Financial Aid Policies
You can learn more about Federal Student Aid policies and processes at Belmont College by reviewing the topics below.
Applying for Financial Aid
Belmont College is ready to help you, whether you’re a graduating high school senior or new or continuing undergraduate student who wants to be considered for financial assistance to pay your educational expenses.
The Financial Aid Office of Belmont College administers various federal, state, college, and private financial aid programs. Financial aid is available to help eligible students meet the expenses of a college education. All financial aid programs are managed according to federal, state, and college guidelines, and accepted accounting practices.
Students applying for financial aid are considered for all programs for which they may be eligible. The amount of financial aid awarded is generally a combination of grants and loans. Awards are based on the student’s financial need, which is determined by subtracting the resources of the student and his/her expected family contribution from the student’s financial aid budget. The Expected Family Contribution (EFC) is based on the amount of the family’s income, assets, and household size as submitted on the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA). All financial aid awards are finalized by the Financial Aid Office. An award letter is mailed or emailed to each financial aid applicant, but may be subject to change.
Students are strongly advised to apply for financial aid as early as possible for the upcoming academic year in order to avoid delays.
- New students must apply for admission to Belmont.
- New students completing the FAFSA need to obtain a Federal Student Aid (FSA) ID. Parents of dependent students will also need to obtain a FSA ID to process the FAFSA.
- Complete the FAFSA. Belmont College’s School Code is 009941. Students are strongly advised to complete the FAFSA as early as possible for the upcoming academic year not only to allow for the verification process, but also to ensure that they will receive all eligible financial assistance available. Students may begin filing their FAFSA on October 1 prior to the start of the next academic year.
- Review your SAR (Student Aid Report). Once you complete the FAFSA, the U.S.Department of Education will e-mail your SAR results. Read this carefully as it contains messages and possible errors you will need to correct. If you find any errors, correct them by going to https://fafsa.gov.
- Submit any missing documents to the Financial Aid Office. Check your financial aid status online through your MyFAO account to see if you have missing documents such as Verification Worksheets or tax documents.
- Once all forms are complete, the Financial Aid Office will process your Financial Aid award and mail or email you a Financial Aid Award notification showing any estimated grants or scholarships you may be eligible to receive. Students who wish to borrow Federal Direct Student Loans will be required to complete a Federal Direct Student Loan Request Form each semester even if you have had a loan in the past.
- If you apply for a Federal Direct Student Loan, new borrowers must complete the Entrance Counseling and Master Promissory Note. Returning borrowers need to complete the ASLA (Annual Student Loan Acknowledgement).These can be done online at https://studentaid.gov.
- Make sure your bill is covered. If you receive a balance due, do not assume your financial aid will cover it. If your file is incomplete, you are not eligible for any Financial Aid awards. Check your Financial Aid status on MyFAO or by contacting the Financial Aid Office at 740.695.8510 or email financialaid@belmontcollege.edu.
The U.S. Department of Education may purposely or randomly select a financial aid application for verification. This is much like an audit of the information you provided on your FAFSA. Belmont is required to verify or confirm the information reported on all of the selected applications. The College may also require verification or correction of any application that may be in question. In these cases, certain information will be requested to help determine the accuracy of the information and to determine the student’s eligibility for financial aid.
The U.S. Department of Education and the Financial Aid Office will notify all aid applicants who are selected for verification. You may be asked to provide tax information, identifying information, and to complete a federally required worksheet. Please respond promptly to the Financial Aid Office’s request for these required documents.
The Financial Aid Office has established the following policies and procedures to comply with Federal Regulations for students receiving financial aid. The Satisfactory Academic Progress process and policy of Belmont College are reviewed when changes at the federal or institutional level require review to ensure compliance with Federal Regulations. All Belmont College students applying for Title IV federal assistance must meet the criteria stated hereafter regardless of whether they previously received aid or not. SAP is evaluated at the end of each semester and those not meeting SAP are sent a letter or email. SAP calculation includes developmental coursework, letter grades, pass/fail grades, withdrawn courses, repeated courses, incomplete grades, and coursework transferred in from other institutions as determined by the Records Office.
The programs governed by these regulations are:
- Federal Pell Grant
- Federal Work-Study (FWS)
- Federal Supplemental Educational Opportunity Grant (FSEOG)
- Federal Direct Loans (Subsidized and Unsubsidized)
- Federal Direct Parent Loan (PLUS)
Satisfactory Academic Progress standards include these elements:
- Qualitative Progress
- Quantitative Progress
- Time Frame
- Graduation
Satisfactory Academic Progress (SAP) for Title IV and Non-Title IV Recipients
The Financial Aid SAP Policy applies consistently to all categories of students who have a FAFSA on file, regardless of enrollment status, program of study, or any other category of student.
Elements of Satisfactory Academic Progress Defined
Qualitative Progress – The minimum GPA a student must have earned at the end of the evaluation period. Students are evaluated at the end of each semester by the following cumulative grade point average (GPA) standards:
- 1.6 or above cumulative GPA in 0-29 attempted hours
- 2.0 or above cumulative GPA in 30+ attempted hours
Quantitative Progress – Students must successfully complete 67% of attempted credit hours with a letter grade of “D” or better after each semester. Grades that are considered successfully complete are A-, B+-, C+-, D+-, P. Grades that are not considered successfully completed are F, I, W, NR, FZ, DZ, D+Z, X.
Time Frame – The required length of time it will take a student to complete a degree program or certificate based on the appropriate enrollment status. Federal regulations allow a student to be eligible to receive aid up to 150% of the time that it would normally take to complete a degree. All credit hours in which a student enrolls or transfers to Belmont College are included in the maximum time frame calculation, regardless of the number of degrees a student chooses to obtain. Belmont College evaluates this per program of study. For example, if a student’s program of study is Computer Applications Certificate which requires 33 semester credit hours to graduate, the student may not exceed 49.5 attempted semester credit hours to obtain that degree without submitting an appeal for Financial Aid. If the student is pursing the Accounting Degree which requires 63 credits, they may not exceed 94.5 attempted credit hours.
Graduation – Students who complete the coursework for graduation are ineligible for continuation of financial aid after graduation. Students must complete the SAP Appeal form indicating they want to pursue a second program of study. An academic plan (Degree Completion Plan) must be obtained from a Belmont College academic advisor and submitted with the SAP Appeal documentation. Financial aid will only be awarded and calculated on courses required to complete the degree. Students may be approved for a maximum of 2 degrees.
Warning – In the event that a student does not meet qualitative and/or quantitative measures after a semester, the student will be placed on a Warning status. The Warning status lasts for one semester. Students in a warning status may continue to receive financial aid funds. No appeal or other action is needed from the student during this warning period. Students who fail to make SAP after the warning period lose their aid eligibility unless they complete the appeal process and are approved.
Suspension – Belmont College students are evaluated at the end of each semester based on the elements of SAP. Students who do not meet the qualitative and/or quantitative criteria for two sequential semesters of enrollment will be placed on Suspension. Students recognized as not meeting the time frame standards also will be placed on Suspension. SAP Suspension means that the student is not eligible for Federal financial aid for future semesters. Students do have an option to appeal this suspension.
Appeal Process – Students may complete the appeal process for consideration of reinstating the student’s financial aid eligibility on a probationary status. Students must explain the reason for not meeting the SAP elements and must provide supporting documentation of the mitigating circumstances. Appeals must also specify what has changed in the student’s situation that will allow them to successfully meet SAP requirements by the next evaluation. If students are not able to meet SAP standards within one semester, their appeal must include an academic plan (Degree Completion Plan) from their academic advisor. The individual academic plan will establish the conditions for continued financial aid for future semesters.
Probation – If a student’s appeal is approved, the student enters a probation status. During this probation status, the student may continue to receive federal financial aid funds. Students who fail to meet SAP or the established conditions at the end of the probation period lose their financial aid eligibility.
According to Federal guidelines, financial aid can pay for a repeat of a previously passed course only once as long as a better grade can be attained. An example would be if a student received an A, they could not receive aid for that repeated course because they cannot get a grade above an A*.
*Consideration may be given for courses taken 5 years ago or more and changes in the field of study applicable to the class.
Attendance is monitored for the receipt of federal and state aid. Students not in attendance are subject to adjustments of their financial aid award amount. Students who register and never attend class(s) are ineligible to receive federal and/or state aid for the class(s) in question. This includes online courses where a student has failed to submit assignments and/or tests to the instructor. Students must demonstrate a pattern of attendance at the time of disbursement to be eligible for financial aid.
Student financial aid is packaged to meet individual financial need. A combination of grants, employment, and loans may be included. Financial aid awards are disbursed once per semester, with the exception of Federal Direct Loans that are disbursed twice per semester. All aid is disbursed based on attendance in class.
Flex Courses – A student registered in flex courses will not receive their full financial aid award until all flex classes and refund periods are complete.
Federal Title IV funds are awarded to a student under the assumption that the student will attend school for the entire period for which aid is awarded. Students receiving federal financial aid who withdraw or stop attending may be required to return a portion of financial aid awarded. Once notified of a total withdrawal, the institution is required to apply a federally mandated formula to determine how much of the federal funding was “earned” by the student. This review and recalculation is called a “Return of Title IV Aid Calculation.”
Student Financial Aid and Withdrawing from Classes
Withdrawing, officially or unofficially, may result in a recalculation of your financial aid for the semester. The exact consequences to you depend on several factors, including the type and amount of aid and your last date of attendance. The consequences for each of these academic actions are different and are addressed in this policy.
Official Withdrawals
Students can drop full-term courses without record the first fourteen days of a semester. Flex courses may be dropped without record during the first week of the course. After that time, in order to officially withdraw from courses, a student must contact their academic advisor. A student may withdraw from full-term courses and receive a grade of W until the first day of the fifteenth week of the semester or, for the summer semester, the beginning of the eighth week. A student’s withdrawal date is determined as the student’s last day of attendance.
Unofficial Withdrawals
If a student stops attending a course but does not officially withdraw (as outlined above), then a student’s instructor will assign a grade for that course that will remain on the student’s official permanent record. If a student simply stops attending classes rather than officially withdrawing through their academic advisor, they will be subject to the same financial aid consequences addressed below. The withdrawal date for unofficial withdraws is the student’s last day of attendance.
Return of Title IV Funds Process for Federal Aid
The federal government mandates that students who withdraw from all classes may keep only aid earned up to the withdrawal date. For official and unofficial withdraws, the Financial Aid Office uses the student’s last date of attendance in its Return of Title IV calculation. If a student is eligible for federal Title IV aid and fails to attend at least 60% of a semester, the Financial Aid Office must determine how much of the student’s aid, if any, must be returned to the federal aid programs based on the percent of the semester attended. Once a student attends 60% of the term, they are considered to have earned 100% of awarded federal aid. The semester length is defined as the first day of classes through the last day of the semester.
When a student is considered to have withdrawn during an enrollment period in which they have begun attendance and received federal Title IV financial aid, Belmont College is required to determine the amount of earned and unearned Title IV aid. A student is only eligible to retain the percentage of Title IV aid disbursed that is equal to the percentage of the enrollment period that was attended by the student.
The unearned Title IV aid must then be returned to the appropriate federal aid program(s) as soon as possible but no later than 45 days after the date of the determination of a student’s withdrawal.
The federal regulations determine the order of program funds are returned. Funds returned to the federal government are used to reimburse individual federal programs. Financial aid funds are returned in the following order up to the calculated unearned amount:
- Federal Unsubsidized Direct Loan,
- Federal Subsidized Direct Loan
- Federal Direct PLUS (Parent) Loan
- Federal Pell Grant
- Federal Supplemental Educational Opportunity Grant (FSEOG)
If it is determined that a student received unearned funds, the return of this overpayment may result in a balance due to the Business Office. If the R2T4 calculation results in an amount to be returned, Belmont College will return the amount to the federal programs on behalf of the student and the student must repay the funds to Belmont College.
Post-Withdrawal Disbursement
If it is determined that the student earned more federal funds than what has been disbursed at the time the student withdraws, the student may be issued a post-withdrawal disbursement. All post-withdrawal disbursements are applied to a student’s account first towards outstanding tuition, fees, and charges.
Federal grant funds determined for a post-withdrawal disbursement must be disbursed within 45 days. If the post-withdrawal disbursement includes direct loan funds, they will be offered to the student within 30 days. Belmont College must obtain student permission within 14 days in order to disburse the loan funds to the student. The student may choose to decline some or all of the loan funds. If the R2T4 calculation results in a credit balance on the student’s account, the credit balance will be disbursed as soon as possible but no later than 14 days after the calculation of R2T4.
Some courses, although for credit, may not be eligible for federal aid. Only courses that are required for your degree completion are eligible for Federal Aid. Courses such as the mining courses (MIN1100, MIN1200 & MIN2200), CDL truck driving and energy courses (GIS1100 & NGT1100) are generally not covered under financial aid unless it can be used as an elective for programs such as Industrial Electronics; prior approval and course substitutions by the Faculty Lead are required. Pre-Admit courses are only eligible to be counted for student loan credit hours. They are not Pell eligible.
In addition, AHT1100 does not qualify for Pell Grant for students enrolled in the Associate of General Science degree or any of the nursing programs. However, if the student is taking at least 3 more qualifying credit hours, a student may be eligible to use Federal Direct Loan funds to assist with the cost of these courses. Ineligible programs Students who are transient (TRN), College Credit Plus (ADP), fire classes (FND), nurse aide (CNS) or non-degree seeking (NDS) are not eligible for federal financial aid at Belmont College.
Education requires the investment of money and effort on behalf of the student. In return for this investment, productive employment, social development, intellectual enrichment, or personal satisfaction is expected. A college education is one of the greatest investments students make. As a consumer, the student should understand the school’s policies and procedures, financial aid, and any other information necessary to help make the final decision to attend. It is the student’s responsibility to carefully evaluate the product (education and training) and fully understand what they will be purchasing.
Students have the right to know the following:
- Financial assistance available, including information on all Federal, state, and institutional financial aid programs.
- Deadlines for submitting applications for each of the financial aid programs available.
- Cost of attending the institution and the College’s refund policy.
- Criteria used by the institution to select financial aid recipients.
- How the College determines individual financial need. This process includes identification of minimum costs for tuition and fees, room and board, travel, books, supplies, personal, and miscellaneous expenses, etc.
- Resources (such as family contributions, other financial aid, personal assets, etc.) considered in the calculation of individual financial need.
- Whether the individual financial need determined by the institution has been appropriately met.
- An explanation from the Financial Aid Office about the various programs in the student aid package. If a student believes he/she has been treated unfairly, he/she may appeal the decision.
- The portion of the financial aid received that is considered to be a loan (must be repaid), and the portion that is considered to be a grant (does not need to be repaid). If the financial aid is in the form of a loan, the student has the right to know the interest rate, the total amount to be repaid, repayment procedures, the length of time in which to repay the loan, and when the repayment schedule will begin.
- How the College determines whether satisfactory academic progress is being made (see “SATISFACTORY ACADEMIC PROGRESS FOR FINANCIAL AID RECIPIENTS”), and the consequences of unsatisfactory progress (see “Financial Aid Warning / Suspension”).
Students have the responsibility to:
- Review and consider all information about the College’s programs before enrollment.
- Complete all application forms accurately and submit them on time to the appropriate office/ agency.
- Pay close attention to and accurately complete the application for student financial aid. Errors can result in delays in receiving financial assistance. Intentional reporting of erroneous information on application forms for Federal financial aid is a violation of law and is considered to be a criminal offense subject to penalties under the U.S. Criminal Code.
- Return all supplemental documentation, verification, corrections, and/or new information requested by either the Financial Aid Office or the agency to which the application was submitted.
- Read, understand, and keep copies of all forms that have been signed by the student. Ask questions if you need further clarification.
- Accept responsibility for all signed agreements (see #5).
- Notify loan servicer of any changes in student name, address, or school status.
- Perform the agreed-upon job duties for Federal Work Study awards.
- Know and comply with the deadlines for application (and re-application) for assistance.
- Know and comply with the College’s refund policies and procedures.
If a student’s projected income for the current year is less than the income reported on the FAFSA, then the student should check with Financial Aid to see if he/she is eligible for a special circumstances review. Special Circumstances include: loss of employment due to lay-off, termination or reduction; loss of earnings due to disability or natural disaster; loss of an untaxed income or benefit; death of a wage earner; or unusual medical or dental expenses. Please contact the Financial Aid Office to start the Special Circumstance process.
Unusual Circumstances refer to the conditions that justify an aid administrator making an adjustment to a student’s dependency status based on a unique situation (e.g., human trafficking, refugee or asylee status, parental abandonment, incarceration), more commonly referred to as a dependency override. It is asked on the FAFSA if you have an unusual circumstance. Marking “yes” to this question will prompt the Financial Aid office to send you additional information on the appeal process. You may also contact the Financial Aid Office to start the Unusual Circumstances process.