want to attend school for winterin and summer. Will I still get aid?
- How do I submit an appeal to the Office of Student Financial Aid?
- How do I get financial aid?
- How long will it take to receive my financial aid?
- Will I get my money before school starts?
- Do I need to file my taxes before I apply for aid?
- My parents make too much money. Is it worth filling out the FAFSA?
- My parents aren’t helping me at all with school. How can I file as an independent student?
- I'm dependent and my parents are divorced. Whose information goes in the parent section of the FAFSA form?
- What does it mean if my file has been selected for verification?
- What do I do if something changes after I file my FAFSA?
- How do you decide what aid I will get?
- I think that I am going to get a scholarship. Will that affect my aid?
- I can only attend UW-Parkside part-time. Can I still get financial aid?
- I want to find a job to help pay for my education. Can you help me?
- If I enroll as a special/non-degree student can I still get financial aid?
- How will my Veterans benefits affect my aid?
- I want to attend school for winterim and summer. Will I still get aid?
- Submitting an Appeal to the Office of Student Financial Aid
The appeal forms discussed here are available at the Financial Aid Office or in the Printable Forms section of our Financial Aid home page. While we cannot guarantee that the appeal you submit will be approved, providing a detailed appeal that clearly addresses the issue(s) relating to your situation can make an effective case for approving your appeal. So, please take time when preparing your appeal. The following guidelines have been written to help you.
Satisfactory Academic Progress (SAP) Appeals
If you are ineligible for financial aid because your academic progress was unsatisfactory, you may submit an “SAP Appeal Form” asking to have your financial aid reinstated. Be sure to:
1. Explain in detail why you didn’t meet satisfactory academic progress standards.
2. Describe the steps you have taken and are taking to ensure you will be making satisfactory academic progress in the future.
Fixed Enrollment/Census Date Appeals
For financial aid purposes, your enrollment (number of credits) at the end of each semester’s 100% refund period determines your aid amounts for that semester. If your aid was reduced due to your enrollment status at that time, and you have since added credits, you may appeal to receive aid based on the additional credits. Submit an “Appeal Form” to the Financial Aid office clearly explaining why you have more credits now than you did as of the 100% refund (fixed enrollment) date. Additional aid will be considered in the following cases:
1. You were on a “wait list” as of the fixed enrollment date and have since been added to the class. (This scenario typically shows a student as less than full-time until the “wait list” class has been added.) To appeal, you must provide a full explanation of the situation, the class(es) involved and the day the class(es) was added.
2. You added a mod class (often an 8 week course) that started after the fixed enrollment date. To appeal, you must provide a full explanation of the situation, the class(es) involved and the day the class(es) was added.Special Circumstances Appeals
You may submit a “Request for Special Circumstances” form for significant changes to information reported on your FAFSA (most often these are income reductions). You must have a current FAFSA on file at UW-Parkside before submitting a Special Circumstances form.These circumstances may qualify you for a re-evaluation of financial aid:
1. Your current projected total income is significantly lower than the actual income reported on your FAFSA and has been lower for at least six months.
2. Uncovered medical/dental expenses paid in the previous year exceeded 11% of adjusted gross income.
3. Unreimbursed primary/secondary tuition expenses for student’s siblings and/or unreimbursed college tuition expenses for parents.
4. Change in family size due to death, marital separation or divorce
5. Loss of child support or social security benefits.
6. Other extraordinary circumstances in the current year not mentioned above that have significantly altered family income or family size in a negative way.It is critical that you are as accurate as possible when projecting income information. Inaccurate projections that result in more aid dollars than should have been awarded will result in the denial of future Special Circumstances appeals.
To apply for financial aid, you must fill out a Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA). Online forms are available at: http://fafsa.ed.gov/ Before begining the FAFSA, you should apply for a Federal Student Aid Personal Identification Number (PIN).* The PIN will allow you to sign your FAFSA electronically and later to access your processed FAFSA online. If you are providing parent information on the FAFSA, one of your parents must also apply for a PIN and electronically sign your FAFSA.
You should complete the FAFSA** application between January 1st and March 15th each year to receive
maximum aid consideration for the following fall semester. The application will ask for your (and
your parents, if you are a dependent student) income and asset information.
It’s a good idea to review the form and gather up all of the information
you need before you start entering the data online. (A pre-application worksheet is available to help you.) Be sure to answer all
questions. List all of the schools you want to receive the information
so they may review your file and offer you an aid package. The UW-Parkside
school code is 005015. If you have any questions about what the form is
asking, be sure to contact the Federal Processing Center at 1-800-4FED AID or the UW-Parkside Financial Aid Office at 262-595-2574. Always respond to requests
for information to avoid any delays in processing your financial aid.
*The U.S. Department of Education issues PINs to FAFSA filers to allow students greater access to the department’s systems. Your PIN can be used as an electronic signature when signing your FAFSA on the web or correcting your Student Aid Report via the web. It allows you access to the Renewal FAFSA on the web, as well as your records on the National Student Loan Data System, and can be used to electronically sign your Master Promissory Note for federal loans.
**After the first year of completing a FAFSA, you may submit a Renewal Application. You are asked to update key data elements for each year you wish to apply for aid. Complete your renewal between January 1st and March 15th each year to receive maximum consideration for aid.
If you file your FAFSA electronically, the federal processing center will e-mail a Student Aid Report (SAR) to you within three weeks of the date you filed. If you submit a paper application, your SAR will be mailed to you within five weeks. The UW-Parkside Student Financial Aid Office will receive an electronic version of your information. If no additional information is required, your award notification will be posted on UW-Parkside's Student On-Line Access to the Ranger System (SOLAR) web page within a few weeks. Our office will email instructions to you on how to view and accept your award.
If we require additional information before we can award your financial aid- a process called verification- we will email a request to you. Respond immediately to avoid any delays in receiving your aid offer. Within three weeks of our review of your application, you should receive an award notification via email. We anticipate posting our first award notifications by early April for the summer and fall terms.
The earliest Financial Aid can be released to the Parkside Cashier's Office is 10 days prior to the first day of classes*. Once your tuition and fees have been paid, excess financial aid will be refunded to you. You may choose how to receive your refund when you activate your Parkside Ranger Card.
* Several conditions must be met to ensure a refund. You must be registered at least half-time for most financial aid to disburse; have accepted enough financial aid to cover your balance with the University and still have enough money left over; return any student loan peromissory notes and any other applicable forms; and complete loan counseling, if required.
It is in your best interest to complete your taxes before you complete your FAFSA. If you complete your FAFSA using estimated income information, we may need to collect a copy of the actual tax return(s) before processing your aid. However, if you anticipate a problem completing your tax return by the March 15th priority processing date, we suggest that you submit the FAFSA using estimated information. Remember that completing your tax return early does not mean that you must mail it to the IRS early.
Our office always recommends that you fill out a FAFSA which will allow us to determine your eligibility for aid. It is difficult to determine from income level alone what financial aid you will be eligible for. There are many other factors, such as size of household and number in college, which are taken into consideration in determining your eligibility. The FAFSA is free and takes a short amount of time to complete. Furthermore, every student qualifies for some form of financial aid, but you must file the FAFSA to be evaluated.
The way you respond to the questions on the FAFSA in regard to dependency status will determine whether you are considered dependent or independent for financial aid purposes. If the application determines you are a dependent student, your parents must provide their information on the FAFSA in addition to yours, or you will not be able to receive federally funded student financial aid.
There are rare occasions when family circumstances are such that a dependent student may be considered for independent status based on supporting documentation. If you think you may qualify for dependency override, please contact our office and discuss the situation with a financial aid counselor.
If your parents have divorced or separated, information from the parent you lived with during the past 12 months should be entered in the parent portion of the FAFSA. If you did not live with one parent more than the other, give answers about the parent who provided more financial support during the last 12 months, or during the most recent year that you actually received support from a parent. Remember, if the parent whose information you are reporting has remarried, you must include the income and asset information of the stepparent. The FAFSA is developed to help determine your family’s ability to contribute to your education and needs to accurately reflect your current family situation.
Each year the U.S. Department of Education selects approximately 30% of all FAFSA filers for a process known as verification to verify the accuracy of information that has been submitted on the FAFSA application. This process requires our office to request additional information from you before determining the amount of financial aid you may receive.
If something changes after you submit the FAFSA, you should contact our office to discuss what circumstances have changed. For some situations, such as a loss of income compared with the income you used to complete your FAFSA, we can reevaluate your financial aid. Some changes will make no difference to your aid eligibility, and still other changes are not allowed. You should meet with a Financial Aid Advisor to discuss your individual situation and determine the correct course of action.
The first step in calculating your aid is to determine your "need" for financial aid. We start by assigning an estimated cost of attendance that includes your tuition and fees, an allowance for room and meals, transportation, books and supplies, and personal miscellaneous expenses. From this total cost of attendance, we deduct the amount that you and/or your family are expected to contribute toward your educational costs. This figure is provided to us after you complete the FAFSA and is called the EFC (Estimated Family Contribution). Once we have determined your need, we can begin to review your eligibility. We review grant eligibility first; then, if you have indicated an interest, your eligibility for work- study, followed by loan eligibility. Each program is governed by its own set of eligibility criteria, and many programs have a limited amount of funds available. You should complete your FAFSA early each year to assure maximum consideration for available funds.
If you receive a scholarship, whether it is from the college or from a private source, you should notify the Financial Aid Office. We are required to review your aid package to make sure that you are not receiving more aid than your total cost of attendance. In many cases we are able to include your scholarship without adjusting any of your other aid. Sometimes we have to reduce or replace another form of aid. In that case, we always attempt to reduce or replace any loans that you might have been offered since loans must be repaid in the future. We encourage you to explore scholarship opportunities as an important and valuable means to help finance your college education.
In order to be eligible for most financial aid, you must be registered at least half-time (6 credits undergraduate, 4 credits graduate) each semester. Your initial financial aid award will be based on the assumption that you will register full-time. The initial aid offer may have to be reduced if you register for less than full-time. If you are eligible for a Pell Grant, you may be eligible for a small portion of that grant even if you enroll less than half-time.
The best place to begin your search for a student job is the UW-Parkside Career Center. The types of jobs available on campus (and on some off-campus sites) are regular student employment and a federal financial aid program called Federal Work-Study (FWS). The Federal Work-Study Program is based on financial need and is part of the financial aid award. For either program, you must work to earn the funds. The FWS program benefits both the student and the employing department. If federal work-study is not included as part of your financial aid package, you may contact our office to see if you are eligible and if funds are available.
If your enrollment falls into one of the following two categories, you may
be eligible for aid as a post-baccalaureate or special/non-degree student: 1) you are enrolled at least half-time
in an approved UWP certification program or Teachers Certification; or 2)
you are enrolled for at least 6 credits (undergraduate, half-time) in prerequisite
courses in order to be eligible to apply for admission into a degree or
certificate program at UWP. You need to obtain a Prior Degree/Verify Enrollment
Form from our website or office and have the form signed by your academic advisor to verify your enrollment plans.
Veterans benefits are required by the federal government to be considered a resource in the financial aid package, and need to be taken into consideration when other forms of aid are received. Your cost of attendance, less your EFC (student and/or family’s ability to pay), equals your financial need. Generally, your veterans benefits plus any aid offered, including grants, work- study and loans, may not exceed your financial need. If you receive Chapter 30 benefits, it is possible to receive some aid in excess of your demonstrated need.
Financial aid awards are based on two semesters of enrollment- fall and spring. Aid for winterim and/or summer classes is limited to any remaining aid eligibility as well as fund availability. To receive consideration for winterim loans and Study Abroad Grants, you must complete the Winterim Aid Application available from the financial aid office. If you are applying for summer loans, Federal Work-Study or Pell Grants, you must complete the Summer Aid Application.
