Applying for Financial Assistance
Because we know the costs of higher education must very
often be offset by some form of financial assistance—including a
combination of scholarships, grants, loans, and student employment—we
encourage you to apply for financial aid.
To make the process of
applying for financial aid easy, use the tabs above to review each step of the process.
Information You'll Need
Prepare yourself in completing your financial
aid application by having the following items available:
·
Social Security Number
·
Parent’s Social Security Number (if
the student is dependent)
·
Driver’s license number
·
Alien Registration Number (if the
student is not a U.S. citizen)
·
Prior year Federal Income Tax Returns
or tax information – including W-2 statements for the student, the
student’s spouse (if married) and the student’s parents (if the
student is dependent)
·
Records of prior year untaxed income
·
Current information on savings,
investments, and business and farm assets for the student and for
the parents (if the student is dependent)
Make a
PIN
Request
Your United States Department of Education
(USDE) Personal Identification Number (PIN)
will be used for many years and in a variety of ways. These include:
applying for financial aid, signing a Master Federal Direct Stafford
Loan promissory note, completing Federal Direct Loan entrance and
exit loan counseling, and viewing your federal financial aid history
and Federal Direct Stafford Loan account detail.
For dependent students, at least one parent
will need a PIN in their
name. The parent PIN is
used to sign the
FAFSA. It is also used to sign a Federal Direct PLUS
(Parent) Loan, should the parent decide to take out an educational
loan for the student.
Go to www.pin.ed.gov to:
- request and receive a PIN in “real-time”
- make up a PIN
- request a duplicate PIN
- change your existing PIN to another number
The
FAFSA on the Web Worksheet allows you to read and complete
the FAFSA
questions before you enter your information on line.
The questions are
listed in the same order that they appear on the
FAFSA.
To apply for financial aid, you must file the
Free Application for Federal
Student Aid (FAFSA) by visiting
www.fafsa.ed.gov.
Filing the
FAFSA gives you access to federal grants, scholarships, loans
and work-study. When you file the FAFSA, you are also being considered
for state and institutional financial aid. However, for state aid
programs, you may be required to complete additional forms. WV
residents, refer to Section 5 below for instructions on how to apply for
WV state aid.
You must enter Marshall University’s Federal School
Code: 003815 in Section 5 –
COLLEGES TO RECEIVE INFORMATION.
The priority filing date for the FAFSA is March 1 prior to the academic
year the student is attending for full consideration of all federal,
state and institutional financial aid programs. You may file the
FAFSA after this date, but
keep in mind that if you wait until the last minute to apply, some
financial aid programs may not be available to you and your financial
aid awards may not be finalized by the billing due date.
For assistance completing the
FAFSA, you may call the
Federal Student Aid Information Center at 1-800-4-FED-AID
(1-800-433-3243).
If you wish to apply for financial aid for the summer, in addition to filing the FAFSA, you must also complete a Summer Financial Aid Application. Summer is a non-standard term, which requires the Office of Student Financial Assistance to collect additional information which is not provided on the FAFSA.
Summer is also considered a trailer for financial aid awarding purposes, meaning that the summer follows the completed academic year. For example, to apply for financial aid for the 2009 summer terms, you must have a 2008-2009 FAFSA on file and complete a 2009 Summer Financial Aid Application. To obtain a Summer Financial Aid Application, go to www.marshall.edu/sfa, click on the Forms & Applications tab, and again on the General Forms & Applications tab.
WV Residents Application Requirements
WV residents may apply for West Virginia’s merit-based PROMISE Scholarship and other WV Higher Education Policy Commission administered scholarship programs by going to: www.cfwv.com.
Students applying for the WV PROMISE Scholarship and WV Higher Education Grant Program must also file the Free Applicaqtion for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) by visiting www.fafsa.ed.gov. To be considered for the WV PROMISE Scholarship, the FAFSA must be filed by March 1.
Students applying for the WV PROMISE Scholarship must also complete a State-Level Financial aid application through the College Foundation of West Virginia website, www.cfwv.com by March 1. In addition, high school graduating seniors must take the ACT by June 12 or the SAT by June 5 for consideration of WV PROMISE Scholarship.
For assistance with completing the WV merit-based PROMISE Scholarship and need-based Higher Education Grant application, you may call West Virginia Higher Education Policy Office of Financial Aid and Outreach Programs at 1-888-825-5707 or 1-304-558-4614.