Financial Aid Award Offers

Need-based aid is financial aid you can receive if you have financial need and meet other eligibility criteria. You can’t receive more need-based aid than the amount of your financial need.

Calculation of Your Financial Need: Cost of Attendance – Student Aid Index = Financial Need

If your COA is $16,000 and your SAI is 12000, your financial need is $4,000; so you aren’t eligible for more than $4,000 in need-based aid.

Highline could potentially award you aid up to the $4000.00 amount. Most students do not get enough aid to meet 100% of their needs. See the section on COA for Highline College’s costs.

Need-based Aid is financial aid you can receive if you have financial need and meet other eligibility criteria. You can’t receive more need-based aid than the amount of your financial need. These may include:

The following are the need-based federal student aid programs:

• Federal Pell Grant
• Federal Supplemental Educational Opportunity Grant (FSEOG)
• Direct Subsidized Loan
• Federal Work-Study

Once our aid office receives all the required information and documents your application goes into the queue for processing. We process first student applications that made that particular quarter’s deadline on a first-come first-served basis. After an application is reviewed and all eligibility requirements are met, the application is awarded. However, if items are missing we will send an email to your Highline student account informing you of missing information or documents.

If the Department of Education selected your application for verification, we must verify the accuracy of the income and family member information. We cannot award your application until all information is complete and 100% accurate, including making corrections to your FAFSA Submission Summary.

If selected for verification you can access the correct verification form by accessing your information via the student portal.

You can correct FAFSA Submission Summary errors yourself and we automatically receive a new FAFSA Submission Summary from the processor. However, if you do not make the corrections, we will make the corrections after performing verification. A day or two after we have made corrections you will receive an email from the processor notifying you of the newly processed FAFSA Submission Summary with your new SAI , if it changed.

Once we receive your corrected FAFSA Submission Summary, usually 2-3 weeks later and depending upon the time of the quarter, your application may be awarded grants or work-study and if you requested a student loan it may be processed. Funding is not guaranteed.

You must provide us with this the required documentation or information by 120 days after the last date you attend class. If you miss this deadline, your application cannot be processed.

Watch your email, check your status, or stop by the aid office for a status on your application.

It is the student’s responsibility to submit the Verification Worksheet and applicable tax documents to the Financial Aid office. We will NOT accept tax documents sent directly from the IRS.

If you or your parent filed an amended tax return, and are selected for verification, you must submit both an IRS Tax Return Transcript AND a signed copy of your 1040X.

For a faster alternative: You can correct your FAFSA online by going to www.fafsa.gov and use the IRS Data Retrieval Tool.

Tax filers can request a tax return transcript, free of charge.

1. Request your Tax Transcript from IRS.
2. Set up an account with the IRS. They will email you a confirmation code to enter. Be sure to check your junk file in case the email is sent there.
3. Be sure to select “Return Transcript” and Appropriate Year.
4. If requesting online, print the Tax Transcript and submit it to Financial Aid.

You may request the tax transcript be sent online or via mail. Mail/paper IRS Tax Return Transcript should arrive within 5-10 business days from the time the online request was successfully transmitted.  If any information does not match the IRS records, the IRS will notify the tax filer that it was not able to provide the transcript.  It is the student’s responsibility to submit the transcript to the Financial Aid office.

The IRS Offers Help to Students, and Families to Get Tax Information for Student Financial Aid Applications is a great resource.

Highline College’s financial aid packaging philosophy is to provide limited funding in an equitable manner, based on a first-come first-served basis. Limited funding includes Federal Supplemental Opportunity Grant (FSEOG), Federal Work-Study (FWS), Washington College Grant (WCG), Washington State Work-Study (SWS), Institutional Tuition Waiver, (TW) and Institutional Grant (HC Grant).

At the time when limited grant funds are no longer available, awards are posted to eligible student records with a “no funds available” status.  If limited funds are available in the future the funds will be awarded to students in date order.

Work Study

FWS and SWS awards are awarded as “estimated” throughout the year.  The award is changed to an actual award once the student has been employed.  Students are responsible for checking the availability of job opportunities posted on our website.

Academic Year

The academic year consists of 3 quarters with approximately 11 weeks in a quarter. The summer quarter is also part of the standard academic year and is the last quarter of the academic year.

Every year students must complete the financial aid process to receive aid for the upcoming academic year.

After your loans or grants are awarded the Financial Aid Office starts paying your tuition several days before tuition is due. Then, several days before the quarter starts we calculate checks for any balance of funds remaining after tuition is paid.

Aid is disbursed once a quarter unless you are receiving a loan that must be disbursed in two payments/disbursements or you may receive another check if additional funds become available. If you missed the quarter deadline you must pay your own tuition out of pocket or sign up for the Tuition Payment Options.

Students must attend each class to be eligible for their grant and loan aid. Contact the Financial Aid Office if you do not begin attendance in each class you are registered for.

The Higher Education Act (HEA) provides the authority for financial aid administrators (FAA) to exercise some discretion when a student has special or unusual circumstances. This authority is known as professional judgment (PJ). It allows the FAA to treat a student individually when conditions exist that differentiate that student from a class of students. PJ decisions are made on a case-by-case basis as the result of examining an individual student’s unique circumstances. The FAA can exercise discretion in certain areas when a student’s family has special or unusual circumstances that are not adequately addressed by need analysis, regulations, or legislation. Circumstances requiring professional judgment are determined on a case-by-case basis with all circumstances well documented.

The FAA’s decision is final and cannot be appealed to the U.S. Department of Education, other campus departments or other personnel.

Professional judgment adjustments may increase or decrease a student’s EFC or cost of attendance. Specified adjustments may be made to specific data elements, but not to the formula. Adjustments made will apply to all institutional, state and Title IV aid awarded.

Circumstances for which Personal Judgment adjustments may be allowed

Examples of some circumstances which may warrant a professional judgment decision include, but are not limited to the following:

• A change in income affects the family’s ability to pay for college expenses. Examples include loss of employment, reduction in wages, and loss of untaxed benefits. If requesting consideration under loss of income, at least 25% of income must be lost.
  Documentation required: Change of Income Form
• Requests for a dependency override
  Documentation required: Petition for Dependency Override
• Excessive medical expenses
  Documentation required:  Verification of medical expenses paid by family (receipts, etc.) or documents reflecting unpaid medical expenses.
• Student is homeless or at risk of homelessness
  Documentation required: Determined on a case-by-case basis

The change of income is usually performed after an initial award is determined and verification is completed. Change of Income requests are usually processed within a two to three-week time frame. Change of Income forms are available to students on the determined date by the Financial Aid Office and can be found on the Forms page.

Situations that are not considered for Professional Judgment adjustments

• Change in marital status
• Change in family size
• A change of income for a dependent student (the change of income must be for his/her parent(s))

Financial aid awards are determined by the number of credits a student is enrolled for. All students are awarded based on full-time enrollment, which is 12 or more credits.

Full-time enrollment is not necessary to receive aid.

Adjustments to aid will be made for less than full-time enrollment by the census date each quarter. If you enroll for less than full-time, you must notify the Financial Aid Office prior to the start of the quarter. Financial Aid will only pay for credits required for completion of your program of study.

Enrollment Level	Credit Range	Financial Aid Adjustment
Full-time	12 or more	Grants at 100%
Three-quarter-time	9-11	Grants at 75%
Half-time	6-8	Grants between 0%- 50%
Less than half-time	1-5	Grants between 0%-25%, most often 0%

To receive federal and state financial aid, a student must be enrolled in an eligible degree or certificate program.

Eligible programs include:

• Associate Degrees:
  • Associate of Arts/Associate of Science (AA/AS)
  • Associate in Applied Science (AAS)
  • Associate of Applied Science-Transfer (AAS-T)
• Applied Baccalaureate Degrees (BAS)
  • Student must complete their lower division 2-year degree before being admitted into the BAS program
  • Students with remaining credits needed for their lower division 2-year degree who early admits to the BAS program will not be eligible for financial aid
• Certificate Programs
  • Programs that are at least 24 credits and which lead to a professional career

*Certificate programs that are less than 24 credits or stand-alone credentials are not eligible. Speak with your Faculty Advisor if you are unsure whether your program qualifies you to receive aid.

Students who receive federal student financial aid and many other types of aid are required to maintain Satisfactory Academic Progress (SAP). SAP is measured at the end of each term when grades are posted to your transcript, using the following measures:

• Grade Point Average (GPA): You must achieve a 2.0 GPA for the term and a 2.0 cumulative GPA to be in good standing.
• Pace of Progression: You could be placed in Warning Status if you do not complete at least 67% of your classes.
• Maximum Time Frame: You must make timely progress towards your degree.

Satisfactory Academic Progress Statuses

• Good Standing: You met all of the criteria for eligibility and will receive financial aid for the following term.
• Warning: At risk of being out of compliance. Two consecutive warnings will result in the suspension of financial aid.
• Suspended: You did not meet academic standards for the term and will not receive aid for the following term.

For more information, review the Satisfactory Academic Progress Policy.