Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

In general, all U.S. citizens and eligible non-citizens who are enrolled in an approved degree or certificate program are eligible for financial aid once they have completed high school or equivalent. You can review the Basic Student Eligibility Criteria for more details.

After you and any contributor(s) have completed the FAFSA for the current academic year, you will receive a Student Aid Report (SAR) and an electronic version of your SAR will also be sent to MCC. Review the information listed for accuracy and be sure that MCC is listed in the college choice section (MCC's school code is 004432). Please be sure you entered the correct Social Security Number (SSN), date of birth (DOB), and legal last name(s). Incorrect information will not match your MCC student account and your FAFSA will not be sent to MCC for processing.

If you do not receive a SAR within four weeks of completing your FAFSA, contact the federal government processor by calling 1-800-4-FED-AID (1-800-433-3243).

Your (and your spouse's, if married), or your parent(s)/contributor(s) income, assets, number in household, number in college and your state of legal residence are used in determining the Student Aid Index. The formula applied to your information is determined by the federal government.

You may request a Special Circumstance form from the Financial Aid office that will allow our office to reevaluate your financial aid eligibility due to unemployment, loss of benefits, divorce or other special circumstances.

You can apply for MCC scholarships and look for scholarship source books in the public library or online. Consider employment, using personal savings or asking clubs, organizations, or churches to which you belong for scholarship funds.

The Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) (20 U.S.C. § 1232g; 34 CFR Part 99) is a federal law that protects the privacy of student education records. The law applies to all schools that receive funds under an applicable program of the U.S. Department of Education. Schools are not required to provide copies of records unless, for reasons such as great distance, it is impossible for parents or eligible students to review the records. Complete the FERPA form in Student Forms through Student links for the person whom you want to share your information.

Yes, you will need to reapply for financial aid each academic year.

Only courses needed to meet your MCC degree requirements count toward your enrollment level for financial aid. For example, if you register for three 4.5 credit classes (total 13.5 credits), but only two of the classes are needed to meet your degree requirements, then you are only enrolled in nine (9) eligible credits for financial aid.

The following types of courses do not count toward enrollment level for financial aid:

• Audit Courses
• College Level Examination Program (CLEP®) Credits
• Transferred Credits, courses transferred in from another institution
• Dual Enrollment courses

The instructions in the FAFSA application will explain whether or not you must include parent/contributor information. If you have been declared independent by a financial aid administrator in the past, or if you think your special situation merits a review, request to meet with a Financial Aid specialist to see if you qualify to complete a Request for Dependency Override Form.

When completing the FAFSA form, the student will be asked if their parents are unwilling to provide their information, but the student doesn’t have an unusual circumstance that prevents them from contacting or obtaining their parents’ information. The financial aid office may ask for a written statement from the parent indicating that they refuse to provide their information on the FAFSA form or that they no longer financially support the student. A financial aid administrator will make the final determination and decide whether the student may receive a Direct Unsubsidized Loan.

On the application, information should be given for the parent you lived with the most in the last 12 months. If you don't live with either parent, or lived with both parents for an equal number of days, information should be given for the parent who provided the greater amount of support to you during the last calendar year. FAFSA instructions have information that will be helpful if you have questions about providing information from separated or divorced parents.

Students under 24 years of age are considered dependent of their parents by federal law, no matter where they live (there are limited exceptions—please review them in the FAFSA instructions). If your parents do not provide their information on your application, you probably cannot be considered for aid. If you have special circumstances which make it impossible for your parents to complete the application, contact the Financial Aid office and discuss it with them.

Verification is a process, initiated by the U.S. Department of Education or by the Financial Aid office, requiring you to verify the information that you provided on the FAFSA. If you are selected for verification, you will be notified through your MCC student email. To avoid unnecessary delays, please submit all required documents promptly.

When the Financial Aid office receives your documents, we compare the information on these documents to the information you provided on your original FAFSA. If information from documents you submit conflicts with your FAFSA, we may require additional information to clear up the discrepancy. Responding quickly to any requests for additional information will help avoid further delays.

In some cases, the changes made during verification require resubmission of data to the U.S. Department of Education. If these changes affect your eligibility for assistance, you will receive a revised Financial Aid Offer Letter.

Note: After verification is completed, household size and number in college cannot be adjusted.

First, we assign you a Cost of Attendance budget based on your dependency status. This budget is based on the full-time cost of tuition, books and supplies and an estimated cost for living expenses. Second, we subtract the Student Aid Index (SAI) that was reported on your Student Aid Report. The result is your estimated financial need. You will receive funding, as available, up to this remaining need amount.

When the Financial Aid office sends you an offer letter, you are asked to indicate the financial aid you would like to accept. Look carefully at your options to accept only what you need. Here is a good approach:

• First, accept Gift Aid (scholarships and grants), which is money you don’t have to pay back.
• Then, accept earned money (work-study), which are funds you will earn through a job at MCC. For job opportunities please visit Careers at MCC
• Finally, if interested, accept borrowed money (student loans), i.e., money you have to pay back with interest.

Once you have decided the award options that best suit your needs, log onto your Student Self-Service portal through Canvas/Student Links and accept or deny your awarded aid. If you are accepting loans and you do not want to accept the full amount of an award, you can reduce the amount in your Self-Service portal, before you accept the award.

The kind of financial aid you receive is based upon your level of need at the time your application is processed. Visit Types of Aid from our Financial Aid home page for a complete definition of the types of aid available.

Students are only eligible to receive Federal Financial Aid from one institution at a time. If you have already received federal funds from another institution during the current school year, you may be asked to submit an Overlapping Aid Clearance form to determine eligibility.

Students with bachelor's degrees usually qualify for federal student loans.

Although original Offer letters are based on full-time attendance, most students do not have to be full-time to receive financial aid. There are four enrollment levels and Pell grants are prorated based on the following enrollment levels:

• Full-Time 12 or more credits
• ¾-Time 9 – 11.5 credits
• Half-Time 6 – 8.5 credits
• Less than Half-Time .5 – 5.5 credits

Students must be enrolled in a minimum of six (6) credits at the time their federal student loans are certified and at the time their federal student loans are disbursed. If they are not enrolled in at least six (6) eligible credits at the time of disbursement, the disbursement will be cancelled. Loan amounts for students whose enrollment level is less than Full-Time for any quarter will be reviewed each quarter to determine if the loan amounts exceed the adjusted Cost of Attendance and therefore need to be reduced.

A student loan is money borrowed for educational purposes from the Department of Education and must be paid back with interest. The specific sum of money borrowed is called the principal. Interest is a percentage of the principal which is paid as a fee for borrowing. When it comes time to pay back the principal and interest, it is usually paid in monthly installments to a federal service provider which is not MCC. Your service provider can be found on Studentaid.gov. If a borrower fails to repay (or default), the government may penalize the borrower.

All Federal Direct Loans are assessed an origination loan fee. An origination fee is a percentage of your loan amount charged by the lender for the processing of your loan. Federal student loans have an origination fee; therefore, the amount you may receive as a disbursement may be slightly lower than the amount you accept. For Subsidized and Unsubsidized loans originated fee’s please go to what is origination fee to see the current years origination fee.

As long as you have no balance owed to MCC from a prior quarter, you may register for classes. Your tuition and fees are deferred until the last day of the quarter. You are responsible for purchasing books and supplies. Once your Financial Aid has been awarded, it will be applied to the charges on your account for the current quarter.

Be aware that you may be prevented from registering for future quarters if you have an outstanding balance.

Payment is based your enrollment as of the Financial Aid Census date. Your financial aid will be disbursed to your student account electronically. If your financial aid award exceeds your tuition, books and fees, a refund will be issued to you. You can find these dates on the Major-Dates Calendar.

After the first refund date each quarter, refunds are generated every Friday. If your award is less than tuition, fees and books, you must make up the difference. If necessary, you may consider applying for Federal Direct Student Loans or request a payment plans through our Student Financial Services department by calling 531-622-2405.

MCC delivers your refund with BankMobile Disbursements, a technology solution, powered by BMTX, Inc.

Any questions pertaining to your account refund/or account balance, please contact Student Financial Services at 531-MCC-2405.

Cash, check, credit card, company billing, student loan or financial aid all are acceptable forms of payment. Payments can be made through your MCC student account, by calling Student Financial Services, or in person at our campuses.

Cash, check and credit card all are acceptable forms of payment for books. If you have enough in financial aid, an account will be set up at the bookstore so you can charge your books against your financial aid.

An official withdrawal is an instance in which you withdraw from a class through any of the following methods:

• Through Student Self Service
• By calling the MCC Contact Center at 531-MCC-2400
• By meeting with an Academic Advisor

Depending on the time of the quarter when you withdraw, a withdrawal can seriously affect both your financial aid eligibility where in some cases we may have to return a portion of your Federal Aid back to the Department of Education and/or your maintaining Satisfactory Academic Progress (SAP).

Please contact the Financial Aid office before you withdraw to determine what effect your withdrawal may have on your financial aid.