Financial Information

Financial Counseling Process

The Director of Financial Aid uses three resources in her financial counseling with students who are planning to borrow money.  She asks them to watch the video, “Student Loans and Seminary Costs:  How to keep from mortgaging your future” (http://www.auburnseminary.org/Resources-for-student-financial-planning), and use it to inform them as they complete both a student household budget and a post-graduation budget (access to the video and the budget forms prepared for this purpose are provided for the students).  Students schedule an appointment and meet with the Director of Financial Aid after they have completed the budgets to discuss the next steps in borrowing funds.  In this meeting, the Director of Financial Aid also discusses with students any current student debt they bring to seminary as well as the estimates of monthly payments which will be needed to repay their debt after seminary.
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The video, “Student Loans and Seminary Costs: How to keep from mortgaging your future”

For help with calculating monthly loan payments: http://www.finaid.org/calculators/loanpayments.phtml.

• Student Household Budget – (an interactive document to allow students to develop their budget)
• Post-Graduation Budget – (an interactive document to allow students to develop their budget)

The Director of Financial Aid keeps copies of the budgets the students have prepared and may find them helpful in
future conversations with the students regarding their financial aid decisions.

What About Those Credit Cards?

It’s really easy to stick tuition or books on a credit card.  When used properly credit cards can be a wonderful tool for gaining additional bonuses for daily expenses (i.e. flyer miles, hotel points, cash back).  However, what happens when the balance isn’t paid off in full each month?  Did you know that if a person charges $500 on a credit card with an APR of 18% and only make the minimum monthly payment it will take 46 months to pay it off?

LTS encourages students to stop and think before swiping.  It’s important to ask, is their money in the bank to pay this off at the end of the month?  Will the money be in the bank within the next 30 days?  What is the cost if it isn’t paid off immediately?  LTS offers a 0% interest payment plan to help students manage tuition without going into debt.  For more information contact the Director of Financial Aid (make this a link that goes to my contact on the website).

There are many great tools to help think about the long term effects of credit card debt.  Here is one credit card calculator that may be helpful in showing the financial impact of credit card debt. https://www.bankrate.com/calculators/managing-debt/minimum-payment-calculator.aspx

Satisfactory Academic Progress Requirements For Student Loans

Recipients of Federal Stafford Loans must meet specific academic standards of Satisfactory Academic Progress (SAP).

Failure to establish and maintain SAP will terminate eligibility for financial aid.

SAP Criteria Include:

• Maintaining a successful pace of completion of at least 80% of coursework completed. Pace is measured by dividing the cumulative number of hours successfully completed by the cumulative number of hours attempted.
• Attempted coursework is defined as any course in which a student is enrolled at the end of the 100% refund period.
• Successful completion of coursework is defined as receipt of a grade of A, A-, B+, B, B-, C+, C,C-, D+, D, D-, or CR if a course is credit no credit course.
• Unsuccessful completion of coursework is defined as receipt of a grade of F, I, W, or NC.
• Credit hours officially accepted in transfer and specifically applied toward a student’s degree program are counted as both attempted and completed hours.

The limit of attempted credit hours and minimum cumulative GPA requirements are as follows:

Repeated coursework is counted as many times as the course is repeated in the computation of total hours attempted.

Courses that are assigned an incomplete grade are included in the cumulative hours attempted but cannot be used as credits earned toward progress standards until a successful grade is assigned.

Financial Aid Warning Status

Satisfactory Academic Progress will be reviewed after each enrollment period. Financial aid already offered for the following enrollment period(s) may be canceled if academic progress is found to be unsuccessful during this review.

If progress is determined to be insufficient during the review process, students will be placed on Financial Aid Warning status. Students will receive written notification when placed on Financial Aid Warning status.

Students on Financial Aid Warning status will be eligible to continue to receive federal financial aid.

If satisfactory progress is not made during the semester while on Financial Aid Warning status, eligibility for all future aid will be terminated. Students will receive written notification of termination of financial aid eligibility.

Effects of Withdrawals on Financial Aid

Federal regulations require Lexington Theological Seminary to calculate a Return of Title IV funds on all federal financial aid for students who withdraw from all classes on or before the 60% point of the term. NOTE: If a student does not formally withdraw from courses however mid-point grades indicate all “F” grades, the Financial Aid Office will assume the student stopped attending and aid will be put on HOLD. For the hold to be lifted, the student must provide copies of attendance and grade records for all classes in question to the Director of Financial Aid. If a last date of attendance cannot be determined, a Return of Title IV funds may be calculated in accordance with regulations at the 50% point of the term. If it is determined that the student never attended any classes, the student is not eligible for aid. Any outstanding balance due to LTS or the Department of Education will be the responsibility of the student.
The institution will recalculate the student’s eligibility for federal aid based on the percentage of the term completed, return “unearned” federal funds to the federal program, and bill the student for any amount owed the institution or the federal agency. If students officially withdraw from the institution, they must contact the Financial Aid Office prior to completing the withdrawal process. At that time we will discuss the financial aid impact of early departure from the institution.

Appeals

Financial Aid Eligibility Termination Appeal Process:

A student who wishes to appeal the termination of financial aid eligibility will be required to submit a written appeal to the Director of Financial Aid.  The written appeal must state why the student failed to make Satisfactory Academic Progress and what has changed in the student’s situation that will allow the student to demonstrate Satisfactory Academic Progress at the next evaluation.

Appeals May be Based on The Following Circumstances:

• Personal medical condition impeded progress; written statement from student’s health care professional or other documentation required.
• Death or life-threatening medical condition of immediate family member; written statement from health care professional or other documentation required.
• Student experienced extraordinary situation or problem which necessitated professional intervention to overcome; statement from health care professional or other documentation required.
• Other extenuating circumstances prevented achievement of academic progress; documentation required.

The Director of Financial Aid will review all appeals and provide a written statement as to the disposition of the appeal.  Students whose appeals are accepted will be placed on Financial Aid Probation status.  If Satisfactory Progress is not maintained while on Financial Aid Probation status financial aid eligibility will be terminated.   A student may file one appeal of financial aid termination status.