FAQs Please review our Financial Aid Withdrawal Policy a Can a FWS student worker be dismissed from FWS employment? Category: FWS Supervisor As with any employment, each student is responsible for working arranged hours. Punctual, efficient, and cooperative performance on the job is always expected. If illness, study obligations, or some other unforeseen circumstance prevents a student from working, he/she must notify his/her supervisor in advance. Failure to report without adequate reason may result in termination of employment and disqualification for future work study. Student workers can be released from their FWS job at the Supervisor’s discretion. Reasons for dismal include, but are not limited to the same conditions as any other part-time employment, such as not adhering to department policies and procedures, regularly missing work days/times, failure to communicate absences with the FWS Supervisor in a timely manner, and not completing work as assigned. Please review the FWS Supervisor’s Handbook for guidelines on dismissing the student worker. a Can I require the student to complete an application form? Category: FWS Supervisor Clearly stating your expectations during the interview and hiring process may alleviate work place conflicts and confusion in the long run. Departments, both on and off-campus, have the right to use a FWS job application form. Some departments on campus already use an application form and find it helpful during the hiring process. a Do students have to be full-time in order to receive financial aid? Category: Faculty Students do not have to be full-time in order to qualify for Federal Student Aid. Financial aid eligibility is based on the individual’s financial resources and ability to meet education costs. Every student who wants to be considered for financial aid, including education loans, must complete the Free Application for Federal Student Assistance (FAFSA) every school year. Students with the highest need may be eligible for all their direct education costs to be fully covered, even if they enroll in one 3 or 4 credit course. Others may have to be at least half-time. In order to qualify for education loans, students must maintain half-time enrollment. a Does the financial aid office pre-select FWS student workers? Category: FWS Supervisor The financial aid office determines the student's eligibility for a federal work study award based on several criteria presented on the student's FAFSA application. We do not interview students or collect references to determine the student's hiring qualifications. As a FWS Supervisor it’s important for you to know that students with Federal Work Study awards are not guaranteed automatic job placement. Rather, like any part-time employment, jobs are available to which the student worker submits an application. The FWS supervisor makes their own hiring decisions based on the student application and interview. a How are my books and supplies paid? Category: General If you’ve given the Financial Aid Office permission (by signing the Acknowledgements and Certifications Form) to establish an account in the GCC Bookstore, you will be allowed to use financial aid to help purchase textbooks and supplies. Note that you will only have an account set up if you have excess financial aid after your tuition and fee bill is deducted from your award. If you don’t have enough excess aid for books and supplies, you will not have an account open at the Bookstore. If you add or drop classes after your bookstore account is set up, your aid may be adjusted and you could owe a balance. Speak with someone in the financial aid office before adjusting your schedule to find out how this will affect your eligibility. a How do I request weekly time sheets? Category: FWS Supervisor Supervisors can contact either Mary Jane Connelly at x1307 or Bjorn Silvia at x1316 in Payroll to request time sheets. a How is Federal Work-Study Funded at GCC? Category: FWS Supervisor Every year the college submits the "Fiscal Operations Report and Application to Participate (FISAP)" for the three Campus-Based programs: Federal Perkins Loan, Federal Supplemental Educational Opportunity Grant (FSEOG), and Federal Work-Study (FWS). The Department of Education awards the college FWS funding annually based on the data provided in the FISAP report and the availability of federal funding for Title IV programs. GCC’s federal work study award has remained level funded as far back as 2003. Historically federal funding has made up 93% of the college’s overall FWSP budget. a How is my bill for tuition and fees paid? Category: General If you’ve been awarded financial aid, your funds will arrive on campus mid semester and pay toward any unpaid tuition, fee and bookstore charges for the term. Any excess funds are disbursed to you after the mid-semester point. If your bill isn’t covered completely by financial aid, you will need to make arrangements with the Bursar's Office, by the bill due date, to pay the balance of the bill. a How long does it take to process my FAFSA? Category: General Once the Financial Aid Office receives all your required documentation, it may take up to 4-6 weeks before you receive an award offer. Students are expected to actively review their financial aid status and any outstanding requirements on MyGCC. a I intend to apply to the one of the Nursing Programs but I need to complete pre-requisites. How long can I receive financial aid at GCC? Category: General The regulation regarding Maximum Time Frame definitely applies to students earning pre-requisite courses. For example, if you matriculate into the Associates of Liberal Arts Degree – Health Science Option, you must complete all degree requirements within no more than 45 attempted credits before entering either the LPN Certificate Program or Associate in Science Nursing degree program. If you attempted 45 credits and still have pre-requisite courses to complete, you must first complete the Liberal Arts Degree Option before entering either the ADN Degree Program or the LPN Certificate Program. a I was a student several years ago. I didn’t do that well and now I’m re-entering GCC under Fresh-Start. How does my previous academic history affect my financial aid status today? Category: General All previous academic history is counted as credits attempted toward a degree, even if the student enters under Fresh Start. Fresh start waives the student's previous academic progress and standing but it does not affect Financial Aid Progress. a I’m trying to register my advisee for the upcoming term, but he has a financial aid hold? How does the student know he has a hold on his records? Category: Faculty All holds, regardless of type, are listed under My Account in MyGCC. Financial aid holds result from unsatisfied Outstanding Requirements and are found in student's MyGCC record. If you and the student have any question, please call us! We will do everything we can to answer your questions and help clear any hold status. a I’ve been at GCC for three years and I’ve earned 66 credit hours but I haven’t completed a degree program yet. I want to change my major, but my new major requires 45 credit hours that I still have to earn. Can I continue to receive financial aid for my new degree option? Category: General Students must complete a degree or certificate within 150% of the required number of credits for that degree or certificate. Most associate degree programs at GCC require 60 credit hours of course completion. Because this student has already earned 66 credit hours without having earned a degree, he may not have enough financial aid eligibility remaining to cover his new change in major. He can only receive financial aid for 24 remaining credit hours. a I’ve earned 27 credits at GCC and I’ve also withdrawn from three 3-credit courses and two 4-credit lab science course. Do withdrawals count toward satisfactory financial aid progress? My GPA is 3.50. Category: General All credits, attempted and earned, are counted toward degree completion. Attempted credit hours include all withdrawal credits, including medical withdrawals, all failed or incomplete credits, all transferred credits, and all developmental course work. Even with a G.P.A. of 3.50 this student is not making satisfactory financial aid progress. In this example, the student has attempted a total 44 credit hours and earned only 27. Students must maintain a completion rate of 67% or more in order to maintain their good standing. This student's completion rate is only 61%. a I’ve just hired a student worker, are there any required forms? Category: FWS Supervisor Absolutely! The GCC Federal Work-Study Job Authorization/Acceptance Form tells us that you hired a student worker and initiates the payroll authorization for your FWS allotment. You and the student must complete and sign the Job Authorization form once every school year. Whenever you hire a student, you and the student must complete this form and hand it in to the financial aid office. Your student will not be paid if this form is not returned to the financial aid office. a Is my financial aid limited? How long can I receive financial aid at GCC? Category: General All students are limited in the amount of credits for which they can receive financial aid, even those students who are progressing well academically. In order to receive continued financial aid students must be actively progressing towards degree completion. This is called Maximum Time Frame. Maximum Time Frame allows a student to complete their degree within 150% of the degree’s total credit requirements. Most degree options at GCC require a total of 60 credit hours. So, this means that a student can attempt no more than 90 credit hours toward his degree. Students are no longer eligible to receive financial aid at GCC after 90 attempted credit hours. Attempted credit hours include all withdrawal credits, including medical withdrawals, all failed or incomplete credits, all transferred credits, and all developmental course work. a My Advisee chose all online classes at registration. What sort of financial aid funding is available for a laptop and/or other computer equipment? Category: Faculty We strongly encourage advisors to ask probing questions ahead of registration, about the student's preparedness for success in online courses. If a student does not already have or is unable to secure a dependable computer prior to the start of the term, financial aid timelines are not able to accommodate their need. Students may request loan funds for computer purchases. Student loans must be repaid, and money is not available until 30 days after the start of the semester. The request of loan funds and the request for a computer purchase are separate processes, and students should be referred to the Financial Aid Office for assistance navigating these. a My advisee has a solid GPA but she is no longer eligible for financial aid at GCC based on Unsatisfactory Financial Aid Progress? Is this possible? Category: Faculty It is possible. Financial Aid Satisfactory Academic Standards are set by the Federal Department of Education and are far stricter than GCC’s Satisfactory Academic Standards. Please check here for a full explanation on the 3 components of Financial Aid Satisfactory Progress. a My student worker works on Fridays. Can I sign off on her projected Friday hours to get the time sheet turned in on time each week? Category: FWS Supervisor If your student is reliable and you know that she will come in on Friday, you can go ahead and submit the timesheet. If for some reason she doesn’t come in, you can submit a correction to the timesheet, but the correction must be submitted to payroll by Monday afternoon. a So, what happens to the student's financial aid if she drops or officially withdraws from classes during the semester? Category: Faculty Financial aid is pro-rated for the semester, meaning that aid is earned at a certain rate and not completely provided at the very beginning of the semester. A student "earns" financial aid in proportion to the time they are enrolled up to the 60% point. If you stop attending classes, or withdraw from the college, you may not be eligible for all the aid awarded. Students who officially withdraw from the college will have their financial aid calculated to determine the percentage of aid that was earned at the point of withdrawal; any unearned aid will be returned to the appropriate federal aid program. This is known as the Return of Title IV Federal Financial Aid. If earned aid is less than your bill, you will have to pay the balance. After the 60% point in the semester, all financial aid is considered earned. This policy also applies to medical withdrawals. PRO-RATION EXAMPLE: A student is enrolled for 10-credit hours during the fall semester. Their original award was a Pell grant for $2,286. They withdrew on 10/02/18, completing 30 out of 109 days in the semester. They earned 27.5% of their Pell Grant adjusting their award to $628.55. The college returned $1,657.35 to the Federal Government and the student now has an outstanding bill. Within 30 days of determining the withdrawal date the college mails a letter to the student notifying them of the calculation and their revised financial aid award. As part of the Return calculation an evaluation will be done to determine if aid was eligible to be disbursed but had not disbursed as of the withdrawal date. If the student meets the federal criteria for a post withdrawal disbursement, the student will be notified of their eligibility within 30-days of determining the withdrawal date. Any post withdrawal aid the student is eligible for or wishes to accept would first be applied toward outstanding charges before any funds are returned to the student. For a student who withdraws after the 60% point-in-time, there is no unearned aid. However, the school will still complete a Return calculation in order to determine whether the student is eligible for a post-withdrawal disbursement. a What happens to my financial aid if I drop or withdraw from classes during the semester? Category: General Financial aid is pro-rated for the semester, meaning that aid is earned at a certain rate and not completely provided at the very beginning of the semester. A student "earns" financial aid in proportion to the time they are enrolled up to the 60% point. If you stop attending classes, or withdraw from the college, you may not be eligible for all the aid awarded. Students who officially withdraw from the college will have their financial aid calculated to determine the percentage of aid that was earned at the point of withdrawal; any unearned aid will be returned to the appropriate federal aid program. This is known as the Return of Title IV Federal Financial Aid. If earned aid is less than your bill, you will have to pay the balance. After the 60% point in the semester, all financial aid is considered earned. This policy also applies to medical withdrawals. PRO-RATION EXAMPLE: A student is enrolled for 10-credit hours during the fall semester. Their original award was a Pell grant for $2,286. They withdrew on 10/02/18, completing 30 out of 109 days in the semester. They earned 27.5% of their Pell Grant adjusting their award to $628.55. The college returned $1,657.35 to the Federal Government and the student now has an outstanding bill. Within 30 days of determining the withdrawal date the college mails a letter to the student notifying them of the calculation and their revised financial aid award. As part of the Return calculation an evaluation will be done to determine if aid was eligible to be disbursed but had not disbursed as of the withdrawal date. If the student meets the federal criteria for a post withdrawal disbursement, the student will be notified of their eligibility within 30-days of determining the withdrawal date. Any post withdrawal aid the student is eligible for or wishes to accept would first be applied toward outstanding charges before any funds are returned to the student. For a student who withdraws after the 60% point-in-time, there is no unearned aid. However, the school will still complete a Return calculation in order to determine whether the student is eligible for a post-withdrawal disbursement. a What happens to my financial aid if I stop attending classes? Category: General Financial aid is awarded under the assumption that the student will attend Greenfield Community College for the entire semester for which financial aid was awarded. Federal regulations require the school to determine whether the student established eligibility for each Title IV eligible class. Students who stop attending or participating in classes, without formally withdrawing from GCC, are considered to be withdrawn unofficially. GCC does not have an attendance policy. However, the college monitors attendance based on mid-term early progress reports and final grades. If you failed to pass any of your classes the college will consider you to have unofficially withdrawn. The college will attempt to determine your last day of attendance by using the dates on early progress and final grade reports. Instructors may also be contacted for further information regarding your participation and attendance. Once it is determined that a student has unofficially withdrawn, the college will process the refund calculation at 50%. Any financial aid awarded to you, but not fully earned by you, for the semester must be refunded to the Federal Department of Education. As with the official withdrawal from the college, the student will be responsible for any outstanding charges. Students must maintain a G.P.A. of 2.0 at all times. Students who walk away from their classes are automatically placed on Unsatisfactory Financial Aid Progress and must complete the Appeal Process, if enrolling in a future semester and applying for financial aid funds. We understand that sometimes students must withdraw from the college. Whenever you are contemplating withdrawal or feel that you may not be able to complete the semester we strongly encourage you to first contact your academic advisor as well as the financial aid office. You may find that there are other options available to you that you may not have considered. We can discuss support options like peer mentoring or tutoring, community resources, and on-campus support systems. a What happens to my loans if I drop below 6 credits? Category: General Students must be enrolled at least six (6) credit hours to remain eligible to receive loan funds. If you drop below 6 credit hours, your loan will automatically be canceled. You must begin loan repayment with the Department of Education if you drop below 6 credit hours. If you are attending school at least half-time, you may have a set period of time after you graduate, leave school, or drop below 6 credit hours before you must begin repayment. This period of time is called a grace period. Your grace period will be 6 months for the Direct Loan. a What happens to the student's financial aid if he stops attending classes? Category: Faculty Financial aid is awarded under the assumption that the student will attend Greenfield Community College for the entire semester for which financial aid was awarded. Federal regulations require the school to determine whether the student established eligibility for each Title IV eligible class. Students who stop attending or participating in classes, without formally withdrawing from GCC, are considered to be withdrawn unofficially. GCC does not have an attendance policy. However, the college monitors attendance based on mid-term early progress reports and final grades. If you failed to pass any of your classes the college will consider you to have unofficially withdrawn. The college will attempt to determine your last day of attendance by using the dates on early progress and final grade reports. Instructors may also be contacted for further information regarding your participation and attendance. Once it is determined that a student has unofficially withdrawn, the college will process the refund calculation at 50%. Any financial aid awarded to you, but not fully earned by you, for the semester must be refunded to the Federal Department of Education. As with the official withdrawal from the college, the student will be responsible for any outstanding charges. Students must maintain a G.P.A. of 2.0 at all times. Students who walk away from their classes are automatically placed on Unsatisfactory Financial Aid Progress and must complete the Appeal Process, if enrolling in a future semester and applying for financial aid funds. We understand that sometimes students must withdraw from the college. Whenever you are contemplating withdrawal or feel that you may not be able to complete the semester we strongly encourage you to first contact your academic advisor as well as the financial aid office. You may find that there are other options available to you that you may not have considered. We can discuss support options like peer mentoring or tutoring, community resources, and on-campus support systems. a What if my student worker wants to receive payment for his hours in one lump sum? Category: FWS Supervisor Students must be paid for the hours they work as that work is completed. No student can request that his/her timesheets be "held" for any extended period of time. The FWS fund functions like a regular payroll account and cannot be used as a pseudo savings plan. Failure to submit time sheets on a regular basis will result in loss of pay. Both the financial aid office and payroll monitor the fund on a bi-weekly basis as a normal part of funds management. Therefore, it’s crucial for us to be aware of expenditures as they occur. a What is “Satisfactory Academic Progress” and how does it affect my financial aid? Category: General To be eligible for financial aid, Federal and Massachusetts regulations and official GCC policy require students to be making "Satisfactory Academic Progress." Each semester the Financial Aid Office monitors students’ GPA, and also reviews the success of financial aid students in earning credits toward their degrees and certificates. Students also need to earn their degrees within a certain number of attempted credits, usually about 90 credits for an associate degree. If you are not making satisfactory academic progress, you may appeal the status and if successful have your eligibility for financial aid reinstated. a What is Verification? Category: General Verification is a process where a GCC financial aid counselor compares information you provided on your FAFSA with information on tax and income documents. About 3 of every 10 students applying for financial aid at the College are selected for Verification by the Federal Department of Education. If you are selected for Verification, you will be asked to bring in copies of tax and income documents. Learn more about Verification. a What kinds of information do I need to fill out the FAFSA (Free Application for Federal Student Aid)? Category: General You must complete the FAFSA to be considered for financial aid at GCC. You’ll need income information from 2 years prior, typically obtained from your Federal Income Tax Return and W-2 wage statements. If you’re a dependent student, your parents will also need to supply their income and tax information. You should not send in any tax documents to GCC unless you are specifically asked to do so. a When do I submit FWS time sheets to payroll? Category: FWS Supervisor Time sheets are turned in every Wednesday afternoon. a When is it ok for the student worker to submit his or her own time sheets to payroll? Category: FWS Supervisor It is the FWS Supervisor's responsibility to submit the signed time sheets to payroll on a regular basis. This responsibility rests solely with the supervisor. Under NO circumstance should a student worker ever be given the time sheet once it is signed by the supervisor. a Who has the authority to sign FWS time sheets in my absence? Category: FWS Supervisor Only you have the authority to sign your student worker’s time sheets. You can however, in advance, make arrangements with the financial aid office for another staff member to provide a signature in your absence. We must have the appropriate supervisor approval and signatures on file and ready to provide to the auditors upon their request. By signing the time sheet you are verifying that the student worked the hours noted on the sheet and that the student is indeed entitled to receive a payment for those hours. If you’d like to grant another staff member the authority to sign and submit your student worker’s time sheet, just call the financial aid office and we can send you the proper form. a Why am I asked to verify a student's attendance? My bargaining contract specifies that I am not required to take attendance. Category: Faculty We don’t need you to take daily or weekly attendance, we ask you only to inform us when a student stops attending. Students, who walk away from the college but take a financial aid refund check cost the college money in lost revenue every year. Students must attend their classes regularly in order to receive excess financial aid funds, the "Financial Aid Refund." GCC’s Office of Financial Aid is mandated to verify student eligibility based on attendance. Students who unofficially withdraw or "walk away" are not eligible to receive financial aid funds. Federal Regulations required their awards to be adjusted and the money returned to the Department of Education (Title IV). a Why am I still considered a dependent student? I’m 21 years old and haven’t lived with my parents for years. Category: General For financial aid purposes, Federal and Massachusetts regulations consider students dependent until they are 24 years old, or are considered independent by marrying, serving in the military, or having dependents. Students may also be independent if they have been wards of the court. Find out more in our publication Are You an Independent Student? a Why do I have to submit time sheets on a regular basis? Category: FWS Supervisor The FWS Fund functions as a payroll fund and the fund balance must be reconciled on bi-weekly and monthly basis. GCC provides monthly reconciliation records to federal and state auditors upon their request. Accurate record keeping depends on the regular and timely submission of time sheets. a Why isn’t FWS considered to be a part of my annual department budget at GCC? Category: FWS Supervisor FWS is federal financial aid awarded to the college solely to provide financially eligible students with the opportunity to earn money through on/off-campus employment. Your department receives an annually allocation in order to provide employment positions to these students.