Help & FAQs

Your financial aid offer may include funds from any of the following major Federal Student Aid programs:

•  Federal Pell Grants – are available to undergraduate students only. Grants do not have to be repaid. Pell Grant awards are based on the federally calculated Student Aid Index (SAI).
•  Federal Direct Loans – are student loans that must be repaid. A subsidized loan is awarded on the basis of financial need. If you're eligible for a subsidized loan, the government will pay (subsidize) the interest on your loan while you're in school, for the first six months after you leave school, and during any periods when your payments are deferred (postponed). For an unsubsidized loan, you are responsible for the interest from the time the unsubsidized loan is disbursed until it is paid in full. Annual maximum loan amounts increase for subsequent years of study.
•  Direct PLUS loans - are loans made to parents of dependent undergraduate students. All students must complete a FAFSA to determine their Direct Loan eligibility before a PLUS loan can be processed. The amount of the PLUS offer is the difference in the Cost of Attendance and any other financial aid. Eligibility for the PLUS Loan is based on credit worthiness, however, dependent undergraduate students whose parent is unable to obtain a PLUS loan may borrow additional unsubsidized loans at the higher loan limits otherwise available only to independent undergraduates.

Other aid programs that are awarded based on need and availability:

•  Federal Supplemental Educational Opportunity Grants – are grants available for undergraduates only. The school receives a set amount from the Department of Education and once the funds are exhausted then no additional students can be awarded.
•  Federal Work Study – provides jobs to students allowing them to earn money to help pay education expenses.

To learn more about the types of federal financial aid, visit 'Types of Federal Financial Aid.'

Eligibility for federal student aid depends upon your Student Aid Index  (SAI), grade level, number of credit hours enrolled, dependency status, availability, and the Cost of Attendance (COA).

When your FAFSA information is reviewed a financial aid offer is constructed for you. Your offer will include the maximum amount of Federal Student Aid you may be eligible for at that time. If your FAFSA information or other educational information changes, your aid eligibility may also be adjusted.

Keep in mind that offer amounts vary and depend upon your financial need (as determined by the federal government - based on results of the FAFSA). Direct Loan funding eligibility is based on your grade level and dependency status and are subjected to yearly loan limits and aggregate lifetime loan limits.

Yearly loan limits:

Aggregate loan limits:

• As a dependent undergraduate student you may borrow up to $31,000 in direct loans
• As an independent undergraduate student you may borrow up to $57,500 in direct loans

The Free Application for Student Aid (FAFSA) is the standardized application for Federal Student Aid and it is FREE to complete. Students (and parents – if you are classified as a dependent student) submit this application annually online. It can be found at FAFSA.gov. This is the U.S. Department of Education's official website for completion of the FAFSA and all services provided through the site are free. *Make sure you are completing the correct FAFSA year. To allow release of your FAFSA results to Columbus State, you must enter our Federal School Code (006867). 

Note: In order for Columbus State Community College to be able to review your results from the Department of Education upon processing of your FAFSA, you must have already applied for admission to our college. Visit Admissions at Columbus State.

Contributor is a new term for 2024-25. It refers to anyone (you, your spouse, your biological or adoptive parent, or your parent’s spouse) who’s asked to provide their information, consent and approval to have their federal tax information transferred automatically from the IRS into the FAFSA form, and signature on your FAFSA form. Being identified as a contributor on the FAFSA form won’t make your family member responsible for paying for your education costs.

The FAFSA application will present a series of questions as you complete the form to assist you in determining who you need to list as those individuals.  If you are an independent student who is married, your spouse may need to provide their information on the form.  If you are a dependent student, one who is required to provide parental information on the FAFSA, there are a series of questions you will be asked to determine who should be listed.  Here is a link to a document that may be helpful to you – Is my parent a contributor on my FAFSA application?

Yes, each contributor who is required to provide information on your FAFSA will need to set up their own StudentAid.gov account.  This account will allow these individuals to access your form, complete their required information, sign, and submit the form. 

Any contributor who is required to complete information on the FAFSA can create a StudentAid.gov account without an SSN.  See ‘How to Submit a 2024-25 FAFSA If Your Contributor Doesn’t Have An SSN.’

The FAFSA application requires federal tax information to determine your federal student aid eligibility. To access the IRS system to retrieve this information each contributor on your application must provide their consent and approval for the Federal Processing System (FPS) to complete the download of the federal tax information.  ALL contributors on your FAFSA application must provide this authorization or your application cannot be processed.

The FAFSA Submission Summary (FSS) was previously known as the Student Aid Report (SAR) prior to the 2024-25 award year.  This summary will be created once your submitted FAFSA has been processed. You will receive an email providing instructions from the Federal Processing System (FPS) on how to access this document. 

The FAFSA Submission Summary has been specifically designed to highlight your eligibility for federal student aid. It will include the answers that you submitted on your FAFSA form (except for any federal tax information that was transferred directly from the IRS), your SAI, and an estimation of the amount of federal student aid that you may be eligible for.  See ‘What You Need To Know About the FAFSA Submission Summary.’

NOTE:  Your FAFSA Submission Summary is NOT an aid offer.  The aid offer will come from CSCC’s Financial Aid Department and will indicate your exact student aid you are eligible to receive.

To access and make corrections to your FAFSA visit ‘What You Need To Know About the FAFSA Submission Summary’ for information on how to access the document and make any required corrections. 

The SAI is an eligibility index number that Columbus State financial aid uses to determine how much federal student aid you can receive. This number results from the information that you provided in your FAFSA form.

Most of the tax information used to calculate the SAI is transferred directly from the IRS into the FAFSA form. (Some FAFSA applicants may need to manually provide tax information.)

Note: The SAI is not a dollar amount of aid eligibility or what your family is expected to provide. A negative SAI indicates the student has higher financial need.

See ‘How is the Student Aid Index Calculated’ for more information.

The SAI was previously called ‘EFC.’

On the home page, studentaid.gov go to the Contact Us link at the bottom of the page. This page lists all of the available options for getting additional assistance.

If your family has unusual circumstances (such as a loss of employment, loss of benefits, death or divorce), complete the FAFSA to the extent that you can and submit it for processing as instructed. Once the FAFSA has been submitted you may contact Student Central to set up an appointment with an advisor to discuss your situation.

In the event your family's financial circumstances have changed significantly from the prior-prior tax year used to complete the FAFSA, the College may be able to adjust data elements on the FAFSA that were used to calculate the EFC. This adjustment occurs on a case-by-case basis. A representative from Student Central can assist with this as well. Special Circumstances Appeal

You should complete and submit your FAFSA application as soon as possible. You can file the FAFSA after October 1** each year. We encourage all students to apply as soon as possible as some resources are limited and may run out. For students applying early, notifications of awards will be typically available in January or February. The Federal Deadline to file the FAFSA application requires submission prior to June 30th of the following year. Make sure you are completing the correct FAFSA year as it is based on the semesters you are planning on attending.

**For the 2025-26 award year, the FAFSA will be available beginning December 1, 2025. This application will become valid for the semesters of Autumn 2025, Spring 2026 and Summer 2026.

Many factors come into play when calculating eligibility. It is not based on income alone. The calculation formula considers income, household size, some assets, and many other factors, much of this information coming from your tax information. There is not a simple income chart.

Federal student aid programs are based on the concept that it is primarily your and your family's responsibility to pay for your education to the full extent possible. Because a dependent student is assumed to have the support of parents, the parents' information must be assessed along with the student's, in order to get a full picture of the family's financial status. If you are a dependent student, it does not mean that your parents are required to pay anything toward your education, including their information is simply the method the Department of Education uses to evaluate everyone in a consistent manner.

Determining a student's dependency status is important in determining a student's eligibility for federal aid programs. Your answers to questions on the FAFSA determine whether you are considered a dependent or independent student. An applicant is considered to be a dependent student unless he or she can answer "Yes" to one of the Personal Circumstances questions on the FAFSA. If the student applicant answers "No" to all of the dependency status questions, then he or she is considered to be a dependent student for federal student aid purposes and must provide parental information. Visit ‘Dependency Status’ for more information.

Please be aware that not living with your parents or not being claimed by them on tax forms does not make you an independent student for purposes of applying for federal student aid. Occasionally, unusual circumstances may exist that warrant a review of a student's dependency status. If you feel that you have a special circumstance that prevents you from including your parent's information on your application, contact the student financial aid office for more information. Special Circumstances Appeal

Federal law updated the determination of the family size to more closely align with persons who are eligible to be claimed as dependents on a federal tax return (as defined in the Internal Revenue Code). Unborn children, even if they are due to be born during the award year, are not included in the family size.

Verification is a process mandated by the US Department of Education to confirm the accuracy of the information provided on the FAFSA via submission of specific documentation and forms by the selected student and/or parent. All requested documentation must be provided before a student's financial aid eligibility can be determined.

If you are selected for verification a request for specific documentation will be sent via email to your CSCC student email account. You will be instructed to log in to selfservice.cscc.edu to view the specific documents required. Submit only the requested information. It is important that you submit the requested information as soon as possible. Your application for financial aid will not be completed until information has been submitted and reviewed by the College.

Financial need is the difference between your cost of attendance (COA), as determined by the College, and your student aid index (SAI). Many federal student aid programs require applicants to demonstrate a financial need to be considered eligible for that program. The amount of your financial aid offer will be affected by whether you are a full time or part time student and whether you attend school for a full academic year or less.

If you believe that you have unusual circumstances that should be taken into account in determining your financial need, contact Student Central. Unusual circumstances might include extremely high medical or dental expenses not covered by insurance or a significant change in income from one year to the next.

Colleges and universities are required by law to establish a Cost of Attendance (COA) which identifies the costs associate with a student attending a college or university. COA includes both direct charges (such as tuition and fees) as well as indirect costs (such as living expenses and books & supplies). The aid package for a given award year is based on COA, your results from the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA), and the assumption of full-time enrollment (it will be adjusted for less-than-full-time enrollment or for single-term enrollment). See Cost of Attendance for full information.

No.  If eligible for Federal Pell Grant, the amount disbursed is based on the number of financial aid eligible credit hours for a given semester. A student must be enrolled at least 6 financial aid eligible credit hours for federal direct student loans to disburse.

The FAFSA is a "snap shot" of your status on the day you submit it. Therefore, you should report your marital status as of the day you submit the FAFSA. 

Financial Aid students who completely withdraw (or are reported as not attending by instructors) from ALL classes during a given term may be subject to repayment of federal funds to the U.S. Department of Education. This requirement is called the 'Return of Unearned Title IV Funds Policy'. The return of these funds may create a balance owed to the college.

The policy states that a student must attend through the 60% point of the term in order to earn their federal financial aid. Students are issued financial aid at the beginning of the semester in “good faith,” meaning that the student will follow through by attending and completing the classes that were paid through financial aid.

The U. S. Department of Education requires that unearned Title IV calculations be based on the number of calendar days the student actually attended the course divided by the total number of calendar days in the semester.

If you drop your level of enrollment after the financial aid has been disbursed you may be placed on Satisfactory Academic Progress (SAP) suspension. When a student receives federal assistance to attend college, he or she is expected to complete at least two-thirds of the credit hours of the classes which were paid for using federal funds. See Satisfactory Academic Progress (SAP).

Columbus State uses a 'freeze date' each semester to determine a student's enrollment status for disbursing financial aid. Financial aid will only pay for courses added before the freeze date for a class section. The financial aid freeze date is determined individually for each class scheduled. If a student adds or drops classes before the freeze date, the student's financial aid will be recalculated and adjusted accordingly. A student may owe funds back to the financial aid programs as a result of these changes.

If a student makes schedule changes after the freeze date their Pell Grant disbursement will not be adjusted unless they drop or are dropped administratively from ALL classes for the semester, however, Direct Loan disbursements may be affected it the student's enrollment status drops below 6 credit hours at any time during the semester.

You can apply for Columbus State scholarships on our Scholarships webpage during open application times. You can also visit other scholarship services such as Fastweb.com. It's important to be aware there are scholarship scams out there as well.  Visit the U.S. Federal Trade Commission's website 'How to Avoid Scholarship and Financial Aid Scams' for more information.

No. For additional information on how you can receive federal aid in this situation, see 'Transient Student Financial Aid.'

If you transfer from CSCC to another institution within an academic year, you must check with your new school's financial aid office about how you will receive your aid. Due to availability and other factors such as cost, you may not be able to receive the same amounts and types of aid. However, you may not have to complete a new FAFSA again, but you would have to send your FAFSA results to your other school by adding their school code to your application.

Please see 'Transferring Financial Aid' for details.

Generally, scholarships, or any other types of funding applied to your student account to pay for tuition or fees are considered to be additional resources. Any additional resource that is available to you is taken into consideration when calculating your aid eligibility. If you should receive an additional resource after you have been awarded you should report it to the College immediately. According to federal regulations the College is required to adjust your award if changes in your eligibility occur due receipt of an additional resource.

Yes. Federal regulations limit the number of times a student may repeat a course and receive financial aid for that course.

Students may only receive federal financial aid funding for one repeat of a previously passed course. For this purpose, passed means any grade higher than an “E,” regardless of any program policy requir­ing a higher grade to have been considered to have passed the course. All courses attempted at CSCC are included in this requirement including courses previously attempted and paid with non-federal financial aid funds.

A student may receive funding multiple times for repeated failed courses (normal Satisfactory Academic Progress policy still applies to such cases), and if a student withdraws be­fore completing the course that he or she is being paid Federal Student Aid funds for re­taking, then that is not counted as his or her one allowed retake for that course. However, if a student passed a class once then is repaid for retaking it and fails the second time, that failure counts as their paid retake, and the student may not be paid for retaking the class a third time.

Examples of repeated coursework that may, or may not, count for financial aid eligibility: 

Allowable: Repeated coursework may be included if the student received an unsatisfactory or failing grade. There is no limit on the number of attempts allowable if the student does not receive a passing grade.

Allowable: Student is enrolled in 15 credit hours which include 3 credit hours repeating a previously passed course. Because the student is enrolled in a minimum of 12 credits which are not repeats, the student's financial aid eligibility is not impacted by the repeat.

Not permissible: Student receives a D in a course and decides to repeat the course to improve his/her GPA. The student may repeat this passed course one time, but if the student wants to repeat it a second time, the second repeat would not count for financial aid eligibility.

All repeated courses do affect financial aid Satisfactory Academic Progress (SAP) calculations. A repeated course along with the original attempt must be counted as attempted credits. See Satisfactory Academic Progress (SAP) link for further information.

Once you submit your FAFSA, you can check on the process by logging back into StudentAid.gov.  Upon completion of the FAFSA and the release to Columbus State, you can verify we have received it on your Financial Aid Self Service per your Checklist.

The federal processor typically takes 3 to 5 days to process a newly submitted completed FAFSA application.  However, if the application requires signatures or contributor information, then the processing time frame will be delayed.  It’s important to monitor your personal email you provided on your FAFSA to keep on top of any issues with your application.

Once the application is released to Columbus State, which is allowed by your adding Columbus State’s Federal School Code (006867), it can take a few days to several weeks to complete.  It will depend on whether we require additional documents and where we are with processing for that year.

It’s important to monitor your Columbus State email for any communication the college may send regarding your application. During peak season, we do experience processing delays, so it’s important to file as early as possible.

Here are some common reasons your FAFSA may not be showing on Financial Aid Self Service.

• Check to make sure you entered the correct SSN (Social Security Number) on the FAFSA.
• Check to see if our Federal School code (006867) was listed on your FAFSA. This allows the federal processor to release your results to Columbus State.
• Check your SPAM filter for messages from the federal processor.
• If you applied for Financial Aid before you applied for Columbus State, your FAFSA record will not be able to be loaded into our system.

If you still have questions, visit Student Central or call the Telephone Information Center at (614) 287-5353.