This video is intended to help prospective students review their Preliminary Aid Offer. This guide will focus on the first page of the offer, and highlight some areas that students and parents often ask questions about. The Preliminary Aid Offer s purpose is to break down certain costs of attending JMU and explaining your options for paying those costs. Prospective students will be notified of this offer through the email address used on their admissions application. Once available the Preliminary Aid offer can be accessed through their Applicant center on MyMadison.
I want to start out by saying that the Cost of Attendance is not a bill for a student. It is an estimate of billable and non-billable costs, broken down between the items below, that may need to be paid while attending JMU over the academic year. These numbers are based on this current year and may change for next year.
All students are billed for tuition and fees. This offer makes the assumption that the student will be full time (12+ credits) for the academic year. It is important to note that there may be other fees not listed here, such as lab fees or course differentials that may be added to the bill depending on the courses taken by the student.
Now let's talk Housing and Meals. Housing and meals is the average cost for living in a dorm on campus with a standard meal plan. Both of these items are billable expenses. Any students living on campus are required to purchase a meal plan.
Students that live off-campus will have the same estimates for this section, however, their actual bill with JMU may be lower depending on their personal choices. Any student living off-campus does not have any housing billed to them by JMU, yet they are able to use financial aid to pay for their apartment, commuter meal plan, and food they may purchase outside of JMU. If a student living off-campus would like to purchase a commuter meal plan they would need to do so through Card Services and the cost could be added to their semester bill with JMU.
For students living at home or with family, if they would also like to purchase a commuter meal plan for when they are on campus, they are able to do so with card services and the cost could be added to their semester bill.
Moving to Books and Supplies, this is just an average cost for students, not specifically what you are expected to pay. This number will not show up on a bill from JMU, but a student will need to purchase these items themselves. Students should purchase or rent their books before each semester.
Transportation and other educational costs are built into every students Cost of Attendance. These are not billable charges. This part of the Cost of Attendance estimates the cost for things needed like having a car on campus, any kind of tickets for buses or planes, as well as, toiletries and other miscellaneous items needed throughout the year. Again, you will not have a bill for these items from JMU directly, but they may be necessary outside purchases. These costs will vary by student.
Grants and Scholarships are free assistance from the federal, state, university, or outside means. This section includes any merit based JMU scholarships offered at the time the Preliminary Aid Offer is issued to a student.
Other scholarships are outside scholarships that you apply for on your own. These will only be listed here if you reported the amount to our financial aid office through the Supplemental Scholarships form.
To break down the grants section, a Pell Grant is a federal grant offered to lower income students whether in-state or out of state. Your FAFSA is used to determine the amount of Pell Grant offered. A Pell Grant should be the same between all schools a student applies to since the federal government determines the offered amounts.
State grants include VGAP (Virginia Guaranteed Assistance Program) or Commonwealth Award. These grants are for in-state students that filed their FAFSA by the March 1st priority filing date. JMU uses the FAFSA's Student Aid Index, or SAI, to determine your state grant eligibility. Your SAI is calculated by the Department of Education when they receive your FAFSA. State grants can vary between schools depending upon the amount of funding they receive from the state. Each school has the right to use their state grant funding how they see fit and no two schools will have the same state grant amount offered to your student.
I would like to start this next section by saying that this form is a standardized form prepared by the government and this section of it can sometimes be misleading. The Net Cost is a technical term that amounts to the total Cost of Attendance minus any grant or scholarship assistance. This number is not your remaining bill and does not include any loan options chosen to help pay.
To add up your true net cost, add up your tuition and fees and your housing and meals, subtract any free assistance in the grants and scholarships section, and this would be your net cost you or your student would need to pay.
If you have an amount for federal-work study listed on your preliminary aid offer, a student can apply for a federal work-study position on campus by going to the JMU website under the JMU jobs section. Work-study is not deducted from your JMU bill. The student would receive a paycheck, like they would if they were working at home, that would help offset any personal needs.
Please keep in mind though, that all students have the opportunity to work through institutional employment. JMU actually offers a larger number of institutional employment positions than they do federal work study positions. These positions can be found under the JMU jobs section.
So, moving on to Loans, this section details the student s Federal Direct loan amounts they are able to borrow. Loan amounts are based on the total number of credit hours at the time of awarding. Incoming freshmen are offered up to $5,500 for the academic year, with that amount increasing to $6,500 as a sophomore and $7,500 as a Junior and Senior. The loan total is split between two loan types: subsidized, or unsubsidized. For subsidized loans, the government will pay the interest while the student is in school. While for unsubsidized loans, interest is accruing. All loans are 10-year loans. The loan will go into repayment 6 months after the student graduates or drops below half time (6 credits).
This section details other means of paying for a student s education and includes institutional payment plans, 529 college saving plans, and Parent PLUS loans. Parent Plus Loans are federal direct loans that parents can use to assist with the cost of student s attendance. These are also considered 10-year loans for repayment purposes.
And that s it, we made it through the first page. Remember, every university aid offer may look different. When comparing schools, it s important to pick out your billable charges and subtract any free assistance to find the more accurate out of pocket cost. Also, please remember you need to file a FAFSA every year starting October 1st. Hopefully this video has helped answer your questions about the Preliminary Aid Offer, but if you have further questions please contact our office.
