What Happens After Applying for Financial Aid
Receive Student Aid Report
After the student submits the FAFSA, the federal processing center will produce a Student Aid Report (SAR). The SAR will report the information listed by the student and parents or spouse on the FAFSA. The SAR also provides an EFC (Expected Family Contribution) used by the Financial Aid Office to determine financial aid eligibility. A copy of the SAR will be sent to the student and to each school listed on the FAFSA. It will take approximately two to six weeks from the date of mailing the FAFSA or completing FAFSA on the Web for a SAR to be mailed back to the student. If a SAR is not received within four weeks from the time the FAFSA is mailed, or to check the progress of your FAFSA application, call the Federal Student Aid Information Center at 1-800-433-3243 (1-800 4FEDAID) or check online at www.fafsa.ed.gov.
It is the responsibility of the student (and parents) to review the SAR for accuracy. Aid eligibility will be determined by the information provided on the SAR. If estimated information needs to be updated or other changes need to be reported, then the information must be changed in one of two ways. Either make your changes online at the FAFSA website or indicate your changes in writing on Part 2 of the SAR. Part 2 must then be signed, dated, and returned to the federal processing center. The address for the federal processing center will be listed on the back of Part 2 of the SAR. Be sure that Vanguard University (Title IV Code 001293) is listed as one of the schools in the college section. The Financial Aid Office cannot receive any information without being listed on the SAR.
Verification and Awarding
Once the Financial Aid Office receives the information from the SAR (or corrections to the SAR) and the University accepts the student, the awarding process begins. The SAR will be reviewed to determine financial aid eligibility and to request any documents needed for verification of the application information. The awarding process for the 2009-2010 year will begin in late March for traditional undergraduate students. Awarding for the graduate programs is scheduled to begin in late April and awarding for SPS students will begin in May.
Once a student’s aid eligibility is determined, the Financial Aid Office will mail an Award Letter to the student. This award letter will list all assistance offered for the year along with other award information. The award letter will also include loan application instructions and will describe additional steps required to finish the financial aid process.