Eligibility Requirements and Criteria
Student eligibility requirements, criteria for selecting recipients from the group of eligible applicants, criteria for determining the amount of a student’s award, and criteria for continued student eligibility.
This information for almost all financial aid programs available to students at Messiah University can be found on the Messiah University Financial Aid Office web page, and at the federal website https://studentaid.ed.gov/sa/
Regular Student in an Eligible Program
It is particularly important for all students to understand the requirement that a person must be enrolled as a regular student in an eligible program in order to receive Federal Student Aid funds and most forms of Messiah University institutional financial aid. A regular student is someone who is enrolled or accepted for enrollment in an eligible institution for the purpose of obtaining a degree or certificate offered by the school. Persons taking courses while not accepted into a degree or certificate program are not eligible for most forms of financial aid.
Audit credits do not count toward your enrollment for financial aid purposes.
Financial Aid Can Only be Used for Credits that Satisfy a Student's Degree Requirements
Over the past year there has been a great deal of buzz on campus about a 'new' requirement that a student can only receive financial aid for credits which satisfy the student's degree requirements.
There has been a great deal of confusion and mis-information about this process, so we hope the Q & A below will help to clear up a lot of that.
Question
What is the actual requirement?
Answer
Federal and State financial aid programs require that only credits which count toward a student’s degree requirements can be used to determine eligibility for these types of financial aid. In other words, even if a student is taking enough credits to be considered full-time (12 credits is full-time status), if some of those credits are for classes that do not meet the requirements for the student’s degree, then the student would be considered less than full-time for those financial aid programs and the amounts the student is receiving would need to be adjusted to the student’s level of enrollment as determined by only the credits that count toward the student’s degree.
Question
Where did this new requirement come from and why are we just hearing about it now?
Answer
In fact, this requirement is not new at all. It is as old as the federal student financial aid programs (more than 50 years).
What is new is our enhanced ability to monitor a student's enrollment and determine whether or not all credits for which a student is enrolled do count toward the degree. This has been made possible through a new software capability known as Course and Program of Study (CPoS), which allows the Financial Aid Office to compare the courses for which a student is registered to the student's degree requirements and determine if any courses are not eligible for financial aid. This is a very complex process which, up to this point, has been almost impossible to do without the aid of automation.
Question
I heard that I always have to be enrolled full-time in order to get financial aid. Is that true?
Answer
This is a complex question which covers not only federal and state financial aid programs, but also institutional aid programs, with different requirements for each.
For federal and state financial aid programs, generally the answer is No, there is no requirement for full-time enrollment. Most of these programs allow enrollment down to less than half-time status, but the amount of the aid might need to be adjusted to reflect enrollment at less than full-time status. The specific adjustments will depend on each student's unique situation and you should contact the Financial Aid Office to review your circumstances if you are considering less than full-time enrollment.
Most institutional financial aid programs require full-time enrollment, but we offer an exception for seniors who do not need to be enrolled full-time. See the Full-time Enrollment Required section on the Statements Concerning Institutional Aid page of these policies for a more detailed description of that exception.
Question
At Messiah, I can take between 12 and 18 credits in a semester for the same tuition charge. What if some of these credits count toward my degree and some don't?
Answer
Full-time enrollment at Messiah University is a minimum of 12 credits. To be considered full-time for financial aid purposes, you must be taking at least 12 credits that satisfy your degree requirements. As long as this is the case, it doesn't matter whether the additional credits do or don't satisfy degree requirements.
For example, let's say you are registered for 18 credits in a given semester. This consists of four 3 credit classes (12 credits) that do satisfy your degree requirements and two 3 credit classes (6 credits) that don't satisfy degree requirements. In this case you are fine. You have the minimum 12 credits needed for full-time financial aid status and your charges are the same between 12 and 18 credits, so all of your financial aid can be used for your 18 credit enrollment.
However, suppose only three of your courses (9 credits) satisfy degree requirements. In that case, you would be considered less than full-time for financial aid purposes and your aid package would need to be adjusted to your level of enrollment.
Question
Does this requirement apply to all financial aid programs?
Answer
All federal and state financial aid programs have this requirement.
Messiah University has chosen to not apply this requirement to our institutional forms of financial aid, such as our merit based scholarships and our need-based institutional grant, the Messiah University Grant. So, as long as a student is taking an overall minimum of 12 credits, eligibility for institutional forms of financial aid will not be affected, even if some of those credits do not satisfy the student's degree requirements.
This does not mean that a student can be enrolled less than full-time and receive full-time institutional aid. Students enrolled for less than 12 credits will generally not be eligible for institutional forms of financial aid, unless they qualify for the exception noted above for seniors who do not need to be enrolled full-time. In that case, the student's institutional aid will be pro-rated to their level of enrollment.
Question
What do I need to do to make sure I don't run into this problem and how will I know if I do?
Answer
For the most part, this is only an issue for students in their last few semesters of enrollment, the point at which many students have completed all or most of their elective credits and many of the credits required for their degree. Very few students below senior level encounter this problem.
First it is important to talk with your advisor before registering for classes for an upcoming semester. Your advisor can help you determine which classes do and don't count toward your degree requirements. The Registrars' Office is also a great resource for help on this question, but you should start with your advisor.
Shortly after registration is completed for each semester, the Financial Aid Office will run the CPoS process, identify students who are affected, and notify them and their advisor as soon as possible. This will give students adequate time to review their registration and make any needed adjustments to maintain the necessary enrollment status.
Special Note for Seniors
If you are a senior who qualifies for the less than full-time exception mentioned above, please contact the Financial Aid Office so that we can review your situation and make any necessary adjustments to your financial aid package.
Contrary to the way of thinking which has developed around this issue (that everyone needs to be enrolled full-time), for many of the affected senior level students, we find that they are actually better off financially if they drop classes which don’t count, and accept the reduced aid and reduced charges.
In most cases, after we pro-rate the financial aid to the level of enrollment (keep in mind this involves lower charges as well as reduced aid), the student is actually better off in terms of the amount of money they need to pay out of pocket for the semester, and they have the advantage of a reduced academic load.