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Introduction To Financial Aid
The Financial Aid Office at Framingham State University assists matriculated students and their families in meeting the costs of an FSU education. Framingham State University participates in a wide variety of Federal, State, and private financial aid programs. The information contained on this web site will explain the procedures that must be followed in order to apply for financial aid. You are urged to read through this information carefully before applying for aid. Please feel free to contact the staff in the Financial Aid Office if you have any additional questions.
General Eligibility Requirements
In order to be eligible for Federal and State financial aid at Framingham State University, an applicant must be a U.S. citizen (or eligible non-citizen) and be enrolled (or accepted for enrollment) in a degree program at Framingham State University. Additionally, the applicant must:
- maintain satisfactory academic progress toward a degree,
- be in compliance with the Selective Service Law,
- not be in default of any educational loans or owe a refund of any federal grants to any institution,
- submit the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA)
- provide all requested documents to the Financial Aid Office
How To Apply For Financial Aid
In order to be given priority consideration for financial aid, a Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA), or a renewal FAFSA if you are a current aid recipient, must be filed with the Federal Student Aid Programs Processing Center by March 1, 2013 for the Fall 2013-Spring 2014 academic year. Be sure to include Framingham State University's federal school code number, 002185. The priority deadline for Spring 2014 applicants is November 1, 2013.
There has been a significant change to FAFSA filing this year, making the process easier for families and financial aid offices. The FAFSA now offers an IRS data match so that students and their parents can select this option to have the income section of their FAFSA automatically populated. There are some restrictions with the data match disallowing a small population from using the data match such as those who filed amended tax returns and married people filing separately. If taxes are filed electronically the data match should be available within 10-14 days. If a paper tax return is filed, the data match may not be available for 4-6 weeks. We strongly urge families to file their taxes electronically and to select the IRS data match if possible, so as not to delay receiving your financial aid package. You may request official “ tax return transcripts” (not a tax account transcript or record of account) from the IRS if you are unable to use the data match. You can request tax return transcripts by phone at 1-800-829-1040 or online at https://sa2.www4.irs.gov/irfof-tra/start.do
IMPORTANT TIPS:
- Our priority FAFSA filing deadline is March 1, 2013
- If selected for verification, you must do the data match prior to May 1st (or provide official IRS tax transcripts if you are unable to do the data match) in order to receive your financial aid package prior to billing.
- Please be sure to also keep paper copies of your tax returns as we will require full copies for clarification in some cases.
Ideally, you will want to file your taxes online (but also keep paper copies) and complete the FAFSA application 10-14 days later. We understand that many of you, however, will need to complete the FAFSA before your tax returns are completed in order to meet our March 1st deadline. If this is the case, we recommend that you log back into the FAFSA and update your FAFSA by selecting the data match when your taxes are completed.
We recommend that you apply on the Internet at www.fafsa.ed.gov but paper applications are still available at local high schools and in our office.
Dependent / Independent Student Status
Prior to processing financial aid, the dependency status of the student must be determined. The financial aid eligibility of a dependent student is based on the student's and parents' resources, while the financial aid eligibility of an independent student is based on the student's and spouse's resources (if applicable).
Students are considered independent if any one of the following is true:
- student was born before January 1, 1990
- student will be working on a degree beyond a bachelor's degree in the 2013-14 academic year
- student is married
- student is an orphan or ward of the court or was a ward of the court until age 18
- student is a veteran of the U.S. Armed Forces, or
- student is an emancipated minor as determined by a court, or
- student is or was in legal guardianship as determined by a court, or
- student was determined to be an unaccompanied youth who was homeless, or
- student has legal dependents other than a spouse.
