Classes and Aid Eligibility FAQ's

Regulations stipulate that schools can only consider classes that count toward your degree requirements when awarding you financial aid.  Classes that can be counted when determining your financial aid eligibility are those that:

• Count toward your Degree or General Education requirements
• Are required for your major
• Are required for your minor
• Fulfil your elective hours to attain a minimum of 120 credit

If you see a “No” next to one of your classes, then this class cannot be counted as part of your attempted credits when your financial aid eligibility is being determined.  

For example, if you are registered for 12 credits, with 9 having a “Yes” and 3 having a “No,” then you will be considered a 9 hour student for the purposes of developing your financial aid package.

Students must be enrolled for at least a half-time course load of financial aid eligible hours to receive financial aid.  For example, an undergraduate student needs a “Yes” by at least 6 credit hours in a term to be considered for the financial aid.  The exception is if you are eligible for a Federal Pell Grant.  In some situations, you can be enrolled for fewer than 6 hours and still receive this grant.

• A course required for your major is displaying with a “No”.
• A course required for your minor is displaying with a “No”.
• You are required to retake a course in order to raise your GPA (major, minor, or cumulative).  In this situation, it’s important to note there are other rules that also come into play regarding how many times a student can receive financial aid for taking a course.  You can learn more about those rules in Section 14: Effects of Repeating Classes of the Office of Financial Aid & Scholarship’s “Terms and Conditions of Financial Aid – Consumer Information”.
• You are required to take a course in order to replace test/transfer credit.
  

The following situations will not be considered for appeal (this is not an all-inclusive list):

• You want, or need, to be considered full-time for any reason (e.g., insurance, housing, etc.).  Remember, if you are taking at least 12 credit hours a semester, you will be considered enrolled as a full-time student, even if all 12 credits are not “Aid Eligible.”
• You want to take classes to help make you a more desirable candidate for enrollment in a future degree program (e.g., graduate school, etc.).
• You are an undergraduate student taking graduate level classes that will only apply to a future graduate program (These classes are not counting towards any of your current undergraduate requirements).
• You wish to take additional, non-required, classes for exploratory purposes and you already have earned over the minimum number of credit hours to graduate (generally 120).

Students who have a valid appeal reason should submit the Appeal Form for Class Eligibility for Financial Aid as soon as possible.