Reduction or removal of financial aid awards

Your financial aid award amounts will be adjusted based on several factors.

Enrollment

Cost of Attendance (COA) and initial financial aid award amounts are estimated at full-time enrollment (12 or more credit hours) for fall and spring.

If you attend less than full-time during any term, your COA and financial aid award amounts will be adjusted. This could result in reduction or removal of loans or other financial aid.

Your annual, individual COA and financial aid award amounts can be found on MySPC. Once logged in, you can either:

• Select the following tabs:  Financial Aid, Financial Aid Summary, Need Summary  or
• Select the following tabs:  Financial Aid, Awards, College Financial Plan

See below for examples.

Overawards

An overaward occurs when your financial aid is greater than your financial need and/or COA for a term. When an overaward is identified, adjustments will be made to your financial aid package to ensure compliance with federal and state regulations. Loans are reduced first, followed by Federal Work Study, then forms of free financial aid. If an overaward occurs after aid has been disbursed, you may be required to repay all or a portion of your financial aid back to the college.

Prohibition on Pell Grants if non-federal financial aid covers the Cost of Attendance

You are not eligible for a Pell Grant for an award year during which you receive grant or scholarship assistance from non-federal sources in an amount that equals or exceeds your COA for the year.

We will reduce or remove your non-federal financial aid to allow you to receive the full Federal Pell Grant amount for which you are eligible. Unless other circumstances apply, funds will be removed or reduced in this order:  private donor scholarships first, followed by Third-Party Billing funds, then institutional scholarships, SPC Foundation scholarships, SPC Student Incentive Grant, state grants (FGMG, FSAG & FSAG-CE), state scholarships (Bright Futures & FFRS), and state Waivers & Exemptions.

If you are not a Federal Pell Grant recipient and only receive grants and scholarships, the total amount of financial aid may exceed your COA and no adjustments will be made.

Examples of removals/reductions based on enrollment

Below are some examples of how a financial aid award package can change based on enrollment changes from one term to another (actual amounts will vary).

Example of two terms of full-time (12+ credit hours) enrollment

Example of one term of full-time enrollment and one term of three-quarter time (9-11 credit hours) enrollment:

NOTE: Pell Grant and FSAG reduced based on three-quarter time enrollment. Three-quarter term Unsubsidized Loan must be reduced to 1,595 since Total Financial Aid cannot exceed Cost of Attendance (9,259 + 6,944 = 16,203).

Example of one term of full-time enrollment and one term of half-time (6-8 credit hours) enrollment:

NOTE: Pell Grant and FSAG reduced based on half-time enrollment.  Half-time term Unsubsidized Loan must be reduced to 248 since Total Financial Aid cannot exceed Cost of Attendance (9,259 + 4,630 = 13,889).

Example of one term of full-time enrollment and one term of less-than-half-time (1-5 credit hours) enrollment:

NOTE: Pell Grant reduced based on less-than-half-time enrollment. Student is no longer eligible to receive SEOG, FSAG, Subsidized Loan, and Unsubsidized Loan because enrollment is less than half-time.
 

*Student Aid Index.

If you have any questions, please contact Financial Aid.