Financial aid is money to help students pay for their education. Awards are made available from grants, scholarships, loans, and South Carolina Lottery Tuition Assistance from federal, state, institutional, and private sources. Almost all financial aid is awarded in the form of an "award package" to meet the cost of education. Packages can be composed of grants, scholarships, federal loans and work study programs. Financial need, available funds, student classification, academic performance, and sometimes the timeliness of the financial aid application determine the types and amounts of aid awarded.
A Financial Aid Offer is how a college notifies the student of his/her financial aid options. The Offer Letter lists the types and amounts of financial aid the student is eligible for.
You can access your Financial Aid Offer through Self-Service > Financial Aid (login required).
When you receive your Financial Aid Offer, if you are enrolled in courses, compare your offer to your account summary’s ‘total amount currently due’. If you have not yet enrolled, view the college's tuition and fees for the semester in which you are seeking enrollment. This will give you an idea of what to expect.
Please be aware your Financial Aid Offer lists aid amounts assuming full-time enrollment. Amounts will adjust based on the number of hours enrolled.
The FAFSA process will tell you. Even if you do make too much for need-based grants, you may still be eligible for a student loan and/or South Carolina Lottery Tuition Assistance.
Yes. Students must file FAFSA for each award year.
Timing is important. The latest FAFSA should be submitted is three months prior to the academic term for which aid is requested. The award year for financial aid begins in the fall, and ends the following summer, and a FAFSA needs to be completed or renewed each financial aid year. Some types of financial aid have limited funds, and earlier applications have an advantage. Some grants and scholarships have a specific deadline for applying, which is indicated in each program description.
The Free Application for Federal Student Aid or FAFSA is the federal application that must be completed to receive all federal aid, South Carolina Lottery, and some scholarships. The U.S. Department of Education uses the form to calculate your level of financial need. Greenville Technical College uses the FAFSA to determine whether you’re eligible for federal student aid, including Pell Grants, student loans, and work-study.
The application may be completed online at www.fafsa.gov. You will have your FAFSA results sent to GTC by entering our college code (#003991) when prompted online.
The FAFSA asks for marital status as of the day you fill it out, but it asks for income and tax return information from 2 years prior to the academic year. (For example, you would use your 2018 tax return and/or income if you are attending 2020 Fall, 2021 Spring, 2021 Summer.) Therefore, your marital status may be different than it was when you filed your tax return.
In some cases, your financial aid information can be adjusted if you have extreme, unusual, or special circumstances in life that may result in the need to review your financial situation as it relates to Financial Aid. This is called a request for a “Special Circumstance” adjustment and requires a student to submit various forms of documentation to the financial aid office. Because the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) is based on two year’s prior income, a Financial Aid Office has the capability to use “Professional Judgment” to make adjustments when a student, spouse or parent experiences unusual or special circumstances which affect their current financial situation.
Such appeals are considered based on federal regulations and professional judgment policies. Some of the most common reasons for an adjustment to be made are: loss of employment, receiving a one-time lump sum disbursement, loss of a parent or spouse due to death or divorce, drastic changes to income etc.
To determine if your situation meets the qualifications, please consult with the office of financial aid about the Special Circumstance Request form.
Students can make corrections after receiving the Student Aid Report (SAR):
No. Since your parents’ citizenship doesn’t affect your ability to complete the FAFSA form, they don’t need SSNs. If your parents don’t have SSNs, they must enter 000-00-0000 when the FAFSA form asks for your parents’ SSNs.
If your parents don’t have SSNs, they won’t be able to create FSA IDs and therefore won’t be able to sign your FAFSA form electronically. You’ll have to print out the signature page from the online FAFSA form so that your parents can sign it and mail it to the address indicated.
If your legal parents (your biological and/or adoptive parents, or parents as determined by the state [e.g., a parent listed on your birth certificate]) are married to each other, answer the questions about both of them, regardless of whether your parents are of the same or opposite sex.
If your legal parents are not married to each other and live together, answer the questions about both of them, regardless of whether your parents are of the same or opposite sex.
If your legal parent is widowed or was never married, answer the questions about that parent.
You need to provide information about only one parent. Usually, this is the parent who has primary custody. If you split time between your parents, use the parent with whom you have spent the most time during the past year. If you lived the same amount of time with each divorced or separated parent, give answers about the parent who provided more financial support during the past 12 months or during the most recent 12 months that you actually received support from a parent.
Please be advised that for FAFSA purposes, your married parents are separated if they are considered legally separated by a state, or if they are legally married but have chosen to live separate lives, including living in separate households, as though they were not married.
When two married persons live as a married couple but are separated by physical distance (or have separate households), they are considered married for FAFSA purposes.
As long as they’re living together, you need to provide information about both of them. That’s also true if your parents are same-sex partners, whether they’re married to each other or not.
If your divorced parents live together, you’ll indicate their marital status as “Unmarried and both legal parents living together," and you will answer questions about both of them on the FAFSA form.
If your separated parents live together, you’ll indicate their marital status as “Married or remarried" (NOT “Divorced or separated"), and you will answer questions about both of them on the FAFSA form.
If you have a stepparent who is married to the legal parent whose information you’re reporting, you must provide information about that stepparent as well.
EXCEPTION: The FAFSA form asks about your parents’ education level. For these two questions, your parents are considered to be your birth parents or adoptive parents—your stepparent is not your parent in these questions.
In situations such as the ones below, you may be able to submit your FAFSA form without parent information despite being considered a dependent student:
If you are filling out the FAFSA form online or on the myStudentAid app, you will be asked whether you are able to provide information about your parents. If you are not, you will have the option to indicate that you have special circumstances that make you unable to get your parents’ information. You will then be able to submit your application without entering data about your parents.
However, it is important for you to understand the following:
Although your FAFSA form will be submitted, it will not be fully processed. You will not receive an Expected Family Contribution (EFC) and must immediately contact the Financial Aid Office.
The financial aid staff may ask for additional information to determine whether you can be considered independent and have an EFC calculated without parent data. Gather as much written evidence of your situation as you can. Written evidence may include court or law enforcement documents; letters from a clergy member, school counselor or social worker; and/or any other relevant data that explains your special circumstance.
The Financial Aid Office’s decision about your dependency status is final and cannot be appealed to the U.S. Department of Education.
Although GTC does not have a strict FAFSA submission deadline, we do have a submission request date. This means that students who submit their FAFSA by the given date will have adequate time for their aid being calculated and award letter generated when compared to students who do not meet the submission request date. These are the dates by which you need to have received your financial aid award letter before the payment deadline.
The dates for each semester are:
Per the Consolidated Appropriations Act and effective with the 2012-2013 award year, Pell LEU is a provision that limits the duration of a student’s eligibility to receive a Federal Pell Grant to the equivalent of 12-full-time (12 credit hours or more) semesters.
The amount of Federal Pell Grant funds you may receive over your lifetime is limited by federal law to be the equivalent of six years (or 12 full-time semesters) of Pell Grant funding. Since the maximum amount of Pell Grant funding you can receive each year is equal to 100%, the six-year equivalent is 600%.
A formula established by the U. S. Congress calculates the Expected Family Contribution (EFC) or what the family can contribute to education. Greenville Technical College determines the student's financial aid eligibility based on the results of this formula. The formula takes into account the family's income, assets, number of family members, and number in the household attending college at least half-time. The EFC is based on income from the prior year of enrollment. For example, for the 2017-2018 academic year, the student's (and parents', if required) 2015 income is considered when calculating the contribution.
Students who fail to meet the Standards of Satisfactory Academic Progress as defined in the college catalog and student handbook have the option of submitting an appeal.
A student may only submit two appeals during their time at Greenville Technical College.A Student Aid Report (SAR) is a document the student receives after the FAFSA has been processed by the U.S. Department of Education. The SAR will list all of the answers provided on the FAFSA. The SAR will contain an individual's Expected Family Contribution (EFC), which is used to determine eligibility for federal student aid. The institution will use this number to determine eligibility for financial aid based on the school's cost of attendance.
Satisfactory Academic Progress (SAP) measures completion of coursework toward a certificate or degree. SAP is required by all federal aid programs to ensure that students who are receiving aid are making measurable progress toward completion of a degree, diploma or certificate program within a reasonable time frame. Federal regulations require us to monitor your progress. If you fall behind in completion of classes or fail to achieve GPA standards you may lose eligibility for federal and state aid.
Performance is measured in the following areas:
The U.S. Department of Education requires a college's financial aid office to verify the accuracy of FAFSA data. A student may be asked to submit documents, such as a federal income tax return transcript W-2's, or proof of identity to the financial aid office before student gets aid. If the requested documents are not provided, it may mean cancellation of financial aid. Aid will be delayed until documents have been received and processed. All requested documents MUST be turned in together! To avoid delays, we ask that you submit a all requested items by the following dates:
Entrance loan counseling provides the student with information to ensure that you understand the responsibilities and obligations you are assuming with student loans. It also includes information about how to manage your student loans, both during and after college. This is required for all first-time borrowers at Greenville Technical College and must be completed before loans are certified with the lender.
Although there are many reasons why a loan has not processed, the most common reasons are:
South Carolina Lottery Tuition Assistance (SCLTA) is available for eligible students enrolled in a minimum of 6 credit hours per semester. Lottery will pay a specified amount per credit hour of tuition not covered by other grants such as Pell Grant, FSEOG grant etc. Lottery applies to tuition only and therefore cannot be used to purchase books or act as a refund to the student. Lottery also cannot be used to cover lab fees, pass-thru fees, or other miscellaneous non-tuition charges. The maximum award may change each term.
* Please note, transfer credits count as an attempt.
When I tried to register online, it said I have a flag or a hold on my account. What does that mean?
It is always best to contact the financial aid office PRIOR to withdrawing. Some examples of what withdrawing from a class may do
Excess funds/Refunds (amount of your aid that is left after tuition, fees, books, and supplies have been deducted) are mailed to the student address on file 35 to 45 business days after the first day of class.
You may also choose to have your financial aid refund deposited directly to your bank account. If so, you must sign up for direct deposit during the first 2 weeks of the full semester by accessing Self Service in GTC4me.
The Bursar's Office processes refunds weekly and will have all refunds processed within 15 calendar days of funds being credited to your account.