A: You must file your FAFSA with correct signatures by March 11.
The following documents are those that are needed to fill out the FAFSA for the 2009-2010 academic year:
Estimated tax figures are accepted as long as after you have filed your tax forms you update your FAFSA online.
For more information on filling out the FAFSA, please see our FAFSA Process page.
A: Virginia Tech students with scholarships received them from outside sources such as hometown civic organizations or professional groups. The majority of academic scholarships awarded by Virginia Tech to freshmen are given out by academic departments and the Honors Program, based on information contained in your admissions application. Our office does award some scholarships through the General Scholarship Program. The deadline for completing the online General Scholarship Application is March 11th of each year. See our section on Scholarships for more information on scholarship opportunities.
A: Submit a Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA). The information from the FAFSA will help us to determine the type of aid you are eligible to receive. For more information please see our Applying for Aid Process page.
A: Title IV Code is information required on the FAFSA. Virginia Tech's Title IV Code is 003754. More tips on filling out and completing the FAFSA can be found on our FAFSA Tips page.
A: You can complete a financial aid reconsideration form to appeal the amount of aid awarded or to update your current situation. Additional information can be found on our Financial Aid Reconsideration Appeal page.
If a student submits his/her FAFSA by the March 11 deadline, and the awarding process has begun, general awarding takes about a week. However, if there any problems with the student's application (i.e. requests for additional documentation, etc.) then the awarding process is longer depending on how quickly information is received by our office and processed. Usually awarding takes no longer than a month. To ensure the fastest process of your application, please respond to all correspondence from our office immediately.
See our Award Package page for more information.
A: We use the same housing cost figures to determine aid eligibility for both on-campus and off-campus students. The difference is that off-campus students are billed by Virginia Tech only for tuition and may receive some of their financial aid as an excess aid refund. The excess aid is often used to assist in paying for off-campus living expenses (rent, utilities, groceries, etc). Before you move off-campus, make sure you make a budget for the various costs associated with renting an apartment that you would not encounter as an on-campus student.
A: When you sign your promissory note for a direct loan it does not have a specific borrowed amount on it. It is a Master Promissory Note, good for all Stafford Student loans you borrow over the years in the Federal Direct Lending Program. Your Hokie SPA/ MyVT account will show the current amount of the loan for each academic year, and the total amount from each academic year is the amount you are obligated to repay once you leave Virginia Tech and begin loan repayment. By Federal Law, Virginia Tech may be obligated to reduce your loan and return those funds to the lender if you become ineligible for all or part of the funds or an over-awarding situation arises.
A: We are open from 8-5, Monday through Friday, and closed on all university recognized holidays.
A: You can reach our office by coming in and seeing us, we are located on the second floor of the Student Services Building. You can also call us (540) 231-5179 or e-mail us at finaid@vt.edu. You can also browse our web site, http://www.finaid.vt.edu for answers to your financial aid questions.
A: There are several pieces of information that are reviewed before awarding a previously out-of-state student Virginia residency status, as a result there is no easy answer. If you are an incoming freshman and have questions about whether you can be considered for in-state tuition rates, please contact the Admissions Office (540-231-6267). For returning students with these questions, contact the Registrar's Office (540-231-6251), graduate students should contact the Graduate Admissions Office in Sandy Hall (540-231-3092), Vet-Med students should contact the Academic Affairs Office of the Vet School (540-231-4699), and Agricultural Technology students should contact the Ag-Tech program (540-231-7649).
A: Instead of the Federal Verification Program, Virginia Tech participates in the Federal Quality Assurance program, which allows our financial aid staff to study our student population and only verify certain FAFSA items that have often been error-prone for our students. If we need additional documents to verify your FAFSA (i.e. tax returns, household verification sheet) we will send those to you to complete and return to us. Documents requested by our office are visible by the student on Hokie SPA/MyVT.
FACT: Dependency, according to federal financial aid law, is not determined by any of the above situations. For example, a student who is classified as independent for federal tax filing purposes may or may not also be classified as independent for financial aid filing purposes. In general, your answers to the questions in "Step Three" of the FAFSA determine whether or not you can file the FAFSA as an independent student (which means you do not include parent information on your FAFSA). If you can answer "yes" to any of these items, then you are considered independent for financial aid purposes, and can complete the FAFSA without parent data. See our Dependency page for more information.
FACT: Virginia Tech financial aid and scholarship offers are not negotiable. We believe in offering students the best financial aid package available for that individual. As a public institution, we have limited federal, state, and institutional funds, which leave no room for negotiation. If you are trying to decide which college to attend, make sure the diploma from that college is a good investment for you. Some colleges may offer large scholarship awards to make up for high tuition costs. After subtracting the scholarship, the net cost of the school may be close to the cost of a lower priced school that offers you little or no financial aid, but offers a more desirable diploma.