Financial Aid Office

 

The PIN is your Personal Identification Number. You use it to sign on to Webster where you have many options to choose from such as accepting or declining your awards, viewing your requirements and holds. If you have not logged on to Webster before, your PIN will be your date of birth in this format: YYMMDD. Once you have logged on to Webster for the first time, you will be asked to select a new PIN, as well as enter a security question. The security question will allow you to get your PIN sent to you if you should forget it.

 

No. The Department of Education will send you a PIN after you complete a new FAFSA. Your FAFSA PIN is a random four-digit number. Your default Webster PIN is your birth date beginning with the year (YYMMDD).  Then you change it to a new number.

 

Generally, students enter their date of birth incorrectly. Your PIN starts with the year, not the month. For example, if you were born on March 12, 1982, then your PIN would be 820312. If you have already tried signing in three times, your PIN may have to be reset. In that case, please call or email the Financial Aid Office. If you have reached a screen that says your PIN has expired, you have successfully entered the system. Enter the birth date PIN as the "old PIN" and create yourself a new one.

Your login is your student ID number, which is your social security or generated ID number.

Once you are logged on to Webster, select the links in the following order:

1. Student Services & Financial Aid
2. Financial Aid
3. My Award Information
4. Accept Award Offer by Aid Year

Select the aid year and it will take you to your award information. Once you are in the "Accept Award Offer by Aid Year" section, you will be able to accept all, or part of the funds offered. Any grants or scholarships that you are offered are automatically accepted. If you have already accepted or declined your aid, and now wish to change your mind, you will need to contact the Financial Aid Office. We can reset the award to offered so that you can make the needed changes.

 

We will send out an email to admitted students any time someone's award is changed. Generally, you do not have to accept again if the loans are reduced or unchanged. If your loan amounts increase, you will need to accept again.

 

The first step is to fill out the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA). In the application, there is a section where you can designate which school(s) you want your information to go to. Eastern Oregon University's federal school code is 003193. Enter this code in the appropriate space and your FAFSA information will be sent to EOU by the Department of Education. Enter codes for each of the schools you are seriously considering attending. This way, if you transfer schools in the middle of the year or change your mind about your school choice, your new school will already have your FAFSA information. After we get your information, we will "package" a financial aid award for you and send you a notice with further instructions.

 

Generally, you must enroll for 6 or more credits to get financial aid. An exception is the PELL Grant, which sometimes pays a small amount for less-than-half-time enrollment. At Eastern, a student does not need to be admitted to enroll in 8 or fewer credits. However, you must be admitted to receive financial aid of any kind even if you will only be enrolled half-time.

 

Federal financial aid is not available to students who are not admitted.

 

There are four general types of financial aid: scholarships, grants, loans, and employment. For more information on aid you may be offered, see our page describing types of aid at:
http://www.eou.edu/fao/funddescrpt.htm.

 

Financial aid is characterized as either need-based or non-need-based. The Financial Aid Office determines if the expected family contribution is less than the cost of attendance at EOU. The expected family contribution, which is calculated using a formula established by Congress, is based on several economic factors, such as income, assets, and number of family members in the household. Thus, there is no exact income "cut-off" to qualify for financial aid. Families who do not demonstrate need may still be eligible for non-need-based financial aid programs such as the Unsubsidized Stafford Loan or PLUS Loan for parents.

 

There is a priority deadline for filling out the FAFSA. Usually it is set some time in March preceding the academic year you plan to attend. If we receive the FAFSA information after the priority deadline, you may only be offered Pell Grant, Student Loans (subsidized and unsubsidized), and the Parent Loan for Undergraduate Students (PLUS). You may fill out a FAFSA at any time between January 1st preceding the academic year and the end of the academic year. However, students who apply early will be considered for the most grant programs.

 

Go to www.fafsa.ed.gov and follow the instructions for filling out a new or renewal FAFSA. If this is a new application, you must print out a signature page to sign. Your parents must also sign a signature page if they are on your FAFSA. The Department of Education will send you a four-digit PIN so that you can make changes and renew your application the next year without sending a signature page again. Your parents can also get a PIN to electronically sign your application. !!!!!WARNING: Fafsa.com is not the same as the Department of Education application site. If the web site tries to charge you a fee, you are on the wrong site. Remember, the first "F" in FAFSA means "free".

 

Yes. Financial aid applicants must complete the federal form each academic year in order to be considered for federal aid.

 

In order to process any changes on the FAFSA, the student must re-submit changes to the government. The student can submit the changes to FAFSA online by choosing the link entitled "Make Corrections to a Processed FAFSA".

 

Formulas are used to calculate a contribution based on family financial information entered on the FAFSA. The expected contribution is not a judgment about how much a family ought to be able to pay from current income. Rather, it is an estimate of their capacity over time to absorb the costs of education. Many families finance this contribution through a combination of savings, current earnings, and borrowing.

 

After you fill out the FAFSA, it can take up to six weeks for your information to reach the Financial Aid Office. We strongly recommend filing on-line being it is considerably faster and far more reliable than filing by paper.We start processing FAFSA information for the coming year in the spring. When we receive the FAFSA report, we will package your aid and send you a notice about your award offer. While the Financial Aid Office at Eastern Oregon University does not wait until you are admitted to send an offer of financial aid, we do wait for all the FAFSA information to arrive. If you are missing information or a signature, you will not receive an offer until the FAFSA is completed.

 

When we begin processing for the next academic year, the Financial Aid Office will send notices to aid applicants who have unmet requirements. You will be informed in writing or by email if your file is incomplete. It is very important for current EOU students to check their official EOU email address for notices from the Financial Aid Office. We cannot send notices to email addresses other than your EOU address. You can also check on Webster for any unmet requirements or holds.

 

Student and parent contribution amounts are calculated using a federally mandated formula. If a student or their parent(s) have been adversely affected by extraordinary circumstances that have reduced their ability to pay for college expenses, the Financial Aid Office can review those circumstances in order to recalculate the student and/or parent contribution, thus potentially increasing the eligibility for need-based aid. In order to request a review of your family's circumstances, you must fill out the appropriate form requesting a professional judgment. These can be found on our forms page at www.eou.edu/fao/forms.htm. Your request should be well documented and should include current contact information in case the Financial Aid Office has questions.

 

No. Do not wait until your taxes are done. Some grants have deadlines as early as March. There is a space on the FAFSA to indicate that you will file later. Most of the information you need can be found on your last paycheck stub. If you don't know the exact figures, estimate and then go back later and update with the correct amounts. The Financial Aid Office will consider the first date that you submitted your FAFSA in determining eligibility for aid with deadlines.

 

Go to www.fafsa.ed.gov and click on the following links:
1. "make corrections to a processed FAFSA"
2. "check the status of my application and print a signature page if necessary"
3. Select "next"
4. Enter social security number, first 2 letters of the last name, date of birth, and year and type of application (in a drop down box)
5. On this screen you can choose to print a signature page.

 

The next step is to become familiar with Webster--the student information and registration system. The Financial Aid web site has a tutorial on the Webster system at www.eou.edu/fao/webstart1.htm. This tutorial will help you navigate Webster and review your aid award.

 

Using your student ID and Webster PIN, you will be able to access your official Financial Aid Award on Webster. Once you access it, you will need to indicate acceptance or rejection of the types of aid you have been offered. If you have accepted our offer of student loans and this is the first time you have had loans through Eastern, you will receive a promissory note to sign, and you will need to complete online entrance counseling. The aid you have accepted will be credited to your account with the EOU Student Accounts Office if you are registered full-time or have made specific arrangements with the Financial Aid Office to attend part-time. The aid that is credited to your account will first pay off any charges that you owe to EOU. If you live in EOU housing, the aid on your account will also be applied to those charges. If the aid on your account exceeds the charges on your account, you will have a credit balance and can pick up a refund or request that it be mailed to you. If the aid placed on your account does not cover all of your institutional charges, you will be expected to pay the difference.

 

Disbursement of aid generally takes place on or shortly before the first day of classes. However, new freshmen have a 30 day wait for their first loan disbursement. Loans that are for one term only are disbursed in two parts approximately five weeks apart. For the exact disbursement dates of each term, you can check on Webster under Financial Aid Award Information/Award Payment Schedule. Remember, you must have completed all requirements and satisfied all holds before your loans will be requested from the lender. After a request is sent to the lender, it can take several days for funds to arrive, so it is best to have all requirements satisfied at least one week prior to the disbursement date.

 

There are seven questions on the FAFSA to determine whether or not you are independent or dependent. If the answer to one or more of the questions is yes, you are considered an independent student. If you reach your 24th birthday by the end of the calendar year in which you are starting school, if you are working on a graduate degree, are married at the time of application, have children or other dependents that you support, are an orphan, or are a veteran of the U.S. Armed Forces, you will be considered independent. Otherwise, you are a dependent student whether or not your parents plan to help you with school.

 

Your award offer is always going to be full-time when it is first packaged. It is the policy of the Financial Aid Office to prorate part-time student budgets. For example, full-time students are eligible to receive up to $5972 per term during the 2007-08 academic year. If you are attending half-time, you can get up to half of that amount. We would apply your prorated Pell Grant first as well as any other grants and scholarships you are eligible for. Please note: some grants and scholarships require full-time and do not prorate for part-time students. After that, you would be offered subsidized loans (Perkins and Subsidized Stafford) and then an Unsubsidized Stafford loan would cover any deficit that's left. If you plan to attend part-time, you must contact the Financial Aid Office before the start of each part-time term. If we do not hear from you, we will assume that you are eventually going to be registered for full-time credits and your funds will not be released until you do.

 

You might want to consider either a PLUS loan or an alternative loan. PLUS loans are available to parents of dependent students. Alternative loans are not federal financial aid programs, but are designed to assist with educational expenses. You can apply for an alternative loan through a bank of your choice. Eligibility for either a PLUS loan or an alternative loan is limited to the cost of attendance minus any other financial aid educational resources already awarded.

 

All of the following requirements must be met before your loans are processed:
1. You must be admitted.
2. If you have been selected for verification, you must satisfy that requirement first.
3. Your aid must not be revoked for any reason.
Check on Webster for student holds and requirements to see if there is anything that may hold up your aid. Once your requirements are met and your loans processed, you will receive a promissory note. This process may take 1 to 3 weeks depending on the time of year.

 

If you are receiving a Stafford loan for the 2nd or 3rd time here at Eastern Oregon University, you should have signed a Master Promissory Note (MPN) in the past. The MPN is an "open ended" note that will include any subsequent loans taken out. If you have been without a Stafford loan at Eastern for more than a year and a half or have transferred from another school, you will most likely have to sign a new MPN.

 

This may be for a couple of reasons. If you have indicated an incorrect grade level, we may need to change your loan amount. For instance, if a student indicates they are a Junior, but only has 70 credits, they would be considered a Sophomore. The federal government sets loan limits depending on your year in school. They are:

Level	Stafford Loan (Dependent Students)	Unsubsidized Loan (Independent Students)
Freshman	$3,500	$4,000
Sophomore	$4,500	$4,000
Junior	$5,500	$5,000
Senior	$5,500	$5,000
Post-Bac	$5,500	$5,000
Graduate	$8,500	$10,000

Another reason for a change is a change in resources. If you receive a scholarship, or funding from an outside agency, this could reduce your eligibility for federal aid. In addition, if you are selected for verification and the figures on your tax forms do not match those on the FAFSA, your aid may have to be adjusted.

 

This is a mandatory requirement enforced by the Department of Education. Loans processed for a loan period consisting of only one term must be disbursed in two payments, the first is usually at the beginning of the term and the second coming midway through the term.

 

Eastern has a variety of scholarships that can cover all or part of your tuition. For a complete list of institutional scholarships, please visit our scholarships page. Eastern will also accept scholarships from outside organizations and foundations and apply them to your account. Please note that any scholarships received reduce the student's need and may necessitate a reduction in the financial aid package, however, the first aid type that would be reduced are student loans.

 

Many donors wait until the last minute to send funds so that they can draw interest for as long as possible. We receive a large number of scholarships at the beginning of the term (especially Fall term). While we may have the scholarship, it may take several days to process it and have it available on your account. This processing delay is greatest at the beginning of Fall term. If you need to know whether or not a scholarship has been posted to your account, check on Webster first.

 

Your financial aid from all sources cannot exceed the cost of attendance established by the University. If you receive a scholarship, whether it is from the college or from a private source, you should notify the Financial Aid Office. We are required to review your aid package to make sure that you are not receiving more aid than your total cost of attendance. In many cases we are able to include your scholarship without adjusting any of your other aid, increasing the total amount of your aid package. Sometimes we have to reduce or replace another form of aid. In that case, we always attempt to reduce or replace any loans that you might have been offered first. We strongly encourage you to explore all scholarship opportunities as valuable means to help finance your college education.

 

The grants and scholarships are money that you do not have to pay back. Therefore, we do not give you the option to decline them. You are under no obligation to attend simply because the grants are automatically accepted. If you decide not to attend Eastern, they will not be paid out.

 

Because actual tuition and fee charges are not always established before award offers are sent out, an estimate of tuition and fees is used to award aid. Typically, this information is collected using the previous year's costs plus an estimated percentage of increase. Sometimes this does not reflect actual tuition costs exactly but it is generally close enough for the majority of students. If a student has unusual expenses, he or she should contact the Financial Aid Office to see about applying for a budget increase.

 

You might want to consider either a PLUS loan or an alternative loan. PLUS loans are available to parents of dependent students. Alternative loans are not federal financial aid programs, but are designed to assist with educational expenses. You can apply for an alternative loan through a bank of your choice. Eligibility for either a PLUS loan or an alternative loan is limited to the cost of attendance minus any other financial aid educational resources already awarded.

 

The PLUS Loan is the Parent Loan for Undergraduate Students. Parents may borrow a PLUS Loan on behalf of their dependent undergraduate student to help fund educational expenses. A PLUS Loan may be a component of a student's financial aid offer. The interest rate is fixed at 8.5%. All PLUS Loan applicants must pass a credit check to have their loan approved.

 

No. Any credit balance on the student's account as a result of PLUS loan funds is refunded directly to the parent and then the parent can choose to send the funds to their child.

Yes. If you have not reached your loan limit for the year, you may apply for an additional loan to purchase a computer. This application can only be used once during your college career. The amount you are eligible for depends on how much is left before you reach your loan limits, but cannot exceed $2000.

 

First, you must check the box on the FAFSA form that indicates that you are interested in Work Study. To be eligible, you must submit your FAFSA early (in January or February) and have financial need to receive work study. Any student, even those not eligible for Work Study, may still work on campus at a number of non-Work Study jobs.

Most verifications are selected by the Department of Education.  A few students are selected by EOU when we see a discrepancy in their records.  Verification means that we must collect certain tax document and check your FAFSA for accuracy.  If you have made errors, we will make any necessary corrections.  Verification can change your financial aid award.  If you are selected for verification then your aid will NOT be disbursed until you have completed the requirements. 

You must send the following documents to Eastern if you are selected for verification:
1. A signed verification worksheet.  You can find the worksheet that is required of you by logging into your WEBSTER account, clicking on Financial Aid, and then My Eligibility.  All the documents needed are listed under Student Requirements
2. A signed copy of your federal tax form: 1040, 1040A, or 1040EZ.
3. A copy of you and your spouses (if applicable) W2's and/or 1099.

4. If you own your business or farm then we will need a copy of the Schedule C or  Schedule F.

If you are a Dependent Student we will need the above documents for you if you filed and the following from your parents.
1. Your parent's signed 1040 Federal tax form.
2. Your parent's W-2's and/or 1099's..
3. Your parent's Federal Schedule C and Schedule F (if they own a business or farm).
4. Also please make sure a parent signs the verification worksheet as well.

A: If you do not have taxable income, there is a space on the verification worksheet to indicate that. If you have nothing to enter in those spaces, we require that you send a signed statement explaining how you survived and paid your living expenses for the year.  If you can't find your tax forms or W-2's, you must order copies from the IRS and/or your employer. We cannot complete your financial aid processing until the verification is complete.

A: If a student has NO grades (all F, W, I, Y, K, or X) by the end of the term, we must assume until proven otherwise, that the student unofficially"withdrew" from classes. In that case, we are required to return some of your financial aid. If the student can show, from the professor, that at least 60% of all classes were completed within the term, we may be able to request their funds be reissued. This, however, will be considered a non-progress term, and so will put the student in danger of losing future aid.

A: We"freeze" hours on the financial aid system at the end of the 4th week of each term (excluding Summer). If you drop before this freeze date, your aid will be adjusted and a portion of it will be returned to the funding agency. If you drop after the freeze, your aid will not be adjusted. If you were at full-time and then dropped below full-time after the freeze, we would show unsatisfactory progress at the end of the term. This would put you in danger of losing your aid for future terms. If you have more questions about dropping a class or about academic progress, please refer to the section on Academic Progress.

When your forms are still outstanding you will find a list under your Student Requirements in Webster.

A: The PLUS Loan is the Parent Loan for Undergraduate Students. Parents may borrow a PLUS Loan on behalf of their dependent undergraduate student to help fund educational expenses. A PLUS Loan may be a component of a student's financial aid offer. The interest rate is fixed at 8.5%. All PLUS Loan applicants must pass a credit check to have their loan approved.

A: If your child has been offered a PLUS loan with his/her aid package, the first thing you need to do is let your child know that they can accept it online on Webster. After they accept the loan, you will receive information from the school about which lenders are available and how to apply. The pre-approval process can be done over the phone with most lenders. If you are pre-approved, the bank will send you an application and promissory note to fill out. The school will certify the amount and then send it to the bank. The funds will be disbursed at the same time as all other aid.

A: Aid is awarded first to the student and then to parents. So, the student is always offered the maximum amount of loans before a PLUS loan is added to the package. If a parent declines the PLUS Loan, the student is not eligible for any additional Federal loans. However, he or she can apply for an alternative education loan through a bank to make up the difference between their cost of attendance and their awarded aid. If a parent is denied the PLUS Loan by one of our associated lenders, the student may be eligible for more federal loans.

A: If a parent is denied the PLUS Loan by one of our associated lenders, the lender will inform us of the denial. After the denial is sent to us, the student may request an additional unsubsidized Stafford Loan. Freshmen and Sophomores are eligible for up to $4000 in additional Unsubsidized Stafford Loan and Juniors and Seniors and eligible for up to $5000 additional Unsubsidized Stafford Loan. These additional loans, added to all other aid, cannot exceed the student's total budget. This is not added to a student's aid package automatically. The student must request it. If the parent declines to apply for the loan for any reason, the student cannot make the request. The parent must be denied by a lender for their child to qualify for the additional federal aid.

There are several reasons. In order to receive financial aid you must meet all the following requirements.  If any one of these is not met, your aid will not disburse. 
1. Have a valid award from EOU.
2. Be a fully admitted student (not early admitted).
3. Accepted your aid on Webster (including loans if you choose).
4. Followed through the loan process ( completed MPN and Edtest).

5. If you were selected for verification, that process must be complete.

6. Check your holds in Webster.  To receive aid you cannot be revoked or suspended.

7. Registered for full time or if part-time you will need to notify the office.

8. You must be registered for at least half-time credits for most aid (except for some Pell Grant awards).

9. Check all outstanding holds and requirements in Webster.

No. Financial aid students are required to complete their classes in one term.  There are no exceptions.  If you receive an extension for a class, you will not have made satisfactory academic progress for that class.  This can have implications for your eligibility for financial aid.  See the Satisfactory Academic Progress piece.

If a student has NO grades at the end of the term, he or she has not made satisfactory academic progress (SAO).  If the student's grades comprise all, or a mixture of: F, W, I, Y, K, U, or X's then the student is in a no grade situation.  A " no grade" situation does not include a student who has totally withdrawn from all classes.  We have no way to assess whether a student has even gone to classes.  We must assume, until proven otherwise, that the student has unofficially withdrawn from classes.  We are required to return a portion of the student's aid as unearned.  The NO Grade form (available on our Website under forms) gives the students a possibility of not having the funds returned.  Please read and follow the instructions on the form.  It is a time sensitive document, so please check the deadline for the term on the form.

We"freeze" enrollment hours in the financial aid system at the end of the 4th week of each term (excluding Summer). If you drop before this freeze date, your aid may need to be adjusted. If you drop after the freeze, you are in danger of not making satisfactory academic progress.  Before dropping, you might want to check with the Financial Aid Office to see what the end result would be.  Check with the Student Accounts Office to see how, or if, this would affect your bill.

We will send a notification in writing to students who are required to submit additional forms.  Students also need to monitor their WEBSTER student accounts for any new requirements.  This is under My Eligibility and then Holds/ Requirements.

When a student transfers to EOU, we often receive a notification from the National Student Loan Data System (NSLDS) that the student may have attended another school in the current academic year.  This is a requirement that we must check NSLDS to determine if a student has used any current year financial aid at another institution.  If they have, then the aid will probably have to be adjusted to take into account the aid that was used at the other school.  A student is allowed a specific maximum amount per year and we cannot over award the student.  Your aid will not disburse until this hold has been completed.