New Rules for Student Financial Aid

The availability of the 2017-2018 financial aid applications
marked a shift in the methodology for evaluating student aid. The changes are
generally positively regarded, but have many implications for Student Financial
Services’ awarding policies and processes, particularly in the first year of
implementation.

SFS uses two applications to evaluate undergraduates’
eligibility for aid: the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) for
federal aid, and the CSS/Financial Aid PROFILE (Profile) for institutional aid.
Until now, both forms required parent and student income and asset information
from the prior tax year. Beginning with the 2017-2018 aid year, both forms
require information from the “prior-prior” tax year. The forms are also now be
available from October 1 of the previous year, rather than from January 1 of
the current year.

For many of our returning students, the change to
prior-prior year means that information from a single tax year (2015) will be
used to evaluate aid eligibility for two aid years (2016-2017 and 2017-2018).
For families whose financial circumstances remain basically steady from year to
year, the change simply allows more time to complete their with actual tax
data. For families whose financial circumstances were substantially different
in 2015, SFS administrators are working to create rules so they are not doubly
penalized.

SFS will also be able to reuse thousands of 2015 tax
documents already collected during the 2016-2017 application cycle. SFS-ITS is
working to make this happen within the ImageNow system, which will save many
hours of effort for both students and the staff who process incoming documents.

SFS is actively working on these and many other changes
behind the scenes, hoping for the smoothest possible transition for both
students and staff.