Financial Aid Policies

On this page:
Class Attendance/Withdrawal
Consortium Agreements
Disbursement of Financial Aid
Drug Convictions
Information Changes and Financial Aid Eligibility
Last Date of Attendance or Participation
Repeated Courses and Financial Aid Eligibility
Reporting Scholarships or Additional Aid
Right to Cancel Loans
Satisfactory Academic Progress
Statement of Educational Purpose
Submitting Inaccurate Information
Third Party Access

Class Attendance/Withdrawal

If you do not attend your classes or if you withdraw, it will affect your financial aid eligibility. Return of Title IV Funds is calculated based on your class attendance. Procedures for monitoring class attendance include, but are not limited to 1) notification by instructors/advisors and other administrative offices, and 2) midterm and final grade evaluation. Before dropping hours or withdrawing from school, you should contact our office to review the university's Return of Title IV Funds policy and Satisfactory Academic Progress policy.

Consortium Agreements

A Consortium Agreement is a contract between two institutions that allows one school (home institution) to count the hours at another school (host institution) for the purpose of determining registration level. Check out the Consortium Agreement Resource Page for more information about the consortium process at FHSU.

Disbursement of Financial Aid

Financial aid cannot be disbursed until you have:

Responded to all requests for information.
Been Admitted to FHSU as a degree-seeking student.
Registered in the number of hours for which your aid is calculated. This policy applies even if your class(es) do not start until later in the term.
Completed an Master Promissory Note and entrance counseling for Federal Direct Loans.
Maintained satisfactory academic progress.
Resolved any registration holds.
Selected a Refund Option as designated in Workday. (See Financial Aid Disbursement Methods .)
Met eligibility for all programs. This includes scholarships, grants, and loans.

Federal regulation only allows the university to hold available funds for three days. After this period, aid will be canceled. In order to be re-awarded aid, you must reapply after eligibility has been met. This may cause considerable delay and result in your being responsible for paying your tuition and fees with other financial means.

Aid is applied first to tuition and fees, residential life charges, and any university charges assessed. Because books are not university charges, you are responsible for purchasing textbooks. Available excess aid (except Federal Work-Study) will be refunded to the student pursuant to the student's refund option designated in Workday. (See Financial Aid Disbursement Methods.)

Drug Convictions

Under the Higher Education Act, a student may become ineligible for federal student aid upon conviction of any offense involving the possession or sale of illegal drugs while receiving Title IV federal financial aid. Specific information regarding types of convictions that are included and how to regain eligibility are included on the Drug Convictions page.

Information Changes and Financial Aid Eligibility

Your financial aid package is subject to revision if changes occur in your cost of attendance, grade level, registration level, the levels of federal and/or state funding, verification, appeal, Professional Judgment Review, or you receive additional scholarships or resources. Registration level changes for additional eligibility cannot be made after initial disbursement of any federal aid.

If a major change occurs in your (or your family's) financial situation, you may request a review of your application by submitting a Professional Judgment Review. Professional Judgment Review forms can be found on our Forms page.

Name or address changes must be updated immediately on your Workday or reported to the FHSU Registrar's Office.

Last Date of Attendance or Participation

Under federal regulations, we must confirm students' course participation for courses dropped/withdrawn from after financial aid is disbursed. Please note that dropping/withdrawing from a course could require you to repay, specifically for Pell Grant recipients.

Students must actively participate in all courses to prevent a recalculation of their Pell Grant. Active participation includes:

Exams
Records of attendance
Tutorials
Computer-assisted instruction
Study group activity

Regulations specifically exclude activities related solely to logging into computer-assisted instruction services, such as Blackboard, from active participation.

For more information about these changes, click here or contact our office.

Repeated Courses and Financial Aid Eligibility

Your financial aid eligibility may be affected for courses that you repeat.

If you fail a course (receive a "U"), you can be eligible for financial aid for the course when you repeat it.
If you receive a "D" or higher in a course, you can be eligible to receive financial aid for the course if you repeat the course only one time, regardless of any school or program policy requiring a higher qualitative grade or measure to have been considered to have passed the course.

This policy can affect the registration level for which your aid is packaged. If you are repeating a course and you are ineligible to receive financial aid for that course, it cannot be counted in your total hours of registration. Repeat course work does include courses that are transferred to FHSU from other institutions. Courses that are designed to be taken multiple times for credit, such as a music recital course, are not considered to be repeated courses under this policy because the course content changes from course to course.

For example, if you are an undergraduate student registered in 12 credit hours (which includes a 3-hour repeated course for which you are ineligible to receive financial aid), only the 9 credit hours will count toward your registration level. Your aid will be packaged at three-quarter time (9 credit hours), rather than at full-time (12 credit hours).

Reporting Scholarships or Additional Aid

You are required to report any scholarships or other aid not listed on your financial aid award letter. Receipt of such awards may result in an adjustment to your financial aid package. In most cases, official notification from the awarding agency is required before adjustments are made to eligibility. Remember, all scholarships listed on the award letter have only been awarded and not necessarily accepted by you. To report scholarships or additional aid, complete the Additional Resources form found on our Forms page.

Right to Cancel Loans

If you wish to cancel all or a portion of your Direct or PLUS loan after disbursement, you must notify the Student Fiscal Services Office http://www.fhsu.edu/sfs/ in writing within 14 days of the receipt date. You will need to attach a cashier's check for the amount you wish to cancel with the notice. Call Student Fiscal Services to verify the payee on the cashier's check before sending the notice and check. Questions regarding loan cancellation after disbursement should be directed to Student Fiscal Services, 317 Picken Hall, (785) 628-5558.

Satisfactory Academic Progress

Section 668.7(a)(5) of the student general provisions requires financial aid recipients to maintain satisfactory academic progress for continual eligibility for Title IV funding. This policy also includes funding from the State of Kansas and various scholarships. If you are placed on financial aid suspension, you will not be eligible for aid until all university standards are met or your appeal has been approved. For further explanation, visit our informational page on Satisfactory Academic Progress.

Statement of Educational Purpose

Any funds received under the Title IV Programs (Federal Perkins Loan, Federal College Work-Study, Federal Supplemental Educational Opportunity Grant, Federal Direct Loan, Federal Pell Grant, or TEACH Grant) must be used for expenses connected with attending Fort Hays State University. Refunds or repayments to any institution regarding any Title IV grants or loans made, insured or guaranteed by the Secretary of Education is prohibited. To continue receiving any federal student assistance, students must be admitted to FHSU as degree seeking students or eligible as teacher licensure students and satisfactory academic progress (see below) must be maintained.

Submitting Inaccurate Information

Inaccurate information, intentional or otherwise, on any part of the financial aid application may result in cancellation of your aid and the repayment of all aid improperly received. Warning: If you purposely give false or misleading information, you may be subject to a $10,000 fine, prison sentence, or both.

Parent (Third Party) Access

The financial and non-directory information on your student financial aid file is confidential and protected by the Family Educational Rights & Privacy Act 1974 (FERPA) as amended "Buckley Amendment," and the Gramm-Leach Bliley Act (GLB Act, Sec 16CFR Part 314). The Financial Assistance Office cannot release information about your financial aid file to another person, including parents, without your authorization. To grant access to a third party, log into your Workday and click the Third Party Access link listed under Resources in the myFHSU portal.

[Back to Top]