Financial Aid 101 How Do I Qualify?

Financial Aid

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How do I know if I qualify?
You will receive an electronic or printed response for each financial aid application you file. Based on the instructions contained in the responses, you may have to meet certain requirements before the Financial Aid Office knows if you qualify.

Read the following information carefully to learn the types of responses you will receive and what you may have to do so that we can finalize your eligibility. Following up on your applications is an important part of your responsibilities as a financial aid applicant.

	Look for your Student Aid Report and TAP Award Notice
If you provided an email address on your FAFSA, you will receive an electronic response called a Student Aid Report (or SAR) in 3-5 days after you submit your FAFSA.

If you did not provide a valid e-mail address on your electronic or paper FAFSA, or did not use a PIN to sign, you will receive a paper SAR from the Federal Processor in 3 to 4 weeks.

If there are errors or your information is incomplete, your SAR will indicate what you must do to resolve the error.

You will receive an TAP award notification by email 4-6 weeks after filing TAP on the Web. The Higher Education Services Corporation will contact you if they require additional information to process your TAP application.
	Check your Application Status
Use your Federal PIN at any time to check the status of your FAFSA or print a Student Aid Report at FAFSA on the Web. After filing the TAP application, you may check your application or award status at TAP on the Web by using your HESC user name and PIN.
	Respond Promptly to Requests for Information
Your SAR reports everything you wrote on your original application and gives you additional instructions about what you must do to get federal student aid. If you included BMCC as one of your college choices, we will receive this information electronically about the same time your SAR is e-mailed (or mailed) to you.

The Financial Aid Office will review your SAR information, and if additional information is required, will send you a notice with instructions on what you must do next. These notices are sent to you by email and regular mail. Make sure you respond promptly to these requests for additional information. Most delays in processing come from delayed responses.
	Review your Application and Award Status on PANTHER

After your acceptance to the college, review your application status on the PANTHER student information system. Any remaining problems with your application will be listed along with what you must do to resolve them. After you are awarded aid, PANTHER will list the awards and show the amounts the Bursar will be using to pay your tuition.

	My SAR indicates that my application has been selected for "Verification". What is that?
The federal government uses a process called verification to help determine the correctness of the financial information on your FAFSA. When applications are selected by the processor for verification, the Financial Aid Office must collect certain documents from you and your family and match them against the information you provided on your FAFSA. If your application needs to be verified, there will be an asterisk (*) to the right of the EFC and written comments on the SAR indicating what actions you need to take to complete the verification process.

If your application is selected for verification, the Financial Aid Office will send you a letter and an e-mail asking you to provide documentation of your SAR information and complete a "Verification Worksheet". You will have to submit the requested items of documentation before you receive any payments of federal student aid.


If you or your parents did not use the IRS Data Retrieval Tool when completing your FAFSA, you may have to submit your income tax information to the Financial Aid Office. We can no longer accept copies of the tax returns that you or your tax preparer completed. You will need to document your income tax information with an IRS tax transcript. IRS tax transcripts are free and may be requested online, by phone or regular mail. Learn how to get your IRS tax transcript here.

Your information will be reviewed by financial aid personnel who will check your application for errors and, if necessary, make corrections to your forms. Reprocessing is usually accomplished electronically and takes about 10-14 business days. Once you have submitted information to the Financial Aid Office, make no further changes to your application record on your own, even if it is just to change your address, unless you speak with a financial aid representative first.


Although the federal processor selects applications for verification more or less at random, our office may choose to verify your application even if there is no asterisk next to the EFC. The U.S. Department of Education gives us the authority to collect any document we judge to be necessary to prove that your financial aid application was completed accurately and completely. In cases of actual or suspected fraud, we are required to refer the matter to the US Department of Education's Office of the Inspector General.
	Print and retain a copy of your SAR
Although you are not required to submit your SAR to the Financial Aid Office, you should always have a printed SAR in your records. There are certain instances when you should bring your SAR to the college:
You did not indicate BMCC as one of your school choices on your original FAFSA. In this instance, your SAR will contain a Data Release Number (or DRN) that our office will need to access your application information electronically. You wish to make corrections or changes to the information on your SAR. A financial aid counselor can go over the SAR with you, and, should corrections be necessary, submit those corrections electronically. You will receive a new SAR confirming that all the corrections have been made. You have unusual circumstances or a change in your economic situation that you want the Office of Financial Aid to know about. You have a bill payment deadline but your award status hasn't been finalized. The Bursar may be able to use the SAR information to make an award estimate for registration purposes.
	Pay attention to processing deadlines
To receive a federal aid payment for any term, your FAFSA must be received and processed by the Federal Processor while you are still enrolled, or by June 30 of the award year, whichever comes earlier. Your application record must have an official EFC by your last day of enrollment and the Office of Financial Aid must certify that your application information is valid and correct by that date. Any student loan must have been submitted to the U.S. Dept. of Education for processing. If your application record was selected for verification, the deadline for submitting the required verification documents is extended for 120 days after your last day of enrollment, or by the 2nd week in September of the award year, whichever comes earlier.

When do I receive the money?