When we run the process in SIS that assigns award messages to students, it does not allow us to differentiate whether it is a new or adjusted award. This can be confusing to students who have already received a Financial Aid Award Notification (FAN) and get a new message about an aid adjustment.
If you have received a FAN and you are not sure why, it is usually due to one of the following:
- You requested a loan and we have processed it. Because BRCC does not offer loans up front as a part of the financial aid package, but we allow students to request loans, we have to enter them on a student’s record. If you have requested a loan and we have entered it on your financial aid package, SIS will generate a FAN to alert you to the adjustment.
- Additional financial aid was awarded. Sometimes your award will increase for other reasons – for example, if you are awarded a scholarship through BRCC or we receive an external scholarship check. Occasionally, we may discover that we have more funding available in a particular grant fund and award it to eligible students who previously had not been awarded. Whenever additional funds are packaged, you will receive a FAN.
- We have reached the census date and you are less than full time. Many types of financial aid are only available at certain enrollment levels, and some are prorated based on enrollment. Once we reach the last day to drop with a refund (or “census” date), your enrollment is locked in and your aid adjusted to match your enrollment before we disburse.
- You have dropped one or more courses or withdrawn from all of your courses. Dropping courses can affect the amount of financial aid you receive. Withdrawing from all of your courses usually requires us to recalculate your financial aid to match the percentage of the semester you completed before withdrawing. Note – if you fail all of your courses because you stopped attending, you are considered “unofficially withdrawn” and subject to the same recalculation as a withdrawn student.
If none of the above apply to you and you received a FAN, please do not hesitate to contact us and we can help determine the reason for your financial aid adjustment.