Federal Supplemental Educational Opportunity Grant (FSEOG)

The Federal Supplemental Educational Opportunity Grant (FSEOG) is an additional grant available to undergraduate students with exceptional financial need and gives priority to students who receive Federal Pell Grants and whose Student Aid Index (SAI) is a zero.

Award Amounts

The Student Financial Services Office will award a student $800 dollars in Fall and Spring semesters for a total of $1,600 dollars and/or up to $800 dollars in the Summer semester, depending on the student’s financial need, when he/she applies, the amount of other aid received and the availability of funds at South Texas College. There is no guarantee that every eligible student will be awarded the FSEOG because of limitation of funds. FSEOG funds are awarded by award year in fall and spring semesters and by semester in the summer.

South Texas College receives a certain amount of FSEOG funds each year from the U.S. Department of Education’s office of Federal Student Aid. Once the full amount of the school’s FSEOG funds has been awarded to students, no more FSEOG awards can be made for that year. The Federal Pell Grant and the FSEOG work differently; the Federal Pell Grant provides funds to every eligible student but the FSEOG does not because of the limited funds allocated by the U.S. Department of Education.

Eligibility Determination

Following Federal Regulations, South Texas College awards students with the lowest SAI (zero SAI), who have received Pell Grant eligibility in the same award year.

To be considered for FSEOG, you must:

  • Fill out a Free Application for Federal Student Aid,
  • Meet all Department of Education eligibility requirements including but not limited to:
  • Having financial need,
  • Having a high school diploma or a General Education Development (GED) Certificate,
  • Being a U.S. citizen or eligible non-citizen,
  • Having a valid Social Security Number,
  • Be enrolled or accepted for enrollment as a regular student working toward a degree or certificate in an eligible program,
  • Meet the standards of the Financial Aid Satisfactory Academic Progress Policy (FA SAP),
  • Have a zero SAI,
  • Be registered and attending at least 6 credit hours in a semester.

Additional Requirements

South Texas College Student Financial Services Office monitors requirements that can affect your eligibility for Federal SEOG funds, including but not limited to:

  • Your continued enrollment within a semester: if you withdraw/are withdrawn, you may be required to repay funds awarded to you.
  • Your grades: if you do not earn at least one passing grade in a semester, you may be required to repay funds awarded to you.
  • Developmental courses you attempt: we may only fund 30 credit hours of developmental work over a student’s educational career. If a Federal Pell Grant eligible student attempts his 11th or greater developmental course, that course cannot be counted in the student’s enrollment status.
  • Repeated Coursework: Beginning July 1, 2011, the definition of a full-time student was amended to allow repeated coursework to count toward enrollment status in term-based programs.
  • Unusual Enrollment History: Effective July 1, 2013, new regulations have been established to prevent fraud and abuse in the Federal Pell Grant and/or Direct Loan Programs by identifying students with unusual enrollment histories. The Student Financial Services Department is required to review the student’s enrollment and financial aid record to determine if, during any of the four award years prior to the current award year, the student has legitimate reasons for the unusual enrollment history.

Attendance Verification

The U.S. Department of Education requires that schools are able to document that students are actually in attendance to finalize their Federal Student Aid eligibility. For example, if a student doesn’t begin attendance in all of his or her classes, the school must recalculate the student’s award based on the lower enrollment status. A student is considered to have begun attendance in all of his or her classes if the student attends at least one day of class for each course in which that student’s enrollment status was determined for Federal SEOG eligibility.

In a distance education context, documenting that a student has logged into an online class is not sufficient, by itself, to demonstrate academic attendance by the student. A school must demonstrate that a student participated in class or was otherwise engaged in an academically related activity, such as by contributing to an online discussion or initiating contact with a faculty member to ask a course-related question. A definition of attendance for Financial Aid Purposes is provided under Eligibility Issues.

South Texas College documents attendance for Federal SEOG purposes by collecting attendance information reported by instructors via the Starfish Application. Instructors use Starfish Application to indicate whether a student has attended or not. Students must attend each class that they are enrolled in, at least once at the beginning of each term to be counted as being in attendance in that class for Federal SEOG eligibility purposes.

In cases where students do not attend class at least once, Federal SEOG eligibility will be cancelled if the enrollment status changes to 5 credit hours or less because those are the credit hours they are actually attending. If this cancellation results in a student not having sufficient grant funds to pay for any charges or advances that they have incurred or received, that student will be responsible to pay South Texas College for the difference between their adjusted eligibility and the original amount of the cost of their tuition and fees as well as any advances that the student received.

Fund Disbursements

South Texas College will credit Federal SEOG funds to your school account to pay for tuition, fees and other school related costs which appear on your student account (institutional charges). If you are eligible for funds in excess of your institutional charges, after completing eligibility verification, South Texas College will pay you the difference directly, by mailing you a check. These Federal SEOG funds will be released to you as a final refund; final refund release dates are provided to students before the start of each semester; they are published at http://studentservices.southtexascollege.edu/finaid/book_allowances.html.

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