Financial Aid Policies

Satisfactory Academic Progress

All students who receive federal or state financial aid must be enrolled in a program leading to a degree, an eligible non-degree program, or an eligible certificate program. Students must meet federal and institutional standards for academic progress in order to establish and retain aid eligibility. Academic progress for federal and state financial aid programs is based on three measures: Cumulative Grade Point Average, Pace of Progression based on credit hours completed compared to attempted, and a Maximum Timeframe for degree completion. While the Satisfactory Academic Progress Policy is a minimum requirement to maintain financial aid eligibility, students are encouraged to work closely with academic advisors and college personnel to achieve their educational goals. 

Determining Financial Need

When applying for federal student aid, the information provided on the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) is used in a formula, established by the U.S. Congress which calculates an Expected Family Contribution (EFC). The EFC is used in an equation to determine financial need.

Cost of Attendance - Expected Family Contribution - Other Financial Assistance = Financial Need

Cost of Attendance

Northshore Technical Community College uses the cost of attendance to establish budgets for the purpose of awarding financial aid. COA is an estimate of a student’s educational expense to attend Northshore Technical Community College rather than the actual expense which can vary based on enrollment.  Northshore Technical Community College uses standard cost categories that are applied consistently to all student’s in categories such as, room and board, books and supplies, transportation and miscellaneous fees.

The following is a sample cost of attendance for students taking course work (12 or more credit hours for the academic year) at Northshore Technical Community College

Expected Family Contribution (EFC)

An EFC is an amount expected to be available for your educational expenses. The EFC is calculated from income, assess information, household size, and number in college. If you are dependent, the EFC is a student and parent contribution. If you are independent, the EFC is a student (and/or spouse) contribution.

Repeated Coursework

Effective July 1, 2011, the Department of Education implemented a rule change regarding federal financial aid and payment of repeated coursework. If you have taken and passed a course (with a grade of D or higher), federal financial aid will now only pay for you to repeat this course one time. Should you decide to repeat a course for a second time (or more), federal financial aid will not cover the cost of that course.

Verification

Northshore Technical Community College verifies all student files selected by the Central Processing System. In addition, the Office of Student Financial Assistance has authority to select students when conflicting information exist. Applicants that are selected for verification must complete NTCC’s verification form(s) and submit all required documents. Any differences between information entered on the verification form or other requested documents on the FAFSA will result in a new determination of financial need. This new determination of financial need may alter the student's financial aid eligibility.

*** Verification must be completed before your financial can be finalized and before any federal aid may be credited to your student account***

Aid Adjustments

Your financial aid award will be adjusted for the following reasons:

• Enrollment status is verified on the last day of the drop/add period for each semester. If you drop or add classes by this date, your Pell Grant/TOPS/GO Grant awards will be adjusted accordingly.
• Instructors report non-attendance for any classes.
• Receiving Pell Grant at two different colleges during the same academic year, which exceeds the total maximum limit for that year.
• Any aid may be adjusted, if you totally withdraw before the federal deadline to withdraw and you may have to repay the aid you did not earn.

Return of Title IV Funds

Federal regulation requires Title IV financial aid funds to be awarded under the assumption that a student will attend the institution for the whole period of enrollment in which federal assistance was awarded. When a student withdraws from all courses for any reason, the student may no longer be eligible for the full amount of Title IV funds that they were initially scheduled to receive. If a student receives Title IV grant or loan funds and withdraws from a school after beginning attendance, the amount of Title IV grant or loan assistance earned by the student must be determined by the school performing a R2T4 calculation.

Students who officially withdraw from Northshore Technical Community College on or before the last date of withdrawal for the semester will receive a grade of a “W” for each enrolled course. The course and grade of “W” will be posted to the student’s permanent record, but will not be included in the calculation of the semester cumulative grade point average.

For a student who discontinues their attendance without officially withdrawing, may remain on the class roster, and may be assigned a grade of “F” by the instructor. For unofficial withdrawals, the withdrawal date is defined as either the midpoint of the semester or the last documented date of attendance at an academically-related activity.

The Office of Student Financial Assistance must calculate the amount of financial aid a student earned prior to withdrawing. Any Title IV aid received in excess of the earned amount is considered unearned. Unearned aid must be returned to the corresponding Federal Aid program(s).

Earned Aid - A student has not earned 100% of their financial aid until the student has attended more than 60% of the term. If a financial aid recipient totally withdraws on or before the 60% point of the term, there is a portion of the aid that has not been earned. The percentage of earned aid is determined by taking the number of days attended divided by the total number of days in the term. For example:

Unearned Aid - The percentage of unearned aid is calculated by subtracting the earned percentage from 100%. The unearned aid in the previous example is determined by the following formula:

Once the earned and unearned aid percentages are determined, the next step is to calculate the dollar amount of total unearned aid that must be returned. The return of unearned aid amount is determined by multiplying the unearned aid percentage by the total of all Title IV aid disbursed or eligible to be disbursed. The unearned aid percentage of 58% would be multiplied by the student's total aid disbursed:

A school must return Title IV funds to the programs from which the student received aid during the payment period or period of enrollment as applicable, in the following order, up to the net amount disbursed from each source.

• Federal Pell Grants
• Federal Supplemental Educational Opportunity Grants (FSEOG)
• Iraq and Afghanistan Service Grant

Northshore Technical Community College must return unearned funds within 45 days of the date of determination of the withdrawal date. If aid disbursed is less than aid earned, the student may be due a post-withdrawal disbursement.

Post-Withdrawal Disbursements - If a student totally withdraws from a semester and receives less federal aid than the amount earned, then the student may be eligible for a post-withdrawal disbursement. The student must have met all of the conditions for a late disbursement prior to withdrawing. Grant funds will automatically be applied towards outstanding charges created by the withdrawal

Title IV Payment Policy

To determine accurate enrollment status for the purpose of disbursing Title IV Aid, Northshore Technical Community College confirms student attendance on prescribed census dates (14th class date for Fall and Spring, 7th class date for Summer). Student attendance is monitored for each class separately. Students not meeting attendance requirements as of the census date will be purged and will not receive TITLE IV funds for the class or classes from which the student was purged. Northshore Technical Community College will monitor that students begin attendance in all courses for which they are paid Title IV Funds. If it is determined that a student did not begin attendance in a course, Title IV Funds will be recalculated. In addition, if the student ceases attendance in the semester, a Return of Title IV Funds calculation will be performed to determine the portion of funds that were earned.

Refund/Disbursement Policy

• Refunds for the semester for the Federal Pell grant and Federal SEOG grant will begin after the 14th class day.  
• Refunds for the semester for other funds such as TOPS, GO grant, and Veteran's Benefits will begin once the funding has been received.
• For more information on BankMobile refund choices, visit: https://bankmobiledisbursements.com/refundchoicessso/

******"Disbursement" does not mean "Refund." "Disbursement" means the financial aid awards have been applied to your NTCC student account. "Refund" means the credit balance owed to you will be sent to BankMobile Disbursements*****