Financial Aid

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For Parents

We have provided this site for the parents of Prospective, New and Current students at UNCW who will be, or presently are, receiving financial aid. We hope this site helps answer many of your questions in a simple and concise manner. We suggest that you bookmark this page.

You may find even more information by reading All About Financial Aid.

You may also want to read our Glossary of terms, download and print important financial aid Forms, or even learn more About our Office.

• All financial aid records are based upon the Student ID number. If your student has given you access to his or her financial aid information, and you wish to contact our office regarding this information, you need to have the Student ID.

• The student's FAFSA is identified by Social Security Number. If applying for aid through FAFSA, make sure to include the student's Social Security Number on the admissions application.

• When is the parent involved in a student's financial aid?

  The US Department of Education (which awards Federal financial aid) considers a student to be dependent until they are 24 years old, married, a veteran of the U.S. Armed Forces, a graduate student, or responsible for dependents for whom they provide more than 50% support. Until one of these criteria is met, the parent's financial information is required on the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA). This dependency status is not the same dependency status as determined by the IRS.

  Dependency status may be appealed, but there are very limiting criteria. For details, please contact your financial aid counselor.

• Every year, the student must file the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA). For dependent students, the parent's tax information and signature are required on the FAFSA.

  This FAFSA application should be completed as soon after January 1, as possible. If your student is admitted for the spring or summer of 2013, they should file the 2012-2013 FAFSA now. If your student is admitted for the 2013-2014 Academic Year, starting in fall of 2013, they should file the 2013-2014 FAFSA as soon as you both have your tax information.

  We suggest the Free Application for Federal Student Aid be completed by March 1st, if possible. This is not a deadline. We will continue to process your FAFSA throughout the school year, though we strongly encourage you to complete the FAFSA by May 1, in order to have aid in place in time to cover fall semester charges .

  The parent, as well as the student, needs a Federal Personal Identification (PIN) to sign the FAFSA on-line. Visit the PIN Web Site to request a PIN or a duplicate PIN.

  Note: The FAFSA is the dependent student's application and must be filed with his or her information and SSN. The parent(s) are providing information on the parent section of the application only. Please be sure the student's SSN is included with the admissions application.

• UNCW's School Code is 002984

• Some financial aid applications are selected for a process called Verification. In the verification process, our office is required to verify information submitted on the FAFSA with tax and asset information for the student and parent.
  • Dependent Students, selected for verification, are asked to submit a completed "Dependent Verification Worksheet" and a tax return transcript, available from the IRS. (Do not submit this information unless UNCW asks for it.)
  • In place of a tax return transcript, parents and/or students may elect to return to the FAFSA website and select "IRS Data Retrieval" to update tax information on the FAFSA form. Updated FAFSA information will load into our system, electronically, for processing.
  • Federal regulations no longer allow us to use copies of federal tax returns for verification purposes. A tax return transcript or the FAFSA's IRS Data Retrieval is required. Contact our office to discuss procedures if tax filing is significantly delayed.

• If your student plans to attend in the summer of 2013, you must complete the 2012-2013 FAFSA as well as a Summer School Financial Aid Application. The summer school application is available after April 1, on the financial aid website.

• The Application for UNCW Named Scholarships for the next academic year is available on the financial aid website November 15th through April 1st. See the Office of Scholarships & Financial Aid section of the current catalog for a listing of these scholarships.

• The Alumni Association (among others) awards scholarships separately. Students should visit their websites for information.

• If your student is interested in outside scholarship sources, check our listing of Scholarship Search Engines and Advertised Scholarships.

• If your student receives a scholarship from an outside source, you must inform our office as soon as possible so we can update your awards. To facilitate this process, you should ask the awarding organization to make the scholarship check payable only to UNCW and send the check directly to the Office of Scholarships & Financial Aid. To ensure that funds are applied accurately, the scholarship check should contain both the student's name and student ID number.

• Some financial aid is awarded on a first-come, first-served basis from limited funding. Having a complete and accurate financial aid application on file as soon as possible affords your student the best opportunity to be awarded from these funds. We begin awarding these funds in early March.

• If we have received the FAFSA by March 15th, and all necessary documentation is complete and accurate by April 15th, your student's financial aid should be ready to pay their bill when it comes due.

• An award notification, listing all of your student's financial aid award information is sent to every student. Each student receives one printed award notification during the student's first year. If your student would like another printed copy of his or her award notification, they may call or e-mail our office. In subsequent years, the student receives e-mail notification to check SEANET for their award notification information. The student must accept or decline their awards. This may be done, as in the case of the first-time student, by completing and signing the printed award notification or by accessing the student's personal financial aid information on SEANET to accept or decline awards online.

• SEANET is the Student Electronic Access Web Site to which all students have access. This secure web site is one of the most important tools your student will use during his or her career at UNCW. Through this site your child has access to financial aid award information, notifications of missing information, their student account, and links to all important sites they may need. The student needs a SEANET PIN.

• All students have a UNCW E-mail account. It is very important that your child check this e-mail at least once a week. This office sends most of its notifications to students by e-mail to this address. Your student receives notice whenever their award has changed with directions to SEANET. The student will also receive notice to check SEANET for missing information. Click here for more information about the UNCW E-Mail account.

• Purchasing books is the student's responsibility. Students should plan to buy their own books ahead of time. The UNCW Book Buying Program allows students to pay at Orientation and have the books ordered so they are available when students arrive on campus. Please visit the UNCW Book Store Web Site.

• Refunds for any financial aid over and above the cost of tuition, fees, dormitory charges, cafeteria plans, and other such expenses may not be available until after classes have started. If your student is not participating in the Book Buying Program, the student should come to campus with money to purchase books.

  Before a refund is issued, each student's registered hours are compared to anticipated hours (which are taken from the FAFSA), to ensure that the student is registered for the same (or more) hours on which the award is based. If your student is registered for fewer hours, the award is adjusted before a refund is issued.

• If your student is interested in federal student loans, the student must complete the FAFSA and indicate interest in student loans as part of the financial aid package. UNCW will package the student and include loan offers up to the student's eligibility. Students must accept the loan(s), complete an entrance counseling session and sign a Master Promissory Note. We automatically package student loans through the William D. Ford Federal Direct Student Loan Program. The best way to sign the Master Promissory Note for Direct Loans is with E-Sign on the web (needs acrobat reader). Students who wish to use another lender should review our website for loan information, or contact the financial aid office for further instructions.

• If a dependent student's total cost of attendance cannot be met with funds in the student's name, parents may request to borrow money, up to the student's cost of attendance, through the PLUS loan program. Information on applying for PLUS Loans is included in the award notification information, or parents and students may contact the financial aid office.

  PLUS loans are unsubsidized, which means interest does accrue while the student is in school. PLUS loans traditionally go into repayment 60 days after the last disbursement of loan funds is made (the award is normally for two semesters, half being disbursed in fall and the other half in spring).Effective July 2008, parents have the option of delaying repayment of their PLUS Loan until the student graduates. Parents should contact their lender to discuss this option.

  Parents may visit the Direct Loans website, www.studentloans.gov to begin the parent PLUS Loan process and complete a Master Promissory Note (MPN)..

  If a parent has applied for, but does not qualify for a PLUS loan, the student may be eligible for an additional unsubsidized Stafford Loan. Your child should contact his or her financial aid counselor regarding this option.

  A note about Parent PLUS loans: The parent borrower may indicate on the PLUS application whether excess PLUS loan funds are to be paid to the parent borrower or disbursed to the student. PLUS refunds to parents are generally issued via check. PLUS refunds to students are disbursed according to procedures established by the Office of Student Accounts.

• If your child has been awarded Federal Work-Study, they must apply for a job, be hired by a department, and turn in a timesheet at the end of each month. Students are paid by direct deposit on the 15th of the following month. Students may use their work-study earnings as they choose. To apply for a work-study job and learn more about this award please see our Work Study web site.

  Students who do not have a federal work-study award as part of their financial aid package may want to pursue a campus job through the Office of Career Services. Several departments on campus hire student employees who are paid from departmental budgets and not work-study funds.

• The student's right to privacy - All financial aid records and data submitted with the student's application for financial aid are treated as confidential information and subject to disclosure requirements under the Family Educational Right to Privacy Act (FERPA).

  This means that the parent must be authorized by the student to access their information. We cannot share your student's information with anyone without such a document. Your student must submit a signed FERPA Release Form, identifying those persons with whom we can discuss their financial aid information in detail. You may print a copy of the FERPA Release Form from our forms page (needs acrobat reader)

  Note: Any form that has more than one person's name on it can be seen by everyone who is listed on that form. This means if the FAFSA has parent information on it, the parent has the right to see this form.

• If you, the parent of a student at UNCW, are a Veteran of the U.S. armed forces whose 100% disability is service-related or one of your children's parents was a Veteran whose death was service-related, and you wish to know more about using VA Educational Benefits please visit our Veteran's FA Web Site.

• You are likely to find it useful to review each of the student sections of this web site that apply to your student.