Financial Aid Counseling

FINANCIAL AID COUNSELING GUIDE

We are happy to provide you with this guide so that you may make an informed decision regarding enrollment, financial aid to be accepted, and other relevant factors. While this is a considerable amount of information, it will provide you with a greater understanding of how financial aid is determined, basic information regarding some of the more common financial aid programs, when aid will be applied to your charges and how refunds are processed, and more.  You are strongly encouraged to read the entire document. 

Cost of Attendance.  The Cost of Attendance is an itemized list of allowances for both direct and indirect expenses anticipated for the academic year.  You will find this list in the box at the bottom left of your Financial Aid Offer letter.  The Offer letter, once created, will be available from your MyBC Student Portal under My Documents (Completed Documents).  Items included in the COA are intended to be reasonable estimates of expenses associated with enrollment, not exact expenses.  In most cases, we have set a standard allowance (ie. housing and food) or use anticipated tuition and fees expenses based on your program of study and the standard academic plan or your individual plan of study, if different from the standard plan, when available. Keep in mind that at the time our COA allowances are set, tuition and fees charges for the next academic year had not been determined; figures are based on prior year costs.  You can expect and should plan for some variance.

NOTE:  The Housing and Food allowance in the COA will be based on a standard monthly allowance.  The financial aid office does not know whether you are living at home or renting an apartment.  If you feel the allowance reflected in your COA does not sufficiently reflect your housing expenses, you may request a Professional Judgement appeal through the financial aid office.  Keep in mind, that increasing any portion of the COA will not affect your eligibility for federal, state, or institutional grants/scholarships.  The primary result of an increase to any COA component will be to increase your eligibility for alternative loans (PLUS/Private).  While we do want you to be able to cover your expenses, we also want you to borrow responsibly—only what you need.  If your current eligibility is sufficient, there is no need to appeal unless other circumstances occur.    

Types of Aid.  There are three types of financial aid:  Grants/Scholarships, Loans, and Work.  Here’s an explanation of each.

1. Grants and Scholarships. These are what we refer to as ‘free money’ or ‘gift aid’—they usually do not require repayment upon termination of your enrollment.  An aid source that is a grant or scholarship will clearly contain the word “grant” or “scholarship” in the source description printed on your financial aid offer letter.  An example would be the Bellin College Admissions Scholarship.  Grants and scholarships should always be accepted first as these will directly offset your costs.
2. Loans, regardless of the source, must be repaid at some point, usually after you are no longer enrolled at least half-time.  Interest charges apply.  While they do have inherent costs of borrowing (interest, origination fees), they can be a good way to help you finance your education, especially if you do not have personal finances/resources available to cover the remainder of your costs.  Loans can come from a variety of sources including the federal government, private lenders such as banks/credit unions, or other lending agencies.  If you must borrow to help finance your education, be sure to compare the costs of borrowing of each loan source and select the best option.  In most cases, the Federal Direct Stafford Loan will be your best choice (whether it is Subsidized or Unsubsidized), the interest rates are usually better than those of commercial loans (loans through banks or other lenders).  If additional borrowing is needed, compare other loan options carefully and only borrow what you need.  Remember, you will have to pay it back at some point so you want to be sure to keep your total debt within a comfortable monthly repayment.  For information on other possible loan options, please contact the Bellin College financial aid office—we have a few resources you may use to help you make an informed, responsible, and smart borrowing decision.  Loan aid will be clearly identified with the word “loan” in the source description on the financial aid offer letter.
3. At Bellin College, we do offer a number of student positions which are funded through the individual College departmental budget process.  Departments on campus which hire student employees will advertise those positions and make their own hiring decisions.  While we do participate in the Federal Work Study program, we do not include this on the financial aid offer letter as our federal allocation is rarely more than enough to fund one or two students. If you are hired to work on campus as a student employee, your earnings will have no impact on your financial aid.  At the end of the academic year, we select an employee (or two) who meets the eligibility requirements for federal work-study and use the federal funds to offset a portion of that student’s earnings (federal funds may be used to offset up to 75% of the earnings—up to the maximum allocation approved for Bellin College). 

Disbursements.  Our goal is to disburse aid by the first day of classes for each semester/term.  Some aid may actually be applied the week before classes begin.  Aid from sources other than Bellin College (federal, state, or private sources) will not be applied to your semester charges until we receive those funds from the source.  For example, Bellin College Admissions Scholarships are applied to semester charges on or before the first day of classes.  If a federal student loan has been accepted in the portal and the Master Promissory Note and Entrance Counseling have been completed and are on file, the loan will be originated and disbursed (paid) to the student’s account as quickly as possible but no earlier than one week prior to the first day of classes.  Federal PLUS Loans require the borrower (parent or graduate student) complete an application and a PLUS Master Promissory Note on the www.studentaid.gov website.  If the borrower already has a PMPN on file, only the application will be needed.  Processing will be delayed if all requirements are not met; disbursement will occur within one week of the requirements being met.  Private scholarships, private education loans, and all other outside aid sources are not applied to charges until the funds are received. 

Refunds.  If your semester financial aid is more than sufficient to cover your semester charges, a refund check will be issued.  The refund will be in the form of a paper check issued by the Bellin Health System accounting department.  If the refund is due to the application of a Federal Parent PLUS Loan, the refund will be issued to either the parent borrower or the student (as indicated by the parent borrower on the Parent PLUS application).  No refunds will be issued until after the official drop/add period for that semester/term (usually the first full week of classes).   When the refund check is received from the accounting department, the bursar will send an e-mail notification to let the student know the check is available to be picked up from the One Stop Shop.  A student may wish to hold excess aid on their account in anticipation of using those funds to cover a subsequent semester’s charges (for example, you may want to hold the excess on your account from spring to help pay for summer charges).  If so, a written request must be sent to bursar@bellincollege.edu through the student’s Bellin College e-mail account.  For students enrolled in distance education courses, out of area clinicals, etc, the refund will be mailed to the mailing address on file in the Bellin College SIS.  Students should ensure that the address is accurate.  If the refund is due to a Federal Parent PLUS Loan, the check will be made payable to the parent borrower (unless the parent indicated the desire to release funds directly to the student via the check box on the PLUS Loan application form) and mailed to the address used on the loan application. 

Adjustments.  When an aid offer is made, the financial aid office may not know your intended enrollment status for each semester (number of credits).  Many times, original financial aid offers may be based on full-time enrollment or anticipated enrollment based on special schedules or standard academic plans.  The financial aid office will review actual enrollments prior to the start of each semester.  If a student’s actual enrollment is different from that upon which certain aid offers were based, that aid source may require an adjustment.  For example, a student who was offered a WI Grant based on full-time enrollment but registers for only 10 credits for the semester, will have the WI Grant pro-rated and reduced to ¾-time enrollment or ¾ of the award which would have been received if the student had registered for at least 12 credits (full-time).   In most cases, the only aid sources which are adjusted based on enrollment status (number of credits) are the Federal Pell Grant and the WI Grant.  Federal student loans require a minimum of half-time enrollment (6 credits for undergraduate and 5 credits for graduate students).  Generally, student loans are not adjusted as long as the student maintains at least half-time enrollment. 

Financial Aid Returns.  When a student withdraws from Bellin College prior to the end of a semester/term, a portion of the financial aid may be returned to the sources.  Charges are reduced following the same calculation.  The aid and charges are adjusted based on the percentage of the semester/term completed.  Once at least 60% of the semester/term has been completed, there is no reduction of charges or return of financial aid.  If a student drops a course or withdraws prior to the end of the Drop/Add period, 100% of the charges for that course/semester will be canceled and financial aid will be adjusted/canceled as needed.  Students considering dropping a course or withdrawing from Bellin College should discuss financial aid implications with the Director of Financial Aid. 

What aid sources should I accept first? 

Before applying for any loan, regardless of the source, be sure to consider how much you really need/should borrow.  Remember, all loans have to be repaid with interest once you are no longer enrolled; borrow responsibly to ensure that you are able to afford to repay your loans based on your anticipated income upon graduation.  The Subsidized and Unsubsidized Loans will be reflected on your financial aid offer letter (if you filed a FAFSA and have remaining federal loan eligibility) as the maximum eligibility for each during the entire academic year.  Keep in mind that you are in no way obligated to borrow the full amount of either loan; you always have the option of accepting less than the amount shown or declining the full amount of the loan. 

How to calculate your Net Price of Attendance (NPA).  The NPA is simply the difference between your full Cost of Attendance (COA) and the total grant and scholarship aid you will receive. 

How to estimate the amount you may need to apply for from alternative loans.  While we strongly encourage students and parents to borrow only what is needed to ensure your expenses are paid for the academic year, we also understand that college is a major expense for you and your family.  Bellin College recognizes that, as a private institution, our annual costs can exceed what may be available from federal, state, and institutional grants & scholarships, and federal student loans.  If additional financing is needed beyond these sources, an alternative loan may be an option for you.  If you need help with this section, please feel free to contact the financial aid office for assistance. 

Gross vs Net.  If you are offered a federal student loan (subsidized and/or unsubsidized), you will notice on your financial aid offer letter that there are two (2) amounts listed for each disbursement of each loan.  The first amount (top) is the gross amount of the loan (how much you are borrowing and will have to repay plus interest).  The second amount (bottom) is the net amount of the loan (how much will be available to pay toward your semester charges after the US Dept of Education deducts their origination fee before sending the funds to Bellin College).  When you are estimating how much aid will be available to pay your charges, always be sure to use the net amount to more accurately reflect your out of pocket costs. 

NOTE:  If your parent will be applying for a Federal PLUS Loan, keep in mind that the origination fee that the US Dept of Education will retain from the proceeds of the loan is 4.228%.  This means that whatever amount you apply for, the net amount will reflect the 4.228% fee deduction.  In other words, if you calculate that you will need $10,000 to cover your out of pocket expenses for the year, if your parent applies for a $10,000 Federal PLUS Loan, you will be about $423 short of covering your tuition and fees for the year because of the origination fee.  The easy way to calculate how much to apply for to cover the out of pocket is to divide the amount needed (anticipated net) by 0.95772.  This will give you the amount (rounded to whole dollars) your parent would need to apply for in order to net the amount needed. 

Most private loans do not have origination fees; your gross and net are the same.  If you borrow $10,000, you will receive $10,000 to be used for expenses. 

Of course, if you need some additional alternative loan funds to help with books and other related expenses, you may add that amount to the amount you will be applying for provided you do not exceed the difference between your COA and ALL other aid received (grants, scholarships, and the gross amount of federal student loans). 

Questions?  Feel free to contact Abby or Lena in the Financial Aid Office at Bellin College:   Lena.goodman@bellincollege.edu or 920-433-6638; Abigail.frye@bellincollege.edu or(920) 433-4314.