Over Awards
What is an Over Award?
An over award occurs when a student receives more aid than the amount for which he or she is eligible.
How can an over award occur?
Overawards occur because of incorrect or incomplete information was provided on the aid application or was used to calculate a students eligibility for any type of financial aid. Eligibility for aid is calculated by using the following formula:
Cost of Attendence - EFC - Aid already awarded = Need
Definitions for above formula:
Cost of Attendance: A value used to calculate student eligibility. It takes the following costs into consideration: tuition, fees, books, room and board, transportation, and misc. costs.
EFC: Expected Family Contribution, a value calculated by the US Department of Education when a student files a Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA).
Aid Already Awarded: Used to calculate eligibility for all need based aid sources other than Federal Pell Grant. This part of the calculation considers sources of funds that the student already has available to him or her which helps fill their need.
Need: Amount that the student may still receive in any type of aid.
For more information on need, click here
Most forms of aid are affected by the need calculation. If a student receives more aid than allowed by the cost of attendance, then an aid source may be reduce or eliminated.
Federal Pell Grant or FSEOG Grant over awards where students will owe money to the Department of Education
Below is a list of situations in which a student may have received an overpayment of a Federal Pell Grant or FSEOG Grant funds and STC is not required to assume responsibility for collecting the debt. These debts will be referred to the Department of Education through the National Student Loan Data System (NSLDS) if the student does not repay the Department of Education through STC within established timeframes.
- Student error, such as failing to report the spouse’s income on the application, or failing to report attendance and financial aid received at a previous school.
- When a student fails to report additional resources to the OFA and the OFA becomes aware of them and those additional resources result in an over award and the funds have already been released to the student or used to pay for the student’s tuition and fee costs.
- When a Return of Title IV funds calculation is performed as a result of a withdrawal or other circumstances which lead to the calculation occur and the student owes an overpayment
Work Study Over Awards
In cases where a student who is a work study employee is over awarded, the student’s FWS employment will end when the over award is discovered.
Because the student can’t be required to repay wages earned,(except in cases of fraud) the amount of a FWS overaward may only be reduced by reducing other forms of aid over which the school has control.