 and welcome to our parent webinar series. My name is Diana Draper. I'm the director of financial aid here at the university. Thank you for joining me today from Snowy Fairfields. We're gonna go ahead and we're gonna going to get started on the webinar today. I have an agenda for you. We'll talk about some key financial aid policies, some information that you as parents will need to know regarding our satisfactory academic progress review. Upcoming deadlines for financial aid because those are quickly approaching and the help that we provide to students and families completing those applications. And I'll just give you a little reminder of how to contact the office if you have any questions or concerns and we'll take your questions and do a Q and A at the end of the session. So let's go ahead and get started. Just some general office of financial aid policies that I want to bring to your attention. The office of financial aid communicates directly with students via university email. Nothing is sent snail mail anymore to university, outside of the university. They are, the students may receive communication in their campus box while they're here on campus, however. So that I just want to bring to your attention. I also want to bring to your attention the fact that we do communicate with students via email and sometimes in writing all summer long. So it's important as parents that you support your students by reminding them to check their university emails regularly for communications from our office. Students do apply for financial aid every year and the aid that they receive each year is for that year specifically. So we do ask for new applications on a yearly basis and we do review eligibility every year. The reviewing eligibility every year allows us to account for changes in some family circumstances that may be new to the family and that we may be able to accommodate some additional resources to support. Many families are also selected for the process called verification. And I know if I have any of you families that have been selected for verification, you understand that that's a pretty daunting task. We do collect information from you and your students, tax return transcripts. We require completion of some forms that you have to print and send into our office. So I apologize in advance if that's something that you are asked to do on a yearly basis. The selection process is pretty random. About 30% of the student population is selected by the federal government and then the university randomly selects an additional 20%. So that information, notification of that process will be done in the summer months, primarily in June after we send our financial aid awards. And that email is sent to the student as well. As a general reminder, financial aid does not process during the first and last week, the first week of every month and the last week of every month. And that is to allow us to successfully complete we have to balance our books with the federal government and we're able to do that when we're not processing financial aid. It is specific to student loans more so than any other type of financial aid, but you should be aware of that policy so that you as parents can plan for how you are paying your student accounts and how you're helping your student apply for student loans. So that is important for you to keep in mind when you're going through that process. The Office of Financial Aid is bound to manage changes of enrollment and that's based on federal regulations. Everything we kind of do is superseded by some sort of regulation that the federal government imposes on colleges and universities. And we have to administer those here at the university. And one of the changes that is often reviewed is the change in enrollment. So when a student is looking to withdraw from a course or might change their enrollment status, we ask that you have the student check in with our office so that if there's any change that will affect their eligibility, we will be able to kind of talk them through that in advance and if you have questions you can contact our office as well. One of the changes that we instituted this past year is what we call a proxy passphrase. And we have had some growing pains in the beginning of that process but we hope that most of you by now have a proxy passphrase that has been assigned to you by your student in order for you to have successful conversations with the offices of financial aid and the university bursar's office. That passphrase is a single word or a series of words that the student has assigned to you is kind of gives you permission, like a pin number would give you permission to access student records. We have done that and instituted that to further secure the privacy of the family and the students when they're contacting our office. We realize that we deal with very sensitive data. We realize that family dynamics are different. They're not all the same and we want to ensure that information that is being sent out of our office and information that we're giving out to our families is appropriate and accurate. So we appreciate you working through that with us. For the family who is unsure whether they have a passphrase, please know that your student can check that through the university portal. They're my.fairfield portal. And if you don't, if you have any questions you can also contact either the office of financial aid or the university bursar to assist you with that. Student accounts that are not made whole by now for the spring semester have been placed on hold and they have registration blocks for the upcoming semester. So I just as a courtesy to the bursar's office wanted to point that out and check that out that that is something that they do when a student account is in arrears. If you have any questions regarding student accounts that those questions should be directed to the bursar's office. One of the federal regulations that we are required to administer and to monitor is the student's successful completion towards their degree. And that process is what we call satisfactory academic progress. I want to spend a few minutes talking to you about that because that's typically not something that you're familiar with. It's also not something that for our first year parents here at Fairfield or when you were going to your high school presentations on financial aid it's typically not something that's highlighted but it's something that impacts students and we just want to spend a few minutes kind of going over that with you. So the university is required to monitor grades and monitor the student's completion towards their degree. Fairfield University's awards financial university financial aid for eight consecutive semesters of full-time enrollment and the clock that we count it starts ticking once the student begins enrollment and it doesn't stop. So when your student began here that was their first semester that we counted towards their degree completion. For transfer students we do look at the number of credits that semesters they spent at other institutions and we prorate that semester clock. The measurement that we actually do is qualitative and quantitative under federal regulations and for students who take transfer credits and enroll during the summer we do have to include that those credits taken in the count towards this review. So that's the general policy but then we have to talk about the fact that we have different types of aid that we administer to students. We have merit financial aid we have university need-based financial aid and federal financial aid. University merit aid has a separate policy from the federal and the need-based financial aid SAP policy. So there are two types of ways that a student will be monitored and there are two types of aid that they can actually have affected by their grades. In addition to that the universities has a separate distinct academic policy governing academic probation and academic dismissal which doesn't quite align with this policy because this policy is based on federal regulations. If the student fails to meet satisfactory academic progress cumulative GPA standards and the GPA standards lengthen their time towards degree completion the students may not be eligible for financial aid during those extra or additional semesters of enrollment here and that's something that they can always come to our office and sit with either myself or one of our assistant directors who would go through that with them. So the merit satisfactory academic policy progress policy is based on the type of award. We have various university scholarships and each scholarship has its own criteria and that information on that criteria was sent to the student as part of their admission packet. It's also online so if you have any questions or if you need a reminder please see our website for that information. But the GPAs that a student must maintain varies each year by each different type of scholarship. The federal government and the need-based financial aid that we administer here also has kind of a varying policy based on the student's level like what grade level they are. So from first to second year we're the expectation as the cumulative GPA at the end of that second semester and that second year is a 1.9. The second to third year is also a 1.9 and third to fourth year is a 2.0. So we are looking at the grades not until the end of the spring semester and then we're expecting the end of the spring semester grade to align with those GPAs and if they're not then we work through the process of the appeal with the student. In addition to that we measure pace of enrollment. So the student is expected to complete 67% of the courses they enroll in towards every semester and when they repeat a course we do look at that as counting towards their pace of enrollment. All the GPAs that we measure are cumulative GPAs and not semester GPAs. So for in particular that first year student who's coming upon the end of their first year if they didn't have the GPA for their merit scholarship at the end of the fall semester there was no impact on their financial aid but we will look at the cumulative effect at the end of the spring semester and then we will begin notifying students of their eligibility. So there is a quite a robust review process that is done by the office and then there is a robust notification process that is done. So once grades are reviewed at the end of the spring semester which doesn't typically happen until a few days after the graduation that third week or so in May we will begin notifying students approximately the beginning of June that they've lost their eligibility because they're no longer making satisfactory academic progress. The student will be notified via email. They will also receive a copy of the letter in the mail as well. It's not certified but it is mailed to them and in there it will outlined what they need to do in terms of appealing the decision for loss of financial aid. There is a deadline for appeals and the deadline is around July one to July 15th every year. It depends on when the actual initial notification is sent out. And that appeals is required to be submitted to our office by the stated deadline. We do not accept late appeals for this process. When a student is sent a letter notifying them they will also receive an approximately two weeks after that initial letter a reminder that they have to appeal. And then a week before the deadline they the parents will receive a general email in addition to the student notifying them that we're still waiting on the review, the appeal to be sent in. So the parents will be notified at the third notice with a generic email saying we are trying to contact your student. Please have them contact the office of financial aid. Because we don't have, we're unable to access the student FERPA releases regarding academics. We don't release the actual GPA status to the parents. That is something that we will refer you to your child for. But we will at least notify you that we're trying to contact the students so that we have your support in completing the review. Students are required to complete their financial aid applications for the upcoming school year, which is 2018, 2019, no later than April 15th, 2018. So that's only a couple of weeks away. We did send our first reminder email that the deadline was approaching. I think it was about a week or two weeks ago. That email went to all students on campus and it went to parents as well. And the notice that we sent to students, we reminded them that some of the parent emails that we have on file are not valid and they were sent back undeliverable. So we reminded the students to check in with their parents. While we do believe in the office of financial aid that the student is ultimately responsible for completing their financial aid applications, we recognize the fact that the data that they need to complete those applications comes from you, the parent, and that you, the parent, sign the applications and are supporting your students' educational endeavors by helping them with their tuition expenses. So we do try to reach out to parents, but that email address is not kept as current all the time. So it would be really helpful every year that you reapply for financial aid, that you double check the parent email address because that's what we use to contact you. And we do just ask that you, if you have any questions or need any help with these applications that you come see us. We require both applications. The FAFSA is required for students who are interested or need federal financial aid and that includes federal loans. For students who wish to apply for university need-based financial aid, they are required to complete both the CSS profile and the FAFSA. So we require both applications to be submitted to the students to the school by April 15th, 2018. And there are no exceptions to that deadline. Need-based financial aid is offered on a first-come, first-served basis, so you do want to ensure that you meet that deadline. As the applications are received, the student's portal is updated with the receipt dates of those applications. So they can see that in their portal as well. And just a note on completing the financial aid applications. It's been several years now, but the law was changed in October of 2015 to determine that the FAFSA and the financial aid application data will be based on what we call prior prior year tax data. So that, what that means to you as parents is that your 2018, 2019 FAFSA and CSS profile will use the completed 2016 tax information. So I'll let you take a minute to wrap your head around that because that can be confusing. But remember, you have the tax data completed in order to do next year's applications. And for our seasoned families, you realize that this is so much easier than what you've had to do in the past where you had to wait until you filed the prior year taxes. So if you have any questions or you need any help in that regard, regarding the applications, please let us know. We do provide support to our families here on campus. Specifically the weeks before and after spring break and Easter break. We encourage you to send your students in with the tax information. We're more than happy to help them complete their applications here on campus. They can also, we have an on-call counselor every day that can help them complete their applications. I have a grant assistant in the office who will help with applications and anytime by appointment. So we are there to support you through this process and recognize that you may be in one place and your student may be in another. And we're more than happy to help facilitate the completion of the applications. If there's any reason to contact us, our office is located in the Kelly Center. Our regular office hours are 8.30 through 4.30, Monday through Friday. There's our phone number, our fax number, our email. When faxing in documents to our office, please double check, have your student check the portal approximately 24 to 48 hours after sending those. In some instances, we have the fax and the email won't allow for large document sizes to be received by our system. So we just need you to just pay attention to that. We don't always get an undeliverable or a notice that the student is trying to send us a large document. You can find us on Facebook. We also post scholarships on a regular basis. Scholarships through outside organizations are fine there. Reminders are found there as well. And then our website has robust information for you if you need any information in addition to what we've shared today. So I am done with today's presentation. I'm happy to take any questions if there are any from you all. Sure, so we have three questions. The first one, is there an average amount of aid that students who are receiving aid earn? Yeah, so we never have an average number of financial aid because financial aid is need-based. I can share that approximately 90% of our students receive some sort of financial assistance. And because need is subjective, the value that a student receives is wide. And we meet approximately 80% of demonstrated financial need. So that's just some statistics that we can kind of hone in on. Is it possible for a student to turn down their financial aid and for that aid to go to another student? So that's a great question. When a student declines financial aid, is it re-awarded to someone else? We have a set, as you can imagine, just like anything else, we have a set budgeted amount of financial assistance that we know that we can provide to students. And we have the expectation that we're, we've come up with a formula that allows us to maximize the amount of financial aid that we're allowed and we're able to provide in the best way possible to each of our students who demonstrate financial need. So it does go more or less back in the pot, but it doesn't necessarily mean that we always have the availability of funding to re-award that. In some instances, we understand that we're working with a number and we know not everyone is going to take the financial aid. So we're spending every dollar we possibly have been abudgeted by and allowed by the university to the neediest, you know, based on our demonstrated financial need. And then the last one, if my student applies for and receives a scholarship from your website, does that reduce their financial aid moving forward? So I'm not, there's a couple of ways that we have to, we kind of compartmentalize scholarships. Scholarships that we provide from the university are considered part of available financial aid. So it's, it does count as a resource. So if a student is given a merit scholarship, it is applied towards meeting their need. If the student is given an endowment, from an endowed scholarship from the university, it does count as a resource. So it could reduce what they had been receiving in the past in financial aid, but it doesn't reduce it in the effect that you still could, you're still going to receive your maximum eligibility. It's kind of, you know, supplanting that general university scholarship that we had been providing you in the past. If that answers the question, I hope. Great, those are all the questions we had. Good, well, if there are any other questions, you have our contact information, the office does, you know, look to respond to inquiries, whether they're by phone or email within 24 to 48 hours. If you have any questions, you're certainly welcome to walk in and make an appointment with your dedicated financial aid counselor or our on-call counselor on a daily basis. For those of you who are in the local area being affected by today's storm, please travel safely, back to your residences, and or hopefully you're home safe and snug, snug as a bug in a rug, as I would tell my children. And we look forward to helping you this year and all the years that your kids are at Fairfield. Thank you.