Graduating in December?

Congratulations on the anticipated completion of your degree program! This page is specific to the rules that apply to undergraduate students and should provide you information on some of the ways your aid will be impacted.

We use software rules to control the disbursement of aid that requires full-time enrollment. However, most grant and scholarship programs will allow us to provide exceptions to that rule when you are in your final semester. This is a manual process. If it is your final semester and you are enrolled for fewer than 12 credits, your grants and scholarships may need to be reviewed, adjusted, and applied to your account manually. Once you apply for graduation, we will be notified to review and update your financial aid for the semester.

In addition to adjustments for grants and scholarships, federal regulations require us to prorate federal student loans of undergraduate students whose final period of enrollment is less than a full academic year. This rule allows students who are taking more than 12 credits to receive more of their annual loan limits; and reduces eligibility for students taking between 6-11 credits. The video below explains this process.

• Loans offered on your award letter are calculated based on a project full-year enrollment period (fall and spring).
• Once we are notified of your intent to graduate via the graduation application, we have to prorate your loans based on your enrollment. If this happens after your fall loans have been disbursed (paid to your billing account), the proration may result in a balance due back to Rowan. Applying to graduate as soon as possible is the key to avoiding this situation!
• Private and Parent PLUS Loans may be available to supplement the reduced loan amounts.

Loan Proration Formula:

Example:

Sally is a dependent, undergraduate, senior graduating in December. She is enrolled in 9 credits for the fall semester. As a dependent senior, Sally is able to borrow $7,500 in Federal Direct Loans for the entire year. Since Sally is graduating in December, her loans will be prorated.

(9 fall credits÷24 annual credits) x $7,500 annual loan amount = $2,812 is available to Sally for her fall semester.

Sally also has the Garden State Guarantee Program, NJ TAG, and a Rowan Scholars Program scholarship. Although these programs require full-time enrollment, Sally will be able to receive funding under these programs for her final semester. The amounts will be prorated using the number of credits enrolled.