Federal regulations stipulate that schools can only consider classes that count towards your degree requirements when awarding financial aid. JMU applies this regulation to federal aid programs, state aid programs, university grant programs, and private educational loans. Classes that can be counted when determining financial aid eligibility are those that:
- Count toward your Degree or General Education requirements
- Are required for your major
- Fulfill your elective hours to attain a minimum of 120 credit hours
Class Financial Aid Eligibility FAQ's
Regulations stipulate that schools can only consider classes that count toward your degree requirements when awarding you financial aid. Classes that can be counted when determining your financial aid eligibility are those that:
- Count toward your Degree or General Education requirements
- Are required for your major
- Fulfil your elective hours to attain a minimum of 120 credit
If you see a “No” next to one of your classes, then this class cannot be counted as part of your attempted credits when your financial aid eligibility is being determined.
For example, if you are registered for 12 credits, with 9 having a “Yes” and 3 having a “No,” then you will be considered a 9 hour student for the purposes of developing your financial aid package.
No, this is an individual student review as it is unique per student depending on what program of study you have declared and what classes you have already taken toward that program of study. It is not based on the class itself, but rather the unique situation of each student.
If you are taking at least a full-time load of classes (i.e., 12 undergraduate credits) that are eligible for financial aid consideration, then taking additional classes that are not eligible for consideration will have no impact on your financial aid eligibility.
Students must be enrolled for at least a half-time course load of financial aid eligible hours to receive financial aid. For example, an undergraduate student needs a “Yes” by at least 6 credit hours in a term to be considered for financial aid. The exception is if you are eligible for a Federal Pell Grant. In some situations, you can be enrolled for fewer than 6 hours and still receive this grant.
Students are only eligible to receive financial aid for classes that are needed to fulfill graduation requirements. Financial aid eligible classes are those that:
- Count toward your Degree or General Education requirements
- Are required for your major
- Fulfill your elective hours to attain a minimum of 120 credit hours
In some situations, there will be no impact on your financial aid. For example, if you are only eligible for the Federal Direct Subsidized Loan and Federal Direct Unsubsidized Loan, then the chances are extremely high that you will have the exact same loan eligibility taking 12 hours as you would taking 9, or even 6.
However, if you are eligible for grants, then your grant will be affected as you cannot receive a full-time grant if you have less than a full-time load of hours counting toward your financial aid eligibility. The same holds true if your parents wish to apply for a Parent PLUS Loan, as that eligibility will be reduced based on smaller levels of financial aid eligible hours.
You will still be charged for each class, whether the class is considered for financial aid or not. However, when your financial aid is credited to the bill, it will be applied to whatever class charges are on your bill, even if some of those classes were not factored into your financial aid eligibility.
For example, if you are registered for 12 credits, with 9 having a “Yes” and 3 having a “No,” then your financial aid package can only count you as a 9 hour student for the purposes of developing your financial aid package. However, you will be charged for 12 hours. When your financial aid is credited to your bill, it will be applied to the charges for all 12 credits. In many instances a less than full-time financial aid package will still be enough to cover full-time charges, but your financial aid refund could be smaller as a result of this.
It depends on if you are still working on major requirements then classes for a declared minor may be eligible for financial aid consideration.
However, if you have completed requirements for your major and satisfied all other graduation requirements, so you can technically graduate, the classes being taken for a minor would no longer be eligible for financial aid.
Yes, any class that counts toward a declared major is eligible for financial aid consideration. This includes situations where students may be double majoring.
Yes, any class that counts towards filling an elective (until you reach 120 cumulative credit hours, or the total number of credit hours required for your degree program) is eligible for financial aid consideration. It’s important to keep in mind that some programs provide students with more elective hours than others.
There are some valid reasons to submit an appeal. Some examples are:
- A course required for your major is displaying with a “No”.
- You are required to retake a course in order to raise your GPA (major, minor, or cumulative). In this situation, it’s important to note there are other rules that also come into play regarding how many times a student can receive financial aid for taking a course. You can learn more about those rules in Section 14: Effects of Repeating Classes of the Office of Financial Aid & Scholarship’s “Terms and Conditions of Financial Aid – Consumer Information”.
- You are required to take a course in order to replace test/transfer credit.
The following situations will not be considered for appeal (this is not an all-inclusive list):
- You want, or need, to be considered full-time for any reason (e.g., insurance, housing, etc.). Remember, if you are taking at least 12 credit hours a semester, you will be considered enrolled as a full-time student, even if all 12 credits are not “Aid Eligible.”
- You want to take classes to help make you a more desirable candidate for enrollment in a future degree program (e.g., graduate school, etc.).
- You are an undergraduate student taking graduate level classes that will only apply to a future graduate program (These classes are not counting towards any of your current undergraduate requirements).
- You wish to take additional, non-required, classes for exploratory purposes and you already have earned over the minimum number of credit hours to graduate (generally 120).
Students who have a valid appeal reason should submit the Appeal Form for Class Eligibility for Financial Aid found in the forms section as soon as possible.
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