EMBA Student Loans for Spring Session Start

Students enrolled in the Executive MBA program may be eligible for a Federal Stafford Loan to finance part of their education. Eligibility is awarded based on the program cost minus any amounts of company sponsorship, tuition remission, etc. received. If the program cost is not met, students can receive up to $20,500 in Stafford Loans for the Spring semester.

In order to receive this eligibility, students are asked to complete a Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA). Instructions are listed below. Please read through carefully and ask us any questions you may have.

Students starting in the Spring session will need to complete the version of the FAFSA for the current academic year.

1. Apply for Admission to a degree granting program at the University of Maryland.
   • To be considered for Merit-based Aid from UM , prospective freshman and transfer students must submit all admissions materials by December 1.
   • Applying for financial aid at the University of Maryland starts with your admission application. Only students admitted to the University will be considered for financial aid, but don't wait until you receive your admission decision to apply for aid. Apply for aid by submitting the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA).
   • Priority consideration is given to applications received before the priority deadline, February 15.


2. Every January, complete the FAFSA and enter the University of Maryland school code 002103-00.
   This process covers the following aid programs :
   • You may choose to complete the FAFSA interactively on the web at www.fafsa.ed.gov/index.htm . This is the preferred method. Alternatively, you may pick up a FAFSA from a local library, college, or high-school, or print it out directly and here is a worksheet to help you organize your information.
   • CAUTION! As the name Free Application for Federal Student Aid implies, applying for federal student aid is FREE. Be cautious of companies charging a fee, the fee is for their assistance filling out forms, not for the actual application.
   • The Department of Education has launched a site at www.college.gov which includes sections on why to go to college, how to apply for admission, and a great section on how to pay for it. Check it out, it is a great site. Another great site is CollegeBoard a not-for-profit organization serving students and their parents


3. Meet the UM Priority Deadline for maximum consideration for aid
   • Please submit your form early to ensure adequate time for mailing and receipt by the processor. To meet this deadline, you may need to report estimated federal tax data. There is no penalty for filing estimated figures, but you must correct your estimates on the Student Aid Report (SAR) once your actual federal tax returns are completed.
   • The priority deadline is February 15th.


4. MD residents should apply for Maryland State Aid
   • To be eligible for many state aid programs, you must submit a FAFSA listing a Maryland school postmarked by March 1st. Some programs require additional steps. For more information, visit the Maryland State Scholarship Administration (MSSA).


5. Search for Scholarships.
   • Try to collect all of your scholarship application materials by the January or February immediately prior to the academic year for which you are applying for aid. Most scholarship application deadlines are in the March or April prior to the beginning of the academic year.


6. Review your Student Aid Report (SAR).
   • Four to six weeks after you submit your FAFSA, the federal processor with send you a Student Aid Report (SAR). The SAR is a summary of your FAFSA data. Please review it and make sure all your information is correct. If you need to make corrections, do so online at www.fafsa.ed.gov, or mail a corrected SAR to the federal processor. If all your information is correct, keep your SAR for your records.
   • The federal processor will also send us a copy of your SAR data, you do NOT need to send your SAR form to UM.
   • Disregard any verification notices on your SAR. If your SAR states that you have been selected for “federal verification”, please do NOT send your tax forms to UM. We have a separate verification process and will notify you if additional information is needed.


7. Await notification from the Office of Student Financial Aid.
   • One to two weeks after we receive your SAR data, we will review your data and determine if we need to clarify or verify any of your information. If we do, we will send you a request for additional documents. Please make sure you provide the student’s name and social security number and all required signatures on all documents, especially tax forms.
   • In April and May we will start sending students Financial Aid Notifications which includes an award letter and instructions on applying for student loans.

The Executive MBA program spans two academic years. With the current Spring semester acting as one year and the upcoming Fall and Spring serving as the second. Students who start their program in the Spring session will want to complete 2 FAFSAs. One for the Spring and one for the upcoming Fall & Spring terms.

An academic year is made up of Fall and Spring semesters. If you start your program in the Spring the Office of Student Financial aid will be able to allocate your Stafford eligibility into that one term since this will serve as your entire academic year (assuming that a student has not received any Stafford eligibility at another institution during the previous Fall semester).

For the purposes of the second academic year in which you will be enrolled in the program your Stafford eligibility will be split into two equal disbursements over the Fall and Spring semesters. It will be important to budget for this when figuring the cost of your program during your enrollment. For an example of how a disbursement schedule would look click here.

FAFSAs become available January 1st each calendar year for the upcoming academic year.

When filing your FAFSA it is not a requirement to obtain a Federal PIN, you will be given an option to sign a separate signature page that you later mail into the federal processor. It is HIGHLY recommended that students obtain their PIN prior to submitting their FAFSA.

Contact information:

For Questions Relating to Financial Aid:	For Questions Relating to the EMBA Program:
Malina Heng	Christina Burke
1135 Lee Building University of Maryland College Park, MD 20742	Van Munching Hall, Suite 2416 University of Maryland College Park 20742
Phone: (301) 314-8299 Fax: (301) 314-9587	Phone: (301) 405-9554 Fax: (401) 510-1830

Reference:

www.financialaid.umd.edu	- University of Maryland Financial Aid Information
www.testudo.umd.edu	- University of Maryland Interactive Web Services
www.fafsa.ed.gov	- Free Application for Federal Student Aid web site
www.pin.ed.gov	- Federal PIN Application Web Page
www.ed.gov	- Department of Education Financial Aid web site