Understanding Your Award Letter

Please select from the list below regarding your award letter.

View a Financial Aid Award Letter Sample
Accepting Your Award Letter
Completing Your Financial Aid File
Enrollment Requirements
Determining Your Financial Need and Aid Package
Determining Your Cost of Attendance
Withdrawing
Applying for Student Loans
Disbursement of Financial Aid
Refunds
Scholarships
Financial Aid Award Frequently Asked Questions

Accepting Your Award at UTSA

You can accept or decline your financial aid and scholarship awards online by logging on to your ASAP account by the deadline listed on your award letter. For scholarship awards, please refer to your scholarship award letter for instructions on accepting awards and for deadlines and additional required documents.

Completing Your Financial Aid File

Although you may have received your financial aid award notification and accepted the award through ASAP, the process is not complete. Please refer to your award letter or check ASAP for outstanding documents you must submit. Please visit our Forms web page to download forms.

You must complete your file by the Roadrunner Express Deadline of July 1st to ensure financial aid will disburse before the start of the Fall 2009 semester. If your file is not complete by the Roadrunner Express Deadline, you may be required to set up the installment plan or apply for an Emergency Tuition and Fee Loan to hold your classes until your financial aid has been applied.
Please refer to your award letter or your scholarship award letter for additional deadlines.
If you have Special Circumstances that could affect your package, submit the appropriate form to Student Enrollment Services. Special circumstances take longer to process so we cannot guarantee these will be completed prior to the disbursement date even if submitted by the Roadrunner Express Deadline.
UTSA reserves the right to modify, reduce, or cancel your award if any of your FAFSA information changes due to your revisions, the verification process, any laws that are amended or when any funds are withdrawn or exhausted.
You must maintain Satisfactory Academic Progress (SAP): Students must meet certain GPA and credit completion requirements to continue to receive financial aid.
You must notify our office of any enrollment changes. Please review the table below for official enrollment requirements.
Students must be enrolled at least half-time for most financial aid. Most scholarships require full-time enrollment.
Please note that each students budget will be based on their response to question #25 on the FAFSA indicating expected enrollment. Students who responded “Three-Quarter”, “Half-Time”, “Less Than Half-Time”, or “Don’t Know” will be have a part-time budget. All students who respond full-time to question #25 will have a full-time budget.
All students will receive grants equal to full-time enrollment, but grants will be prorated to 75% or 50% (¾–time or ½–time, respectively) based on the number of credit hours you are enrolled and attend for. With this notification of your full grant potential, you may wish to reconsider and attend full-time. If so, you will need to contact us and indicate your intention of full-time status.

Enrollment Requirements for Undergraduate & Graduate Students

	Undergraduate Enrollment Requirements			Graduate Enrollment Requirements
	Full Time	¾ Time	½ Time	Full Time	¾ Time	½ Time
Fall/Spring	12	9	6	9	6	4
Summer	12	9	6	5	4	3

Determining your financial need and aid package

Our office follows the federal methodology and regulations established by the Department of Education to determine your need and eligibility for financial aid.
We are required to establish a cost of attendance for each student and then subtract your Expected Family Contribution (EFC), located on the FAFSA, to determine your remaining need. You will find your Estimated Cost of Attendance, Resources, EFC and Remaining Need listed on your award letter.
Resources such as veteran’s benefits, tuition exemptions and waivers, and employer reimbursements will affect your financial aid package.

Determining Your Cost of Attendance

The Cost of Attendance (COA) is the first part of the financial aid process and is determined each year based on the average costs a student will incur for each semester. Included in the COA are average tuition and fee costs, a book allowance, a room and board allowance (on-campus, off-campus or at-home), transportation and personal/miscellaneous expenses.

The COA assigned to you will be determined by your answers to the expected enrollment and student housing questions on the FAFSA. Please note that if you state full-time attendance on the FAFSA, you will receive a full-time budget. If you then enroll ¾-time or half-time, your grants will be reduced to only 75% or 50%, respectively, and loans will be adjusted to fit in your COA. Based on federal guidelines, we cannot offer you more financial aid than to which you are entitled, and we must reduce your awards.
Your COA may be higher than your actual direct cost at UTSA. For example, if you are living at home with your parents, you will only be required to pay tuition and fees and incur book costs as your direct charges. Please review our Budget web page to help determine the amount you will need.

Withdrawing

Students who drop below half-time or withdraw during the semester can have their financial aid award cancelled in part or in whole and may owe the University, their lender, or the federal government money. Any student who drops below half-time status for the semester will go into repayment of any Stafford loans and may have the subsequent semester’s loans cancelled. See the Withdrawing from UTSA section on our web site for further information.

If you decide not to attend UTSA and you have registered for classes, you will need to officially withdraw through the Enrollment Services Center. If your financial aid information is complete and you do not officially withdraw, your classes will be held and financial aid will be credited to your account. If you are trying to attend another institution and have not officially withdrawn from UTSA, no other school will be able to award you financial aid.

Applying for Student Loans

UTSA utilizes the Texas Guaranteed Student Loan Corporation's Loans by Web process to provide a web-based application for students wishing to borrow Federal Stafford Loans.
No Stafford Loan applications will not be processed prior to June 1, 2008.

To complete the Stafford loan process:

New UTSA Students: Please accept your Federal Stafford loan on ASAP when you receive your award letter. Then complete a loan application through TG Loans by Web and follow the instructions given.

Current UTSA Students: If you have borrowed Federal Stafford Loans with UTSA before, you simply need to accept your Stafford loans on ASAP. We will process your loans automatically based on your previous selection of a lender.

Applying for Parent PLUS Loans

Parents who wish to borrow under the PLUS program must be pre-approved from the lender of their choice and complete and submit a PLUS Request form. Parents must select a lender of their choice. In order to complete the Parent PLUS Loan application process you must:

Accept the Parent PLUS Loan award on ASAP
Submit the Parent PLUS Request Form to our office along with the
Pre-Approval notification from the lender your parent has chosen.
A copy of parent and student social security card.

Alternative Loans

Students who wish to borrow an alternative loan may select a lender of their choice. After selecting a lender and applying for pre-approval, an application and instructions will be sent from the lender to the student.

Disbursement of Student Financial Aid

Federal, state and institutional aid is disbursed 10 days before the start of each semester provided that all paperwork is complete. This is the earliest date, by law, that UTSA can disburse aid.

Please note that some scholarships and financial aid for students with consortium agreements with other schools will not disburse until after census date (12th class day).
To guarantee that your classes will be held and to have your funds available to you early, you must submit all requested documentation NO LATER THAN the Roadrunner Express Deadline of July 1, 2008. Additional detailed information concerning disbursement schedules can be found at Disbursing Financial Aid

Refunds

All of your financial aid will first be applied towards your tuition and fees and other education charges. Once your billed charges have been paid, a credit will be available on your account and issued to you as a refund. Please go to the Fiscal Services web site for information concerning refunds and Direct Deposit.

*In accordance with university policy, please note that all email correspondence must originate from your my.UTSA.edu email account in order for us to respond.

Scholarships

If you are receiving outside scholarships or any other funding from outside sources (including VA benefits and employer reimbursements), you will need to complete the Outside Resource Scholarship Form. It is important to submit this information early to avoid over-awarding of financial aid. Failure to do so could jeopardize your financial aid eligibility. Additional scholarship information can be found at www.utsa.edu/scholarships and VA information at www.utsa.edu/va.