Welcome
The Office of Student Financial Assistance offers a variety of financial aid options to students. This Web site provides information on how to apply for financial aid, deadlines, and types of aid available.
Financial Aid News and Announcements
Dollars and Sense Enrollment and Student Services Newsletter. Spring/Summer 2012. Look for each issue, which includes financial aid information, as well as other related articles.
Need Money? File the FAFSA!
As of January 1, 2012, the 2012-2013 Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) is available at www.fafsa.gov. The FAFSA determines your eligibility for grants, scholarships, loans, and work-study programs, and is the essential first step in receiving financial aid from federal, state, and private sources.
- The sooner you apply for student financial assistance, the better chance you have of receiving the maximum amount of funds.
- You do not need your 2011 income tax return to apply now. You may estimate your taxes using your 2010 tax return and update your information once you submit your 2011 income tax return to the IRS. Once you have filed your 2011 tax return, it is highly recommended that you correct your FAFSA by using the IRS Data Retrieval Tool. The IRS Data Retrieval Tool allows you to import your tax data to your FAFSA directly from the IRS.
- Completing your FAFSA now will allow you to plan more efficiently.
- Many scholarships require you to complete the FAFSA.
The IRS Data Retrieval Process, which will be available beginning February 1, 2012, allows eligible federal tax return filers to retrieve information from their submitted income tax return while completing the 2012-2013 FAFSA. IRS information should be available three-to-five business days after filing an electronic return and about six-to-eight weeks after filing a paper return. The retrieval process will be available for filers of both the English and Spanish versions of the FAFSA on the Web. Nova Southeastern University encourages students to take advantage of this feature. The Department of Education considers data transferred through the IRS Data Retrieval System as equivalent to an IRS form. This is good news for students selected for verification. If IRS data transferred to a student's FAFSA remains unaltered, the student may not be required to submit tax documentation for verification purposes. Students who are selected for verification and did not use the IRS Data Retrieval Tool will be required to submit a line-by-line transcript of their federal income tax return to be obtained from the IRS.
Making mistakes on your FAFSA could delay your application and possibly make you lose out on some financial aid. Be sure to read all of the questions on the FAFSA application carefully to avoid confusion and submission of incorrect information. The most common errors made by students and families are:
- Leaving blank fields: Enter a '0' or 'not applicable' instead of leaving a blank. Too many blanks may cause miscalculations and an application rejection.
- Using commas or decimal points in numeric fields: Always round to the nearest dollar.
- Listing an incorrect Social Security Number or driver's license number: Double-check these entries, and have someone else check them too. Triple-check to be sure. If your parent(s) does not have a Social Security Number, list 000-00-0000. Do not make up a number or include a Taxpayer Identification Number.
- Failing to use your legal name: Your name must be listed on your FAFSA as it appears on your Social Security card. Entering nicknames or other variations on your name will cause processing delays.
- Entering the wrong address: Do not list a temporary campus or summer address as your permanent address.
- Using the wrong line items from your federal income tax return: The tax form and line items are indicated on the FAFSA application. Be sure to use the correct line item for taxes paid and adjusted gross income. These are listed on the tax return, not the W2. Mistakes can be avoided by using the IRS Data Retrieval Tool.
- Incorrectly filing income taxes as head of household: If there is an error in the head of household filing status, the school will require an amended tax return to be filed with the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) before disbursement of aid is allowed. The student will be required to submit an updated IRS Transcript showing the correction, which can take 8-12 weeks to process.
- Listing marital status incorrectly: On the question pertaining to marital status, only answer "yes" if you're currently married or separated. The Department of Education wants to know what your marital status is on the day you sign the FAFSA.
- Listing parent marital status incorrectly: The custodial parent's marital status is needed. If this parent has remarried, you'll need the stepparent's information too.
- Failure to report unborn children: If you have a child that will be born before or during the award year for which you are applying, and that child will receive more than half of its support from you, you must count that child as a member of the household.
- Failing to register with Selective Service: If you are a male, aged 18 to 26, you must register with Selective Service. Failure to do so will make you ineligible for federal student aid. For more information click on "details" regarding registration for Selective Service.
- Forgetting to list the college: NSU's Federal School Code is 001509.
- Forgetting to sign and date: If you're filling out the paper FAFSA, be sure to sign it. If you're filing electronically using FAFSA on the Web, be sure to obtain your PIN. Your PIN is your electronic signature and will always be assigned to you only. Conversely, if you file using FAFSA on the Web, you can print out the signature page, sign it, and send it in.
- Sending in a copy of your income tax returns: You will be contacted by NSU if your information needs verification. You do not need to send a copy of your tax returns in with your FAFSA. Any information sent with your FAFSA will be destroyed. In addition, do not write any notes in the margins of your FAFSA.
Don't miss out by filing late! Go to www.fafsa.gov to get started.
NSU Federal School Code: 001509
All NSU students must continuously meet standards established for SAP to remain eligible for financial aid. Effective July 1, 2011, SAP standards have changed dramatically. Be sure you understand the SAP requirements for your program level published at www.nova.edu/sap.
As of July 1, 2012, graduate and professional students will no longer be eligible to receive Federal Subsidized Direct Loans. This provision of the Budget Control Act was signed into law by President Obama in August of 2011 and is estimated to save $18.1 billion from fiscal years 2012-2021, according to the Congressional Budget Office.
Graduate and professional students will continue to receive Federal Direct Unsubsidized Loans. Please note that annual and aggregate (lifetime) loan limits are not affected by this new regulation, meaning that students may borrow unsubsidized loans up to the current annual and aggregate loan limits. Borrowers of an unsubsidized loan are responsible for all interest that accrues over the life of the loan.
Visit the financial aid Web site for more information on the Federal Direct Unsubsidized Loan.
Effective July 1, 2012 through June 30, 2014, the federal government will not cover the interest during the six-month grace period after a student graduates or otherwise stops attending, or once a student drops below half-time enrollment status. Interest will accrue during the grace period and will be capitalized if unpaid by the borrower. This change has been signed into law by President Obama as part of the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2012.
This change applies to Federal Direct Subsidized Loans for the 2012-2013 and 2013-2014 academic years, which have a 6.8% fixed interest rate. Eliminating the subsidized interest benefit during the six-month grace period has a minor impact on the amount of debt when the borrower enters repayment, assuming that the interest is capitalized. For example, a six-month grace period with a 6.8% interest rate that is capitalized once at repayment would be equivalent to increasing the overall loan balance by 3.4%. That would yield about a 1.5% increase in the average total student loan debt at graduation if applied to all Federal Direct Subsidized Loans, or half of that if the change remains limited to only two years as mentioned above. The typical undergraduate student would experience a $200 increase in the debt at repayment.
The Department of Education has begun notifying borrowers who are eligible for a special direct consolidation loan. With the Special Direct Consolidation Loan, all consolidated loans retain their original repayment terms. Borrowers do not need to take any action until they are contacted by a Department of Education servicer. For more information, visit NSU's Special Direct Consolodation page.
If your federal student loan debt is high relative to your income and family size, you may qualify for Income Based Repayment (IBR). At present, the IBR plan caps monthly federal student loan payments at 15% of the borrower's discretionary income and grants forgiveness for any remaining loan debt once the borrower makes qualifying payments for 25 years. Modifications made by congress shortly after the initial implementation of the IBR plan are projected to reduce the cap from 15% to 10% of a borrower's discretionary income and reduce the years of qualifying payments from 25 to 20 for borrows who take out their first federal student loan after 2014. The "Pay As You Earn" plan is expected to expedite these modifications making them available to new borrowers as early as 2012. For more information on IBR visit the Federal Student Aid Web site.
Effective July 1, 2011, NSU is required to perform a Return of Title IV calculation for any student enrolled in a semester with multiple parts of term who ceases attendance during the first part of term unless the student confirms future attendance for courses that begin in the second part of term. The Return of Title IV calculation determines how much of a student's federal financial aid funds, which were granted based on enrollment in both parts of term, will have to be returned as "unearned" due to non-attendance.