Student Story of Changing Aid Eligibility
The intersection of financial aid and enrollment
We understand that navigating course enrollment can sometimes be a complicated process, and that becomes even more challenging when there are financial aid implications.
Did you know that designating a course as "Not for Credit," "Audit," or any variation of a course that will not count toward your degree program requirements, can have significant consequences for financial aid? Read on to learn about a student who must return a substantial amount of aid because a course was recorded as “Not for Credit," reducing their eligibility for aid.
Student: I am a Go Blue Guarantee student staying in Ann Arbor over the spring/summer terms and taking some classes.
I signed up to repeat one of my harder courses last year to see if I could increase my grade from a C+ to help my GPA, but I didn’t know that repeating a course that I already passed wouldn't count for credit and could impact my aid. I was concerned that I didn't have the Go Blue Guarantee when I received my aid offer, but thankfully the the other aid was enough to cover my costs. I never expected the aid would be reduced.
After the deadline passed to get credit for adding any additional courses, the Office of Financial Aid told me that I was only part time because my repeated class is not for credit and and that my aid would be reduced. I don’t understand why no one told me about this, and I don’t know how I’m going to return $8,000 in financial aid money now. This money paid my housing costs, and I used the rest to buy my books. Why wasn’t I told about this earlier?
OFA: Our academic advising partners assist us with making sure students understand enrollment requirements and how they intersect with financial aid requirements. Unfortunately, many courses are not noted as non-credit bearing until after the drop/add period is over, preventing offices from more proactively reaching out to potentially impacted students.
As a general rule, only courses that earn you credit towards your U-M degree count for financial aid.
OFA outlines enrollment requirements on the Financial Aid Terms & Conditions page, which provides guidance on what levels of enrollment are needed to continue receiving aid.
Finally, warnings attached to course enrollment for those courses that could impact credits and/or aid are also in place. We encourage students to read these carefully when they appear during backpacking and registration and work with us or their academic units to gain as complete an understanding as possible.
OFA is not aware of these course designations until one to two weeks after the drop/add point of the semester. The drop/add date is critical since this is where enrollment is frozen for financial aid purposes, and courses added after this date do not count toward a student’s financial aid enrollment level for that semester.
We encourage all students to contact us if they have questions and to seek out the Required Reading webpage and review enrollment requirements on the Financial Aid Terms & Conditions page.