Financial Aid Checklist For Incoming Graduate Students

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Financial Aid Checklist

for Incoming Graduate/Professional Students

Use this checklist as a guide to help you apply for aid, review your awards, and pay your fees. We hope you find this list helpful, but it is intentionally brief and not meant to be all inclusive and provide you with every bit of information you may need to know.We encourage you to read our entire web site to gain a fuller understanding of the entire financial aid process.

Apply For Aid
	Complete the Free Application For Federal Student Aid (FAFSA). This application is required for most types of federal financial aid including student loans and is completed on the web. When completing the FAFSA you will need a PIN. You obtain PINs at http://www.pin.ed.gov. *USC Columbia’s School Code is 003448.* If you already have a FASFA on file with another school for the same school year, add the USC-Columbia school code to the school list on the FASFA. You can do this by going to www.fafsa.ed.gov and follow the directions in Step 3 to “Add or Delete a School Code.”
	Check the status of your financial aid application on VIP for any needed information. Federal aid will not be awarded until your application is complete. Remember that it could take 1 to 2 weeks for the USC Financial Aid Office to receive the results of your application from the FAFSA Processor. *Make sure your status is complete before April 1st.* This is USC-Columbia’s Priority Deadline. If your status is not complete by April 1st, then you may miss out on awards that have limited funding. You may, however, continue to apply after that date to receive Federal Direct Loans.
	Check your awards on VIP. You will automatically be considered for Federal Direct Stafford Loans. After you have been awarded, you can decide if other aid is needed. USC-Columbia starts awarding Federal Aid after April 1st.
	Information about applying for a Federal Direct Graduate PLUS Loan will become available at a later date.
	Only as a last resort, you may wish to consider a Private Educational Loan.

Review and Finalize Your Awards

	Review and Accept, Decline, or Make Changes to your awards under the Financial Aid Awards link on VIP. If you wish to make any changes to your awards or assumed hours of enrollment, print your award letter from VIP, make the desired changes and send the updated award letter to our office with your signature. We will make your desired changes within 48 hours.
	Complete all required Federal Direct Stafford Loan entrance counseling, Federal Direct Grad PLUS entrance counseling or Perkins Loan entrance counseling.
	Complete your Direct Stafford Loan Master Promissory Note (MPN) with the US Department of Education. ALL STUDENTS (returning and new) who would like a Stafford loan this year must complete an MPN. *Your Loan Counseling and MPN must be completed before you can use your financial aid to pay your fees.*
	Complete your Federal Perkins Loan MPN if awarded a Federal Perkins Loan.
	If you have been awarded Federal Work Study, you may click here to search for job postings. If you have not been awarded Federal Work Study and you wish to be considered for it, please contact us.
	Read all Award Terms and Conditions for detailed information about your awards and how to use them.
	Make sure any non-institutional scholarship checks are sent to our office. You may need to endorse a check if it is made co-payable to you and the University.

Use Your Aid to Pay Your Fees

	Pay Your Fees using VIP. You must authorize the use of your available financial aid towards the payment of your fees by using VIP. Failure to do this will result in the cancellation of your scheduled classes. Aid does not disburse automatically. You must authorize through VIP. Note that once the fees are paid, your bill will no longer be available through VIP. If you wish to keep a copy for your records, print the bill before you pay. You may also want to print a copy of the confirmation page for your records.

	Click Here to open checklist as a .pdf document
	Click Here to open checklist as a MS Word document

Helpful Terms

FAFSA: FAFSA is the Free Application for Federal Student Aid. This application is required for most types of financial aid including student loans.

VIP: https://vip.sc.edu/ is the University’s student’s web connection to most academic and financial information, including Financial Aid. You must be an admitted (www.sc.edu/admissions) student to gain access to the site.

Entrance Counseling: Required for your first Stafford loan. Entrance counseling must be completed before funds can disburse.

Master Promissory Note (MPN): An MPN is an agreement that you sign with your lender promising that you will pay your loan back. It is required for your first Federal Direct Stafford loan and Federal Direct Grad PLUS loan. MPN’s are required every year for Federal Perkins loans. MPN’s must be completed before funds can disburse.

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