The Office of Student Financial Aid provides students with assistance in acquiring resources to attend Rose State College. Students who meet eligibility requirements may qualify to receive federal, state or institutional funds. Assistance may be in the form of scholarships, grants, loans or work programs.

Students are encouraged to complete an application for assistance in January, February or March for the upcoming school year. Early application and completion of all required verification assures the student of best consideration for all programs. Program funding is limited. Usually, students who have applied and completed their files before June 1 are able to receive awards early enough to assist them for the fall semester. Students that wait until later to apply do not allow sufficient time for the process to be completed for a fall semester. A new FAFSA must be completed each school year.

The Office of Student Financial Aid is located in the Student Services Building in Room 200.  

Student financial aid applicants who are enrolled in the summer 2013 1st 4 week term and 8 week term and have been awarded can begin charging books at the bookstore May 28th, 2013 and will continue until June 7th, 2013 . 

In order to charge books, you must have been awarded a Federal Pell Grant that exceeds your tuition charges. RSC Financial Aid cannot determine federal aid eligibility for any student until the student has:

■enrolled,
■completed the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (www.fafsa.gov), listing RSC’s federal school code: 009185,
■submitted all requested supporting documentation to RSC,
■submitted all academic transcripts from previously attended schools.

If you are not eligible for a pell grant to charge your books and need a plan for your book expenses; we encourage you to explore the Rent-A-Text option offered by Follett Bookstore. For more information, visit www.rent-a-text.com.

IMPORTANT CHANGES TO FEDERAL PROCESSES FOR 2012-2013 AND BEYOND

LIMITATION ON NUMBER OF SEMESTERS OF PELL GRANT ELIGIBILITY

Beginning with the 2012-2013 FAFSA all students who are Pell Grant recipients (including students who have previously received Pell Grant) have a limit of 12 full-time equivalent semesters (600%) of eligibility. After 12 full-time equivalent semesters, eligibility ends. Students can check their eligibility used by going to http://www.nslds.ed.gov .

ABILITY TO BENEFIT

Beginning with July 1, 2012 and thereafter, a student enrolling in a college, university, technical center or career school will no longer be eligible for Federal Title IV student financial assistance unless they have a high school diploma, GED, or has completed requirements for high school through home schooling. New students will no longer have previous options such as testing or completing 6 credits of college level coursework to qualify for Federal Tile IV assistance.
Students who, prior to 7-1-12, were enrolled in an academic program that was eligible for Federal Title IV assistance may still be able to utilize those options to include previous ATB tests. Check with the Financial Aid Office for more information.

VERIFICATION PROCEDURES/IRS DATA RETRIEVAL TOOL

Families are encouraged to file the FAFSA online for 2012-2013 after they file their Federal Tax Return for 2011. Beginning in February 2012 families filing the FAFSA online who have tax return(s) on file will be able to request their IRS reported income and tax paid information be retrieved from the IRS and inserted on the FAFSA to insure accuracy of required income data on the FAFSA. Using the IRS Data Retrieval Tool helps improve the accuracy of the data used in the verification process and improves the efficiency of the verification.
If selected for verification, applicants and their families who do not use the IRS Data Retrieval Tool or are not able to meet the criteria for using the tool will be required to submit an IRS Tax Transcript, not a copy of their 1040, to the school. The submission of the IRS Tax Transcript is a regulatory requirement.
All applicants who are selected for verification will be required to submit either the Dependent or Independent Verification Worksheet to document household size and the number in college. Applicants who report receipt of food stamps and/or child support paid will be required to complete the appropriate section on the worksheet.
If your FAFSA data is selected for verification you will receive an email notification including a link to the Verification Worksheet on the Financial Aid Office Webpage http://www.rose.edu/Financial-Aid . You may pick up a hard copy of these documents in the Financial Aid Office.

LEGAL GUARDIANSHIP

The FAFSA now includes supplemental comments to help improve accuracy in completing questions 45-47 on the 2012-2013 FAFSA.

• The definition of legal guardianship does not include your parents even if they were appointed by a court to be your guardian.
• You, the applicant, are not considered to be a legal guardian of yourself.
Select, “Yes”, only if you can provide a copy of a court decision that you were in a legal guardianship immediately before you reached the age of being an adult in your state.

MARITAL STATUS

For the first time regulations allow college and university financial aid offices discretion to require students to update a change in their marital status, if it is necessary to more accurately reflect the status of the applicant and the applicant's ability to pay for school. Applicants are informed when they complete the FAFSA to check with their Financial Aid Office if the marital status changes after you complete and sign the FAFSA. Contact the Rose State College Financial Aid Office for more information should your marital status change.

FEDERAL STUDENT LOANS

Students borrowing a Subsidized Direct Stafford Loan between 7/1/12 and 7/1/14 (a two year period) should be aware that for this two year period the interest on these loans, though in all prior years was paid by the U.S. Department of Education will not be paid during the six month grace period provided to students when they are no longer enrolled on at least a half time-time basis. Like the Unsubsidized Direct Stafford Loan the interest will accrue during grace periods. During deferment periods the interest on Subsidized Direct Stafford loans will still be paid by the U.S. Department of Education. The Fixed interest rates for Unsubsidized Loans disbursed on or after 7/1/12 will be 6.8%. Any Direct Plus Loan disbursed on or after 7/1/12 will have a fixed interest rate of 7.9%.

Effective for loans first disbursed on or after July 1, 2012, the law eliminates the authority of the Department to offer any repayment incentives to Direct Loan borrowers to encourage on-time repayment of loans, including any reduction in the interest rate or origination fee. As a result, the up-front interest rebate that has been provided to Direct Loan borrowers at the time of loan disbursement will not be offered on any Direct Loan with a first disbursement date that is on or after July 1, 2012.