 Financial aid is a big part of the college experience at any university. Elizabeth City State is no different with roughly 90% of the students receiving some sort of financial assistance. Future students and their parents should know that members of the financial aid staff are here to help them every step of the way. A lot of times we might ask them questions that might feel invasive to them, but we really are trying to do the best to assist them. So we are here to help complete the FAFSA application with them if we are asking for additional documents, but most notably the documents that we likely ask for are tax information and additional institutional documents that would help further our cause with knowing what their financial picture is like. But we are definitely here to assist. Our staff is ready and armed to take any type of questions or concerns that they have. The starting point for financial aid is filling out the Free Application for Federal Student Aid, or FAFSA. It's recommended to complete the application no later than March 1st of each year. That is one of the sole things that our financial aid office will use for a financial aid award decision being made. So we work to get the information out there and manage students to be important of completing their FAFSA on time and definitely make sure they stay in contact with our financial aid office on campus. As well as encouraging to look for outside scholarships that are available in our local communities. A single application doesn't always tell your complete story. That's why the financial aid office is always open to assist. There are many students that have extenuating circumstances that cannot be reflected on the FAFSA application and in those scenarios we want them to come in to talk with us, to give us a call to let us know those special circumstances so that we can further assist them to be able to assist with financing their educational costs. Several types of aid are available for students including scholarships, grants, loans and work study programs. Once on campus, students have to maintain their end of the agreement. Students must maintain at least a 2.0 GPA. If we do award a student based on full-time eligibility which is taking 12 hours or more, we expect that those students have to complete the 12 hours each semester. If students aren't able to complete that, then they do fall into a situation where their financial aid eligibility might be in jeopardy. The reward? A quality and affordable education. Every year since U.S. News & Reports has had its rankings on colleges, we've moved up the ladder so that in 2013 we were number one in one of the categories. For two years in a row, we have been number one in one of Washington Monthly's rankings of colleges and universities. We have one of the lowest student-teacher ratios in the system. It is also the most affordable school in the system. You can get a good quality education here for little no-cost and leave here without the sort of college debt that we see at many other institutions. No matter where you are on your path to graduation, the financial aid office is here for you. We do see students quite frequently throughout the course of the year. Definitely at the beginning of each semester as students are trying to get clear to attend classes, we do see them more frequently, but our staff, we see students one-on-one throughout the day, all day, several times a day if they do have questions, so we encourage that. We want them to come in so they don't feel confused or anything and they really know where they stand, but it is important for them to reach out to us for that assistance.