Financial Aid Eligibility

The College offers federal financial aid for eligible students who are enrolled at least half-time in an online degree program. Federal aid is awarded for the cost of tuition and books.

Undergraduate, Graduate, and More

  • For undergraduate students, aid is available through both the Federal Direct Loan and Federal Pell Grant.
  • For graduate students, only the Federal Direct Loan is available.
  • Students receiving employee or other reimbursement for tuition and books may not eligible for financial aid.

General Eligibility Requirements for Financial Aid

  • Admission to a degree program (students enrolled in our certificate programs are not eligible for aid)
  • U.S. citizenship or eligible non-citizen status
  • No default on a federal student loan or refund required to a federal grant program
  • Registration with Selective Service (if required)
  • Valid Social Security number
  • High school diploma or
  • Satisfactory academic progress toward degree, i.e., you must complete 70 percent of the credits you attempt (including all transfer credits) and maintain at least a 2.0 cumulative grade point average.
  • Half-time enrollment. Please carefully review the聽enrollment requirements聽to be eligible for financial aid.
    (These requirements are also used for deferring prior student loans.)

Professional Judgement is the process of reviewing an individual student's unique circumstances and exercising the option to change the data elements normally applied through the Department of Education Federal Methodology (FM) formula on the FAFSA application that helps compute the SAI (student aid index).聽 Professional judgment changes are made when the financial aid administrator judges the standards used to determine the SAI are inappropriate for purposes of calculating eligibility for financial aid due to extenuating circumstances.聽 Normally, it comes as a result of a change in the student and/or family鈥檚 income or asset information as reported on the FAFSA.

Changes to FM are done only through individual data element changes and on an individual, case-by-case basis. Substitutions of data elements that result in a changed SAI are thoroughly documented in the student file, recomputed in and generate a valid ISIR through correction in FAA Access to CPS Online.

While maintaining the flexibility to respond to individual student circumstances, the Financial Aid Office also strives for consistency in treatment of students with similar unusual circumstances.聽 When unusual student cases arise, or students appeal award decisions, they are reviewed by the Financial Aid Director in a committee review.

Saint Joseph鈥檚 College uses Department of Education software to re-compute the SAI both for corrections to reported data and for changes resulting when professional judgment is exercised.聽 Therefore, when changes are made to a student's or parents' analysis of financial need, single data element changes resulting from receipt of corrected, updated, or enhanced information are entered and the revised family contribution is automatically recalculated.聽 The changed SAI is used for eligibility determination for all programs.聽 No payment is made on Pell Grant until a valid ISIR is received.

Potential Reasons for Exercise of Professional Judgment

All professional judgment changes apply only to data element changes and apply to all Title IV programs.

A.聽 Satisfactory Academic Progress

  • Financial Aid Specialists will be granted the use of 鈥減rofessional judgment鈥� when participating on the Financial Aid Appeal Committee. Thus, for financial aid appeals purposes, Financial Aid Specialists on Appeal Committees have the ability to 鈥渙verride鈥� the SAP status and make an SAP ineligible student鈥攅ligible for financial aid.
  • The Director of Financial Aid has the ability to 鈥渙verride鈥� the SAP status of a student鈥攂ased on the student鈥檚 appeal.

B.聽聽Change of Dependency Status

  • The ability to change the dependency status is only granted to the Director.
  • Students submitting requests to have their dependency status changed from dependent to independent are required to submit documentation that clearly indicates extenuating circumstances with the students and parental relationship.聽 Students who were raised by family members other than their parents would also be considered for a dependency over-ride.聽 Documentation must be verifiable.聽 Support letters should come from 鈥渋ndependent鈥� sources not associated with the student鈥攕uch as a counselor, teacher, medical professional, social worker, or religious leader.聽 All documentation needs to have contact information from the individual writing the letter鈥攊ncluding their address and phone number(s).

C .聽 Drop of Income and Income Adjustments

  • The ability to use professional judgment for adjustments of data elements on the ISIR is granted to the Appeals Committee, Director.
  • All income adjustments must be done on a case-by-case basis.
  • All income adjustments must be used to address special circumstances where the data elements on the ISIR鈥攂ased on income from the base year鈥攏o longer reflect the family鈥檚 (or student鈥檚) ability to contribute to the student鈥檚 education.
  • When making the adjustment, it is appropriate to take into account a changed circumstance that affects the student鈥檚 (or family鈥檚) current and near-term economic situation.聽 A loss of employment or reduction in work hours can be considered.
  • When making the adjustment, projected earnings can be used.
  • Third party documentation of changed circumstances should be used, whenever possible, to document the request for professional judgment. In addition, students (and parents) will need to submit a formal request for an assessment of special circumstances.
  • Adjustments on all 鈥渄ollar鈥� data elements that affect the SAI are allowed by law, including unemployment.聽 These adjustments, however, must be documented along with the reason for the use of professional judgment.