Your eligibility is determined by a fairly complex procedure called “Federal need analysis.” Once you apply for aid, we respond to your application and ask you for various forms which are then used to determine you and/or your parents’ financial situation. When all the forms are here, we assign you a budget that fits your particular situation.

Secondly, we use the forms you have submitted to verify and sometimes to compute the financial strength of your family and/or yourself. We use the Federal need-analysis system required by the U.S. Department of Education to do this, so everyone is treated precisely the same.

This analysis yields the amount that you and/or your family are expected to contribute toward your yearly costs. Please note that the family contribution is not what the parents say they can contribute, but rather what the need analysis computation shows.

As the third and last step in the need analysis, the student/parent contribution is subtracted from the budget. The remainder, if any, is known as “Financial Aid Eligibility” or “financial need.” This figure is the one we work with when aid is offered. Our aid may not exceed this amount.

In case the number of applications for Federal Perkins NDSL, Federal SEOG or Federal Work-Study positions exceeds the funds available, preference will be given to those with the lowest family contribution and Pell Grant eligibility and those students who have filed early and completed their file by the priority deadline

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