How to get information about your financial aid

In this article, you'll learn how to get information about your financial aid, including:

• What information is available on your Profile
• How to work with your financial aid application
• How to ask questions about your financial aid
• How to accept or reject the aid awards you've been offered

Profile > Financial > Financial Aid

The financial aid view shows you your aid application details and your awards for a given aid year.

• This screen will only display information if you have an aid application for the year shown in the selector.
• The summary shows the basic financial numbers at play in your application:
  • Cost of Attendance (COA) is determined by the school. It is an approximate figure that includes the cost of tuition, fees, books, and other items related to your attending the school for that Academic Year.
  • Expected Family Contribution (EFC) is gleaned from information you provide (often via the FAFSA). It is an approximate figure of how much you and/or your family will contribute towards the COA.
  • Financial Need is the difference between the COA and your EFC.
  • Grants/Loans Accepted indicates the total amount of each type of financial aid you have accepted.
  • Remaining Need is the difference, if any, between your financial need and accepted grants and/or loans.

Components and Files

Your school uses aid application components to ask for information about your financial need.

• To see what you need to do for a given component, click view instructions.
• If the component asks you to upload files, you can do so in the Files panel in the right column of the application.
• Your aid officer will be notified by email when you upload files.
• Once you've uploaded files, click the filename to view what you've submitted (or to view files your aid officer has uploaded).

Questions

Questions let you correspond with the Financial Aid officer in charge of your application. Either you or the Aid officer can start a question. You can carry on the correspondence right from your aid application or over email.

• Either you or your aid officer can start a question.
• You can conduct the conversation by clicking the question and adding comments on the question page.
• You can also use email: When you receive a notification about the question, just reply to the email above the response line.

Grants and Loans

At some point during the application process (usually after your application has been accepted), you'll be offered financial aid awards. As they're offered, you'll receive an email from Populi Notifications. If your school has given you the option, you can accept or decline awards right from Populi.

1. Find the award in the list and review the details—amounts, disbursement schedule, and so on.
2. If you click Decline award, you'll be asked to confirm your choice. (If need be, your school can offer this award to you again, but generally speaking, your decision will stand.)
3. To accept a grant or scholarship, click Accept award and confirm your choice.
4. With loans, you'll have the option to accept the full amount or accept a partial amount. If you accept a partial amount, enter the amount you'd like to borrow in the dialog.

Authorizations

Authorizations let you permit your school to use your Federal financial aid in certain ways:

• Federal law allows your school to automatically use Federal financial aid (Pell Grants, Direct Loans, and others) to pay for your tuition, fees, and on-campus room & board. If you incur other charges outside of these categories, your school may automatically use Federal aid to pay them only with your authorization.
• Federal Work Study (FWS) normally requires your school to pay you by check for hours worked. If you would rather your FWS pay be applied directly to your student account in Populi (and so pay down your eligible charges), you can authorize the school to do so.

You'll only see the appropriate authorization options if you've been offered Federal financial aid or a FWS award. To authorize the school to use your aid, click the name of the authorization, review the language in the dialog, and check Yes.