Appeals and Special Circumstances: Financial Aid

Occasionally, special circumstances arise that impact your financial aid file and must be taken into consideration. Some of these conditions might be:

1. Suspension appeal
2. Exceeding the Credit Limit appeal
3. Professional Judgment appeal
4. A Dependant to Independent appeal
5. Other misc. conditions

Suspension appeal

Per ACC policy, a student must complete 67% of their courses with a minimum GPA of 2.0 to remain in good standing.

Refer to our Satisfactory Academic Progress Policy for specific information.

If you are notified throu gh the financial aid office that you are on suspension, you will be unable to continue receiving any financial aid funds until the matter is resolved. To reinstate eligibility for financial aid you must complete 3 steps:

Complete the following steps:

1. Suspension appeal cover sheet.
2. Meet with an Academic Advisor to complete an Academic Advising Report.
3. Provide an explanation and supporting documentation for the reason of the suspension.

Exceeding the Credit Limit appeal

Due to federal regulations, a student can attend a two-year institution only up to 150% of their degree credit hours. This is to make sure that a student is maintaining Measurable Academic Progress. For example, if it takes approximately 60 credit hours to attain any given degree at ACC, after 90 credit hours; a student is not eligible to receive financial aid until they complete an appeal. At ACC students who fall under these criteria regardless if they were on financial aid during the entire time or not are required to appeal.

Complete the following steps:

1. Suspension appeal cover sheet.
2. Meet with an Academic Advisor to complete an Academic Advising Report.
3. Provide an explanation and supporting documentation for the reason of the suspension.

Professional Judgment appeal

In same cases a family's financial situation changes significantly from the base year financial information used on the FAFSA. Some criteria that might qualify for a Professional Judgment are:

• Unexpected unemployment or a change in the employment of the household. Whereby you were laid off, fired, or had a drastic reduction in the overall income of the household.
• A Divorce or separation that is finalized. However joint taxes were filed.
• Death of a spouse or parent resulting in a diminished family income level or increased financial burden.
• Disability of a student, spouse, or parent.
• A one-time income (examples: inheritance, moving expense allowance, severance package, IRA, or pension distribution).
• Other situations drastically reducing a family's current income.

Should you qualify for one of these criteria, you may download the appeal for the 2007-2008 school year (August 2007– May 2008) Professional Judgment appeal.

Should you qualify for one of these criteria, you may download the appeal for the 2008-2009 school year (August 2008- May 2009) Professional Judgment appeal. Please make sure that your appeal is well documented and easily understood.

A Dependant to Independent appeal

A student is required to list their parents information on the FAFSA unless 1 of these 8 criteria is met:

• You were born before January 1st, 1984 for the 2007-2008 school year (August 2007– May 2008) or January 1st, 1985 for the 2008-2009 school year (August 2008– May 2009).
• As of the day you completed the FAFSA, you were married.
• You have children who receive more than half of their support from you.
• You have dependants (other than your children or spouse) who live with you and receive more than half of their support from you, now and through June 30th, 2009.
• You are an orphan, or were (until age 18) a ward/dependant of the court. Being incarcerated does not mean that you are a ward of the court.
• You are a veteran of the U.S. Armed Forces.
• Are you currently serving on active duty in the U.S. Armed Forces for purposes other than training?

Until one of these conditions is met, then you must still include your parents information.

The Department of Education has stated that they DO NOT recognize emancipation as a form of being considered independent from your parents.

The Department of Education is also very clear that if a student’s parents do not live in the U.S. or the student has not had contact with their parents, this is a personal issue between the student and their parents. The student MUST STILL provide this information to receive financial aid.

The financial aid department at ACC recognizes that there are students who cannot meet any of these criteria and yet still support themselves completely. We have established an appeal process to take this into account. You will find more information and guidelines for this appeal at Petition for Dependency Override.

Once you have completed the appeal and attached the necessary documentation, submit this to the Financial Aid Office for consideration.

Other misc. appeals

If you feel that there are any other special circumstances that might apply to you, please feel free to contact one of the financial aid counselors to set an appointment to discuss your unique situation.

Please be aware that once your appeal is turned in, the board will review your appeal within 3 weeks, and then mail you a letter informing you of the decision. The biggest reason that an appeal is rejected is due to the student failing to either meet the criteria or make sure the appeal is understandable and complete.

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