How Did You Calculate My Offer Of Financial Assistance?
Your offer of financial assistance is based on a number of factors: your expected Cost of Attendance; your Expected Family Contribution as determined by the U.S. Department of Education; the program rules for the various sources of financial aid funds, and the funds available from the various programs. Each of these factors was considered in developing your offer of financial aid.
What Is My Cost Of Attendance?
Cost of attendance is one of the factors we consider when making an offer of financial aid. Your cost of attendance is made up of several estimated costs, including tuition and fee charges, and allowances for books, meals, housing, miscellaneous personal expenses and transportation. "Allowances" are estimated expenses for these items, based on local and national survey data. Taken together, these education-related expenses make up our estimate of your total cost to attend Metropolitan State University for one academic year.
This example shows the typical Cost of Attendance for full-time Minnesota residents for 2009-10:
| Undergraduate (24 credits) |
Graduate (16 credits) | |
| Tuition and Fees* | $5,252 | $4,480 |
| Books and Supplies Allowance | $1,500 | $1,500 |
| Housing and Meals Allowance | $10,512 | $10,512 |
| Personal Expense Allowance | $3,876 | $3,876 |
| Transportation Allowance | $1,722 | $1,722 |
| Total Cost of Attendance | $22,862 | $22,090 |
*Charged directly by the University
Your Total Cost of Attendance also represents the maximum amount of financial aid you may receive for the award period.
How Are My Award Amounts Decided?
Our process for offering financial aid is mostly "rule-driven." This means that if you meet a predetermined set of conditions or rules, you are eligible for the financial aid program being offered, provided there are still funds available when we make your award. For example, if you are an undergraduate student and your Expected Family Contribution is $4,041 or less, you qualify for a Pell Grant. There are other rules that help us determine eligibility for Minnesota State Grant and Work Study, Federal Supplemental Education Opportunity Grant, National SMART Grant, Academic Competitiveness Grant, Federal Work Study, Alliss Grants and Federal Direct Loans.
Other types of financial aid require additional applications, and these awards are made later in the year. Awards like the Minnesota Post-Secondary Child Care grant and the Metropolitan State University Foundation Scholarships require you to complete an application to be considered for an award. It is important to note that graduate students do not qualify for Federal or State Grant funding, and may be ineligible for some scholarships.
What Is Financial Need And How Does It Affect My Award?
When you complete the FAFSA, the U.S. Department of Education determines how much of your income and assets are "available" to meet your cost of attendance using a standardized formula. This resulting number is called your Expected Family Contribution or "EFC." Because the EFC is based on a standard formula, a student's EFC will remain the same without regard to cost of the school to which the student applied. "Financial Need" on the other hand, will vary from school to school because Financial Need is the difference between the Total Cost of Attendance and the EFC:
Total Cost of Attendance - EFC = Financial Need
The table below shows how Financial Need varies from school to school:
| School A (Private University) |
School B (Premier State University) |
School C (Regional State University) | |
| Total Cost of Attendance | $35,000 | $25,000 | $20,000 |
| EFC | - $5,000 | - $5,000 | - $5,000 |
| Financial Need | $30,000 | $20,000 | $15,000 |
Certain types of financial aid, such as most grant programs, Federal and State Work-Study and the Subsidized portion of the Federal Direct Loan Program, require that a student have financial need in an amount at least equal to the amount of financial aid being offered. Other types of financial aid (such as the Unsubsidized Federal Direct Loan, and privately-funded education loans) do not require evidence of financial need to qualify. In general, the greater your amount of financial need, the greater the number of financial aid programs for which you qualify.
What If My Financial Situation Has Recently Changed?
If your financial situation has changed since the prior tax year, or if you have other unique circumstances that the EFC formula does not consider, you may request that Metropolitan State re-evaluate your EFC. If you provide documentation of your special circumstances to the Office of Student Financial Aid, a financial aid officer may make adjustments to the data you submitted on the FAFSA. Adjusting data will cause the EFC to be recalculated. These are called "Professional Judgment" decisions, because the Federal Higher Education Act grants financial aid professionals the professional judgment to adjust a student's data to more accurately reflect the family's ability to contribute to the student's education.
How Do I Receive My Financial Aid?
All approved and accepted financial aid funds are credited towards the charges on your student account beginning on the 16th day of the semester. (Funds received after the 16th day are typically credited on the day following receipt of the funds.) If the financial aid that is credited exceeds the charges on your student account, a refund or "financial aid overage" is given to you. Financial aid overage payments are either mailed to you as a check or they are deposited directly to your personal bank account. If you wish to have your overage funds credited to your bank account, complete and return the Direct Deposit Form.
Actual disbursement dates are published on the Metropolitan State Financial Aid web site.