The Financial Aid Office at Northwest Mississippi Community College is reminding students that it is nearly time to renew their FAFSA. Each year the Department of Education creates a Free Renewal Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) for eligible students. A single Renewal Reminder will be distributed from Jan. 15 through Feb. 16, 2009 by the Department of Education to eligible students.
“The FAFSA Renewal Reminder is an important alert for eligible students. This reminder will inform the eligible students that they can use the FAFSA on the Web to update their information and reapply for federal aid,” said Joe Boyles, Northwest director of Northwest Financial Aid. The reminder will be issued to the students via the e-mail address provided to the Department of Education at the time the students completed their 2008-2009 FAFSA application. The Web site for the free application for financial aid is www.fafsa.ed.gov.
In order for a student to receive a Renewal Reminder, a student’s 2008-2009 record must also have a “good” Social Security Number (SSN) match with the Social Security Administration (SSA). A “good” SSN match occurs when the student’s SSN, name, and date of birth all matched the SSA’s records. A successful SSN match tells the Department of Education that the student has previously been sent a Federal Student Aid Personal Identification Number (PIN). This PIN is required to access the student’s Renewal FAFSA on the Web. The Department of Education uses the SSN match results to determine if the student will be able to access Renewal FAFSA on the Web and should be sent a Renewal Reminder. If a student’s SSN does not match, a Renewal Reminder is not sent because these students cannot access their Renewal FAFSA on the Web until they have a PIN.
“Eligible students who provided their e-mail addresses on their 2008-2009 FAFSA application will receive the 2009-2010 Renewal Reminders via e-mail, “ Boyles said. “Students who did not provide an e-mail address on their previous records or do not have an e-mail address will have a Renewal Reminder letter sent to them via the U.S.Mail to the address that the Department of Education has on file from the student’s 2008-2009 school year.”
Students may access and make changes, if necessary, to their personalinformation on the FAFSA Web site using their PIN. If a student has lost or forgotten their individual PIN, they must go to the Federal Student Aid PIN Web site (www.pin.ed.gov) and request a duplicate PIN. The Financial Aid Offices on Northwest campuses do not have access to the student’s personal PIN and cannot provide this information to the students.
The 2009-2010 FAFSA application is for students to apply for financial aid beginning with the fall classes of 2009. The Department of Education combined some questions and made a few changes to the new form for 2009-2010. Students may enter and submit their 2009-2010 renewal FAFSA on the Web beginning Jan. 1, 2009. All students must complete the 2009-2010 FAFSA using their 2008 income tax information and dependent students are required to also provide parents’ 2008 income tax information. Students should answer all questions and be sure that they sign the form electronically with their PIN. Also, for dependent students, a parent is required to sign.
Students will also be able to receive the 2009-2010 Renewal Reminders in Spanish if the 2008-2009 transaction that is renewable eligible was created from a Spanish application.
In order for Northwest to receive the student’s FAFSA information,the student must submit the Northwest school code on the FAFSA form. The school code is 002427.
No institutional scholarships for 2009-2010 will be released until the Financial Aid office has a completed FAFSA application on file for the scholarship recipient. This will allow the Financial Aid office to determine Pell Grant eligibility.
“Also, students are not eligible to apply for student loans until the Financial Aid Office has a completed FAFSA application on file in the for the applicant,” Boyles said.
Additionally, students who submit a FAFSA4caster record prior to Jan. 11, 2009 and are age 16 or older as of Jan. 1, 2009 will be eligible to submit a 2009-2010 renewal application using FAFSA on the Web and will be sent a Renewal Reminder with customized text. |
