The three documents are:

• Federal Loan Entrance Interview
•  Master Promissory Notes (MPN) for the Federal Direct Stafford Loans
•  Student Title IV Credit Authorization form

All these forms can be easily completed online and will not take you more than 30 minutes.

You can complete both the Federal Loan Entrance Interview and the MPN for the Direct Stafford Loans at www.studentloans.gov.  You will have to log in by using your (student) FAFSA PIN number.  (If you have forgotten or lost your FAFSA PIN number, you can go to www.pin.ed.gov and request a duplicate.)

• To complete the Federal Loan Entrance Interview, you should click on “Complete Entrance Interview.”  You can then follow the steps for registration.
• For the Stafford loan MPNs, click on “Complete Master Promissory Note” from the main menu and then “subsidized/unsubsidized” and follow the steps until completion.
• The Student Title IV Credit Authorization form can be found on your myNEU student portal under the Self Services tab.  This document will ask you two questions regarding the federal funding that disburses to your account.

• Pay any remaining balances –If you have a current balance due on your account for the spring semester, you should make payment arrangements as soon as possible. It is important to make appropriate arrangements now to prevent the addition of late fees, which may be added to accounts in late January.
  • If you have a balance from a term prior to the Spring 2012 semester, you need to address this balance immediately. Any student with a financial hold on their account will not be able to complete “I Am Here” and will have their pre registered coursework dropped by 3:00pm on January 9th.
  • Feel free to come by and meet with your financial aid counselor if you are having difficulties with resolving your balance and would like to discuss your options.
• Paperwork, paperwork, paperwork – Please submit any and all missing items to ensure the proper disbursement of financial aid funds to your student account. To determine if any items are missing, log into your MyNEU account and click on “My Financial Aid Status” under the Self Service tab.  Click on the Documents tab and any item listed as Not Received is required to finalize your financial aid award or allow financial aid funds to deposit into your account.
• Review your financial aid – While checking to see if there are any documents missing, take a moment to review your financial aid award for the semester. If you plan to enroll in less than 12 credits for the spring term, you should have a conversation with your financial aid counselor as adjustments may have to be made to your award.  Also, make sure that you have the appropriate type of aid for your current enrollment status (i.e coop versus enrolled in classes).
• Off Campus Expenses – For those students looking to receive a cash release to help with their off campus living expenses, now is the peak season for such requests. The extremely high demand can cause delays in processing, so prepare accordingly when making the request. To help with the refund process, please try to do the following:
  • Confirm credit balance – Before submitting a refund request, first check that you currently have a credit balance. Log into your MyNEU account and click the “View Student Account” link on the Self Service tab. The information on this page will confirm if your account had a credit balance.
  • Take the entire credit balance – Please take your entire available credit now and place those funds  in a personal savings or checking account. This will save you time as well as ensure that you have access to the funds when you need them.
  • Make one request- As mentioned above, there is a waiting period for the student refund requests processing, so please do not submit duplicate requests until your first one has been completely processed.  Once you submit a refund request, you are emailed with updates regarding the status.
• FAFSA – The FAFSA application for the 2012-2013 year is now available! For all current Undergraduate Day students interested in receiving financial aid for Fall 2012-Summer 2013, the priority filing deadline for the FAFSA is March 1^st.

• W-2s from all employers for whom you worked during 2011. This includes federal work-study and co-op.
• 1099 forms, if any. There are many versions of this form – MISC, INT, DIV, etc.  If you earned money from these sources, the documents will be mailed to you.
• Student loan statements.
• Copies of the educational invoices for the calendar year.
• 1098-T form. You will be able to find this form on your myNEU portal at the end of January.
• Statements from banks where you have your checking accounts, savings accounts, or investments.

Please keep in mind that this is just a short list of most commonly needed documents. You may want to check with a tax professional regarding your specific questions or needs.

December is also a good month to take important steps toward a successful year-end close. Here are some things you might consider doing:

• Check for any missing documents. Please check on your myNEU portal account for this important information. Some outstanding documents may hold up disbursement of your fall and spring financial aid.

• Pay your balance, if it’s due.  Failure to pay your fall balance will result in a block on your account, and consequently, your spring classes will be dropped.  In addition, if there is a spring balance due on your account, you should have a plan in place to cover those outstanding charges.

• Loan Exit Counseling For December Graduates: If you are graduating in December 2012 and had Federal Stafford Loans, you need to log into www.studentloans.gov  to complete exit counseling. If you had a Federal Perkins, Health Professions, or Nursing Loan, the Northeastern University Loan Collections Office will mail out an exit packet to the permanent address on file.  Documents in that packet will need to be filled out and mailed back to the Loan Collections Office. For the Federal Stafford and Federal Perkins (Health Professions or Nursing) loan details and totals, you can log into NSLDS website at https://www.nslds.ed.gov/

If you have any questions about this post, please do not hesitate to comment. If you have any other questions regarding your financial aid, please contact our office.

1. Society of Vacuum Coaters Foundation Scholarship: Any individual who is entering or is currently a student in a course of study important to vacuum coating technology may be eligible for a $2,500 college scholarship.
2. National Marbles Tournament Scholarship: Students who win the related tournament could earn between $1,000 and $2,000 in scholarship money.
3. Starfleet Academy Scholarships: These $500 scholarships are for members of the “Starfleet Academy,” an organization modeled after the fictitious Star Trek academy.
4. KLI Academic Award: The Kor Memorial Scholarship: The purpose of the Kor Memorial Scholarship is to recognize and encourage scholarship in fields of language study. Familiarity with Klingon or other constructed languages is not required, however creative and innovative applicants are preferred.  A $500 award will be bestowed upon an undergraduate or graduate student each year.
5. American Association of Candy Technologists Scholarship – If you’re a college sophomore, junior or senior with a demonstrated interest in confectionary technology with at least a 3.0 GPA, $5,000 in sweet college money could be available to you.
6. OP Loftbed Scholarship: This $500 Scholarship Award is awarded to a student whom the judges feel provided the most interesting answers to a set of questions. Judgment is not based on your GPA, writing skill, involvement in community or service organizations, or other similar criteria.
7. American Fire Sprinkler Association Scholarship– Students read an essay on fire sprinkler safety. Each correct answer earns applicants an entry in the scholarship drawing.
8. Common Knowledge Challenges: The Common Knowledge Scholarship Foundation (CKSF) awards scholarships that range from $250 – $3,000 through the use of internet-based quiz competitions.

• Financial planning
• Financial aid and scholarships
• Student account charges and credits
• Pay bills by cash, check, or credit card
• Add Husky Card funds and meal plans
• Purchase and/or pick up MBTA and parking passes
• Pick up refund checks requested through myNEU
• Third-party bill processing
• Sign and/or drop off scholarship and loan checks

• Never pay a fee to perform a scholarship search. There are many free scholarships search engines available online. For a list, check out the Outside Scholarship section of our website.
• Never send money upfront to apply for a scholarship, even if a scholarship is supposedly “guaranteed or your money back.” Money isn’t free if you have to pay to get it.
• Be suspicious of any organization that tells you that you have won a scholarship that you never applied for and now you must pay a fee to redeem it.
• Watch for scholarships that claim anyone is eligible. All scholarship sponsors are looking for students who best meet certain criteria, whatever that may be.  
• You must do the leg work involved in searching for scholarships. Do not believe claims that a service will apply to scholarships for you.
• Never give out personal information such as your social security number to an organization that is unfamiliar to you.
• If in doubt, check with your financial aid counselor. We can help you verify if a foundation is legitimate.

For additional information on spotting a scam and reporting scholarship fraud: http://www.finaid.org/scholarships/scams.phtml.

Often, either alone or in combination with the school’s payment plan, families look at the number on the bottom line and choose to borrow alternative educational loans to finance this amount. But be careful; many students graduate and only then find out that their loan payments are so big that they can’t save for other goals, such as a house or retirement. How do you determine if taking these loans will mean you are borrowing too much?  

To avoid getting in over your head, current students should align student debt with expected income upon graduation. That means future musicians, for example, should borrow less than future engineers. You can use online resources to determine how much your salary is likely to be when you graduate; keep your future monthly loan payments within 10-15% of this amount. An online loan payment calculator that lets you enter interest rates and loan repayment periods, such as the one available at www.finaid.org, can be used to determine monthly payment and total loan amounts.

Once you’ve decided the maximum you can afford to borrow over four years, don’t take out more than 15% to 20% of that amount for the first year. College costs tend to rise over the typical student’s academic career, and lenders estimate you’ll need as much as two-thirds of the money to pay for the last two years. If you’re a parent, all your debts, including mortgage payments, credit cards, car loans and education loans, shouldn’t eat up more than 35% of your gross pay. Too much debt can keep you from adequately saving for retirement and leave little cushion for emergencies.

Once you start borrowing, keep track of your debt. It’s easy to get confused about how much you owe, particularly if you borrow from a number of different lenders, and be sure to include in your calculations any federal loans awarded through the school.

Once you have an award, it is important that you review the information to make sure it matches your enrollment plans for the 2010-2011 academic year. If the award does not match, you should contact your counselor to make the necessary updates. To find your financial aid counselor, use the counselor look up tool at http://www.financialaid.neu.edu/my_counselor/search.php. It is important that you do this as soon as possible because we have limited financial aid resources and you want to make sure you receive all the aid for which you are eligible.

As returning students begin to evaluate their offers and make plans for financing, please keep in mind that your counselor can assist you with determining what your overall costs will be for the year. We can create a financial planning worksheet for you that details your expected costs for the year and deducts the financial aid you have been awarded. Or, you can use our cost calculator available online at http://www.financialaid.neu.edu/docs/CostCalculator1011.htm . Once you have calculated your expected balance for the year, you can begin enrolling in the payment plan or securing private loan funding.

So, now that you know that there is no such thing as a “summer break” here in financial aid, please don’t hesitate to contact us to talk about your award, for assistance with financial planning, or to discuss any other financial situations your family may be experiencing.

It is mandatory for all new freshmen and transfer student to attend an orientation session.  If you are a new student, you can check the Admitted Student Portal for program dates and registration information. After registration, you will receive a schedule with session times. See you then!

Not sure if you are selected?

• If you are, you will be notified in an email by The College Board.

What do you need for the verification process?

• Dependent Verification Worksheet (most undergraduate students) or Independent Verification Worksheet (graduate student; over the age of 24; married)
• Student’s 2009 Signed Federal Income Taxes
• Parents’ 2009 Signed Federal Income Taxes (if dependent) or Spouse’s 2009 Signed Federal Income Taxes (if married)

Where do you send these documents?

• You should submit everything (plus a cover sheet available online) to the College Board’s Institutional Documentation Service (IDOC). Information on the submission process will be included in the email from the College Board.

Here are some tips to help you with the verification process:

• On the family information section of the verification worksheet, list everyone that will be living in your household from July 1^st, 2010 to June 30^th 2010.
• Do not list siblings over the age of 24, grandparents, or relatives in your household unless they are receiving more than 50% of your parents’ financial support.
• Do not leave sections C & D blank on page 2. If you do not receive any funds from the sources listed, enter a 0 or N/A in the box.
• W2s are not required but are very helpful when completing the verification process and may eliminate the need for us to ask you for additional information.
• If you (or your parent) did not file federal income taxes, you must list any income earned in 2009 on question #3 in sections C and/or D.

 For all incoming freshmen and transfer students that have been selected for verification, financial aid awards are tentative until the verification process is completed. Selected returning students will not be awarded a 2010-2011 aid package until the verification process has been completed.

Feel free to stop by our office or email your financial aid counselor if you have any further questions regarding the verification process. Our office hours and contact information is available here: http://www.financialaid.neu.edu/my_counselor/search.php.