Financial Aid FAQ

Financial Aid Checklist

Your FAFSA is processed by the FAFSA Processing System (FPS), which typically takes 1 to 3 days. Once processed, your FAFSA becomes a FAFSA Summary Sheet (FSS) and your Student Aid Index (SAI) is calculated. There are three possible outcomes:

1. FSS Processed Successfully: Your FAFSA is processed with no issues, and nothing further is needed to calculate your financial aid eligibility. You will receive your financial aid offer in the mail.

2. FAFSA Rejected: Your FAFSA is rejected and needs immediate attention. We will notify you about any errors or missing information, and you can also view and correct these issues by updating your FAFSA online. Until the correction is submitted and reprocessed by FPS, we cannot calculate your financial aid eligibility.

3. FSS Selected for Verification: Your FAFSA may be selected for verification by FPS. This is not uncommon, but you must provide additional information. You may be asked to reconfirm FAFSA details and submit documents such as a verification worksheet and tax forms. We cannot process your financial aid eligibility until all requested verification information is complete and accurate. After verification is completed and everything is confirmed, we will calculate your financial aid eligibility and you will receive your financial aid offer in the mail.

• Recent legislation requires 21st Century Scholars to pass at least 30 credits each year to qualify for the next year.
• O’Bannon grant recipients must pass 30 credits for full renewal and at least 24 credits for a reduced grant renewal.

• 1.7 once attempted 1 to 11 credits.
• 1.8 once attempted 12 to 29 credits.
• 1.9 once attempted 30 to 44 credits.
• 2.0 once attempted 45 credits or more.

• 50% once attempted 1 to 11 credits.
• 60% once attempted 12 to 29 credits.
• 63% once attempted 30 to 44 credits.
• 67% once attempted 45 credits or more.

Students who are classified by their FAFSA as a dependent student and have earned less than 31 credits may be offered up to a maximum of $5,500 for an academic year. This could be a combination of Subsidized (max of $3,500) and Unsubsidized loans. Independent students who have earned less than 31 credits may qualify for a maximum of $9,500. The amount and type of loans you are offered will be determined by your cost of attendance (COA) and other financial aid. If you are a first-time loan borrower, you must complete a master promissory note (MPN) and entrance counseling as required by the U.S. Department of Education in addition to accepting your loans on your VUX portal. Due to federal regulations, your loan is not allowed to be released to your VU account until 30 days after the first day of classes.

Parent PLUS loan: Parents of dependent students can apply for up to the amount offered on your financial aid offer. Eligibility for these loans depends on the parent applicant having good credit to get approved by the Department of Education. If a parent applies for a PLUS loan and gets denied, the student may be eligible for up to an additional $4,000 each year in unsubsidized loans. Federal regulations require loans to be disbursed in two equal disbursements.

Refunds are available only to students whose financial aid exceeds the amount of their charges. Refunds will be disbursed up to 14 days after classes start or up to 14 days after funds have disbursed. Your refund will appear on your VU-x account. You will see a code on your account that states “Refund,” and it will bring the account to zero. We send all refunds to BankMobile. You must activate your refund preference online at BlazerOneCard.com to receive your refund. If you are having trouble with this process, please let us know. We can help! 812-888-4361.

If you have classes that start later than the first day of the semester, you may see some of your Pell or SEOG grant missing from your account prior to refunds. We allow you to use all your financial aid credits for your books based on your total enrollment hours. At the beginning of the second week of class, we pull back any Pell grant tied to the credits for the courses that start later. Then, when you start those classes, your remaining Pell grant pays to your account (assuming that you have not dropped other classes before then).

The FAST PASS is an institutional book voucher that allows you to use your credit balance on your account for the purchase of books and, in some cases, supplies at the campus bookstore. You must either have a credit balance on your student account or be a first-time loan borrower with sufficient financial aid funds to pay your account balance and have an excess left for books.

Fast Pass is only available a week prior to the start of classes and ends a week after the 1st day of class. The Fast Pass is available on your VU-x portal. After you log in, locate the “Student Account” card and scroll down to “Fast Pass Book Vouchers.” Click to print your Fast Pass; your eligible dollar amount will appear if you have available funds to use. Print this and take it with you to the bookstore. It is only good for the day printed. If you are ordering your books online through the Old Post Bookstore, select Financial Aid as your Payment Option to use your credit balance.

IMPORTANT! Not all who receive financial aid will have a credit balance to qualify for a Fast Pass.

If you are a first-time loan borrower and need to use your loans for your credit, you must accept your loan(s) on your VU-x portal, as well as complete the required MPN and required entrance counseling. You will be allowed to charge only books up to the amount of your credit after your loans are taken into consideration.

If you have a third party authorization for purchasing your books, be sure the proper paperwork has been submitted by your provider to Student Financial Services. This is your responsibility, not VU’s.

You will not have a Fast Pass if you have any outstanding requirements for financial aid, are not meeting standards of academic progress, do not have a final high school transcript on file, have incomplete prior grades, or have any other issue that will hold up the disbursement of aid. You will NOT have a Fast Pass until all issues have been resolved.