NorthWest Arkansas Community College

Financial Aid Terms and Conditions

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When you receive financial aid from NWACC, you agree to fulfill the responsibilities associated with those awards. The information below summarizes the terms and conditions established by federal and state regulations for financial aid. 

Terms & Conditions:

• You must have all paperwork turned in by the deadline dates to ensure that you will be awarded prior to the payment due date. 
• Students must provide official transcripts from all previously attended colleges. Your financial aid application will not be processed until the transcripts have been received and evaluated. 
• You can only receive federal aid for classes that are on your declared degree plan at NWACC.
• All students must be making Satisfactory Academic Progress to receive federal aid.
• See Important Deadline Dates to view priority processing dates.

Reporting Additional Assistance

If you receive other types of financial assistance, you must notify Enrollment Services immediately.

Use of Financial Aid Funds

NWACC applies your financial aid awards directly to charges on your student account.  Funds in excess of these charges will be released to you through Touchnet.  If subsequent charges are made to your student account, it is your responsibility to pay them.

Cost of Attendance

The cost of attendance (COA) is an estimate of your educational expenses, including transportation, books and miscellaneous costs.  Estimated financial aid awards including scholarships cannot exceed the student's estimated COA.  when this happens, the Financial Aid office is required to reduce one or more awards to equal the student's COA.

Financial Aid Refunds

• You will not receive Financial Aid if you fail to begin and stay in classes(es).
• NWACC does not refund any Federal, State, or Scholarship monies prior to the start of the semester.
• For regular 16-week classes, the Treasurer's Office issues refunds the week after the 11th class day. If you are enrolled in a class that is shorter than 16 weeks, it may delay all or a portion of your refund.
• Students can repeat a previously completed class (grade of D or higher) 1 time and a failed class can be repeated 2 times. Students will not receive federal aid for classes that are repeated more than the allowed
  number of times.
• To get your refund faster, sign up for direct deposit.

Book Credits

Book credits are available for students receiving Financial Aid when it exceeds tuition and fees and creates a credit on their student account.  Book credits are normally offered 10 days before the start of the semester and can only be used at the NWACC bookstore on campus.

Satisfactory Academic Progress

To remain eligible for financial aid, you must meet the following criteria:

• Have a minimum GPA of 2.00.
• Complete 67% of the credit hours attempted.
• Complete degree within the maximum time frame of 1.5 times the number of credit hours needed for the degree. For example, most Associate degree plans are 60 credit hours. 60 times 1.5 = 90 credit hours.
• Be on pace to graduate on time. If it is not mathematically possible for you to graduate within the maximum time frame, you will be on Financial Aid Exclusion.

Pell Grant and SEOG

For Financial Aid Purposes, summer is treated as a "header". This means it heads or is the first semester in the aid year, for example, summer 2018 is part of the 2018-2019 aid year. You must complete a 2018-2019 FAFSA to receive a Pell grant for the summer semester. All year round Pell-Students may receive a Pell grant for all three semesters or all year round. The maximum amount of Pell a student may receive in one aid year is a full time Pell grant for the summer, fall and spring semesters. In most cases, students are not required to be enrolled in a minimum number of credit hours to receive the grant if otherwise eligible; however, if a student attends the summer and fall semesters as full time; they must be enrolled in a minimum of 6 credit hours for the spring semester to receive a Pell grant for the third semester of enrollment.

Your Expected Family contributions (EFC) can affect Pell award disbursement amounts.

• EFC 3701 to 4900 must be enrolled in a minimum of 6 credit hours to receive the Pell Grant
• EFC 4901 to 5300 must be enrolled in a minimum of 9 credit hours to receive the Pell Grant
• EFC 5301 to 5486 must be enrolled in a minimum of 12 credit hours to receive the Pell Grant

The Pell Grant and Supplemental Educational Opportunity Grant (SEOG) are prorated for less than full time enrollment as follows:

For the 2018-2019 aid year, the Pell grant will not disburse for a calculated amount of $306 or less.

Enrollment in part of term classes may postpone disbursement of all or part of your federal aid award; for example, Mary enrolls in a 3 hour-1st 8 week class and a 3 hour 2nd 8 week class. Pell will credit to her account after the tuition refund period is over on September 4th for the 1st class and the other 25% will credit to her student account around October 24th.

Withdrawing from a class(es) prior to the census date of a part of term class

If you withdraw from one or more classes prior to the census date of the last part of term class enrolled in, your Pell grant must be recalculated.  

For example, a student is enrolled in two 16 week classes and one second 8 week class. The student receives 50% of their Pell award for the two 16 week classes after the census date of the 16 week session. If the student withdrawals from the two 16 week classes by the census date of the second 8 week class, they owe back the 50% of Pell received. Their Pell would be recalculated from 9 credit hours to 3 credit hours provided they began attendance in the second 8 week session. The student's new Pell award would be 25% of the maximum award the for semester.

Student Loans - how to get and keep them

You must be enrolled in a minimum of 6 credit hours that are Financial Aid eligible to receive a student loan. If you are on Financial Aid Exclusion, you are not eligible to receive the Pell grant or student loans.

You must log into My NWACC to view your student loan offer and accept the amount needed. If you have not had a student loan before, there are two more steps to complete at https://studentloans.gov/myDirectLoan/index.action

1. Sign a Master Promissory Note (Only have to do this one time)
2. Complete Entrance loan counseling - if you have done this for another school, just log back in and add our school name. The counseling covers interest rates, types of loans, lifetime eligibility amounts, when you go into repayment, and much more.

Student loans are disbursed in two equal disbursements a semester.

• For the fall and spring semesters, one half of the semester loan is disbursed after the 11th class day or the first posted disbursement date after the student begins attendance in 6 credit hours - whichever is later.
• The second half of the semester loan is disbursed after the midpoint of the semester or the first posted disbursement date after the student begins attendance in 6 credit hours - whichever is later.
• For the summer semester, the first disbursement is made after the drop period ends for the first 5 week session of the semester or after the first posted disbursement date after the student begins attendance in 6 credit hours - whichever is later.
• The second disbursement occurs around the first of July or after the first posted disbursement date after the student begins attendance in 6 credit hours - whichever is later.
• Enrollment in part of term classes may postpone disbursement of all or part of your federal aid award
  • for example, a student is enrolled for Fall in a 3 hour 16 week class and a 3 hour 2nd 8 week class for a total of 6 credit hours. The loan will not disburse until after the tuition refund period is over for the 2nd 8 week class which is October 24th. You will not be attending the minimum 6 credit hours until this time.

 

Lifetime Federal Aid Limits

There is a lifetime limit on the Pell grant and Direct Student loans. Students may receive up to 12 full time semesters of Pell. The lifetime limit for undergraduate student loans is $31,000 for a dependent student and $57,500 for an independent student. To repay $30,000 in student loans, you would need to earn $51,786/year or $24.90/hour. Your loan payment would be approximately $345/month.

Direct Subsidized Loan Eligibility is limited to 3 years for an Associate degree or 1.5 years for a certificate program.

 

Federal Work-Study program

A need based program that offers part-time jobs to students with unmet financial aid need. Most jobs are on campus and offer flexible hours to work around your school schedule.

Work 10 to 19 hours per week earning $9.00 to $10.00 per hour. View work-study jobs.