Important Financial Aid Policies

Application Deadline
Required documents, should be on file in the HCC Financial Aid Office as soon as possible after January 1 for the financial aid applicant to receive consideration for the upcoming Fall semester. The first priority deadline is May 1. Applications received after May 1 will be processed; however, there is no guarantee that financial aid will be awarded before the beginning of the Fall term.

Students beginning enrollment in the Spring semester must submit all required documents by October 15. To assure prompt processing, Federal Stafford Loan request forms should be submitted along with other application materials. Forms for applying for such loans are available in any campus financial aid office.

Students should budget their money to cover the cost of tuition, fees and books because financial aid is not always available at the beginning of a semester.

How Financial Aid is Awarded
Students declared eligible for financial aid will receive an award letter from HCC’s Financial Aid Office. Once the letter is signed and returned, financial aid is distributed as follows:

Students who are employed under the Federal Work-Study Program or as student assistants will receive bi-weekly checks from the office in which they work.

Students who submit signed award letters containing Federal Pell Grants, Federal Supplemental Educational Opportunity Grants, Florida Bright Futures Scholarships or institutional scholarships may use them to pay for the cost of tuition and fees at registration. After the deductions for tuition and fees are made by HCC, students will be mailed checks for the remaining balances (usually during the 2nd week of the academic term). Checks are mailed directly to financial aid recipients.

Florida Student Assistance Grants cannot be used to pay for tuition and fees at registration. These funds are mailed to students during the 4th week of the academic term.

The proceeds of long-term loans, such as Stafford Loans, are mailed by HCC’s District Bursar Office as soon as possible on, or after, the first day of class depending on when the proceeds are received from the lending institution. Students with less than 30 hours and who have not borrowed previously will not receive funds until the 31st day of classes. Since prompt delivery is not assured, students should budget accordingly. Only students who have no outstanding obligations to HCC and are enrolled for a minimum of six credit hours will be mailed the proceeds of their student loan checks.

Prior to student aid refund checks being disbursed, financial aid recipients can go directly to any HCC campus bookstore and purchase books and supplies against their aid balance. (Not applicable to student loans.)

Standards of Academic Progress
In order to remain eligible to receive Title IV, Student Financial Assistance (SFA) program funds while attending HCC, students must make steady progress toward their chosen academic goals. This requirement is known as the Satisfactory Academic Progress (SAP) requirement.

The SAP policy has three standards that a student must meet in order to remain eligible to receive Title IV, SFA - a qualitative standard, a quantitative standard, and a time standard. At HCC the qualitative standard requires recipients to maintain a cumulative GPA of 2.0. The quantitative standard requires recipients to satisfactorily complete 67 percent of all courses they attempt. The time standard requires recipients to complete their academic program by the time they have attempted 150% of the credits required in their programs.

Students who fail to meet these conditions will be placed on probation for one term. If after one probationary term students are not making satisfactory progress, they will lose their eligibility for financial assistance. In order to regain eligibility, students must meet the satisfactory progress standards.

Important: Before you drop, withdraw or stop attending your classes, you should meet with a financial aid counselor to review the effect that dropping or withdrawing will have on your eligibility for aid