Frequently Asked Questions

You complete your application electronically by accessing the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) on the web at www.fafsa.ed.gov. Be sure to use the federal school code 031563 for both Estrella Mountain Community College and the Southwest Skill Center. Generally within 5-7 days after you have submitted your FAFSA with all required signatures, it is sent to the school. If additional documents are required from the student, please understand additional processing time is required. Depending on the time of year and the number of financial aid applicants, the processing time may be anywhere from three days to three months. Students should always plan ahead and submit paperwork as early as possible. This applies to all types of forms, Federal Financial Aid forms, scholarship forms, public assistance forms etc...

A new FAFSA must be submitted for every new academic year. The new year for Estrella Mountain Community College begins in every fall semester. Every student should complete the FAFSA form as soon as possible after January 2nd of the calendar year they plan to attend college.

Generally, you will need federal tax return (IRS 1040, 1040A, or 1040 EZ). You may also want to have your W-2 forms and any other records of money earned in the tax year you are using to complete the FAFSA. This would include records of untaxed income. You may also need to use current bank statement, business or farm records and any records of stocks, bonds or other investments etc...

It is the student's responsibility to check their financial aid status on the my.maricopa.edu online system regularly. You can view missing financial aid documents (under your "To Do" list or the "Message Center"), see if you've been awarded financial aid (click on the "View Financial Aid" link toward the bottom of the page), review your charges, etc. Students must submit all information requested to complete their financial aid file. Federal Financial Aid and/or scholarship awards may hold your enrollment in classes at EMCC.

You must notify our office if you are receiving awards or benefits not listed in your "Award Summary", or if you need to reduce and/or decline any loan(s).

You will be able to view awards on your my.maricopa account, click on View Financial Aid OR your my.maricopa account will detail any required additional documentation. You need to respond to our office with this documentation to have your file completed. After your file is complete, you will be awarded and the award amount will be posted on my.maricopa.edu in the "View Financial Aid" link.

Entrance Counseling and Master Promissory Note - If you wish to pursue a loan through the Direct Loan Program, you must complete Entrance Counseling and a Master Promissory Note, if you have not already done so.

If you receive financial aid and do not attend classes, Federal regulations may require you to repay some or all of the money you receive. It is your responsibility to officially withdraw from classes through Enrollment Services and to review the refund policies if you do not attend. See below for Book Charge & Financial Aid Disbursement Information or view it on the "Book Advances and Check Disbursements" link.

Note the following important information:
Federal financial aid may only be received from one institution for the same period of enrollment. Should your award include a loan, you have an obligation to repay those funds, even if you withdraw from your course(s) Students are expected to understand their responsibility in regard to the Satisfactory Academic Progress (SAP) requirements for federal financial aid recipients. Failure to maintain SAP may result in withholding or cancelling part or all of your financial aid awards. All awards are subject to review and/or modification based on changes in eligibility, academic status, failure to comply with federal/state laws/regulations and/or college policies, and etc. For assistance logging into my.maricopa.edu, please call 1 888 994 4433 or go to www.maricopa.edu/portal/new/student-center/help.

See Book Advances/ FA Disbursement Section here.

You will be considered for Pell Grant when you take one (1) or more credit hours. To be considered for other campus based grants you will be considered when you take six (6) credit hours or more. To be considered for Federal Loans you need to be in six (6) or more credit hours.

Students who are awarded aid before the census date cannot have their Pell Grant increased for classes that are added after the census date for that term. This applies to students adding classes at EMCC or turning in consortium agreements for classes taken at other colleges.

In order to be eligible for the Pell Grant for the classes, the student must be registered by the census date or the Financial Aid office must have a completed the consortium agreement by the census date. Students who apply for aid after the census date will have their Pell Grant awarded based on the number of credit hours they have when their Financial Aid application is complete.

Students attending two schools in the same enrollment period must inform both Financial Aid Offices at each school. Students cannot receive funds at both schools. In some instances, it is possible for one school to fund enrollment for classes at the other school. To determine eligibility, complete the Consortium Agreement Form.

Your financial aid must be processed at the college where you plan to receive your degree or certificate and are attending more than 50 percent of the credits for that term. You also need to be taking at least six credit hours per term at the school that awards your aid. Additionally, if the end date of the class(es) overlaps into the next term, aid for the next term will be delayed until completion of those overlapping courses.

The courses you take at the other school need to be 100 or 200 level courses and count toward your degree. Students who are awarded aid before the census date cannot have their Pell Grant increased for classes that are added after the census date for that term. This applies to students adding classes at EMCC or turning in consortium agreements for classes taken at other colleges.

In order to be eligible for the Pell Grant for the classes, the student must be registered by the census date or the Financial Aid office must have a completed the consortium agreement by the census date. Students who apply for aid after the census date will have their Pell Grant award based on the number of credit hours they have when their Financial Aid application is complete.

Upon receipt of funds, awards are credited toward any tuition and fees that you owe the college. Federal Work Study earnings are paid every two weeks for hours worked. All aid disbursements are handled by Enrollment Services. You now have the choice to receive your refunds to an existing bank account via electronic funds transfer (EFT) or to a personalized Visa® prepaid debit card issued by Citi® through the Maricopa Student Refund Program (MSRP)! This great new program is intended to give students faster and more convenient access to their financial aid disbursements and tuition and fee refunds. Specific information can be found under the "Important Dates - FA Disbursements, Book Charge, Tuition, etc" section of this website.

• You must be over 16 years old and not concurrently enrolled in high school, an elementary or secondary program or taking college credit to earn a high school diploma or GED.
• You must have a high school diploma, GED or pass the approved ability to benefit test AND this information must be documented in your my.maricopa.edu account. If the information in your my.maricopa.edu account is not accurate, please update the information online or contact Enrollment Services 623 935 8888. Note: SWSC students should contact the Southwest Skill Center at 623 535 2808 and request that their records be updated.
• Be a U.S. Citizen, national or permanent resident of the U.S. as verified through your FAFSA. You must be enrolled in a degree or eligible certification program at Estrella Mountain Community College and this information must be documented in your my.maricopa.edu account. If the information listed in your my.maricopa.edu account is not accurate, please update the information online or contact Enrollment Services at 623 935 8888. Note: SWSC students should contact the Southwest Skill Center at 623 535 2808 and request that their records be updated.
• You cannot be in default on a federal loan or owe a repayment of a federal grant. If required, you must be registered with selective service.
• You must maintain satisfactory academic progress as outlined in Estrella Mountain's "Standards of Academic Progress for Financial Aid Eligibility."
• You must have not been convicted of certain drug related crimes.

To apply for scholarships, please visit the "Scholarships" webpage for a listing of scholarships currently available. The scholarship webpage also provides links to outside search engines to assist you in using the internet to locate additional scholarships. Scholarships can also be found on the Maricopa Community Colleges Foundation website: http://www.maricopa.edu/foundation/apply/index.php

The law specifies how your school must determine the amount of Title IV program assistance that you earn if you withdraw from school. The Title IV programs that are covered by this law are: Federal Pell Grants, Academic Competitiveness Grants, National SMART grants, TEACH Grants, Stafford Loans, PLUS Loans, Federal Supplemental Educational Opportunity Grants (FSEOGs), and Federal Perkins Loans.

When you withdraw during your payment period or period of enrollment (you may contact the Financial Aid office to define these for you and tell you which one applies) the amount of Title IV program assistance that you have earned up to that point is determined by a specific formula. If you received (or your school or parent received on your behalf) less assistance than the amount that you earned, you may be able to receive those additional funds. If you received more assistance than you earned, the excess funds must be returned by the school and/or you.

The amount of assistance that you have earned is determined on a pro-rata basis. For example, if you completed 30% of your payment period or period of enrollment, you earn 30% of the assistance you were originally scheduled to receive. Once you have completed more than 60% of the payment period or period of enrollment, you earn all the assistance that you were scheduled to receive for that period.

If you did not receive all of the funds that you earned, you may be due a post-withdrawal disbursement. If your post-withdrawal disbursement includes loan funds, your school must get your permission before it can disburse them. You may choose to decline some or all of the loan funds so that you don’t incur additional debt. Your school may automatically use all or a portion of your post-withdrawal disbursement of grant funds for tuition, fees, and room and board charges (as contracted with the school). The school needs your permission to use the post-withdrawal grant disbursement for all other school charges. If you do not give your permission, you will be offered the funds. However, it may be in your best interest to allow the school to keep the funds to reduce your debt at the school.

There are some Title IV funds that you were scheduled to receive that cannot be disbursed to you once you withdraw because of other eligibility requirements. For example, if you are a first-time, first-year undergraduate student and you have not completed the first 30 days of your program before you withdraw, you will not receive any FFEL or Direct loan funds that you would have received had you remained enrolled past the 30th day.

If you receive (or your school or parent, receive on your behalf) excess Title IV program funds that must be returned, your school must return a portion of the excess equal to the lesser of:

1. your institutional charges multiplied by the unearned percentage of your funds, or
2. the entire amount of excess funds.

The school must return this amount even if it didn’t keep this amount of your Title IV program funds.

If your school is not required to return all of the excess funds, you must return the remaining amount. Any loan funds that you must return, you (or your parent for a PLUS Loan) repay in accordance with the terms of the promissory note. That is, you make scheduled payments to the holder of the loan over a period of time. Any amount of unearned grant funds that you must return is called an overpayment. The maximum amount of a grant overpayment that you must repay is half of the grant funds you received or were scheduled to receive. You must make arrangements with your school or the Department of Education to return the unearned grant funds.

The requirements for Title IV program funds when you withdraw are separate from any refund policy that your school may have. Therefore, you may still owe funds to the school to cover unpaid institutional charges. Your school may also charge you for any Title IV program funds that the school was required to return. You can view the tuition refund policy and requirements and procedures for withdrawing from school at http://www.maricopa.edu/publicstewardship/governance/adminregs/students/2_2.php#refund

Federal Regulations regarding repeated coursework may impact your financial aid eligibility and awards. Federal Regulations specify that students may receive federal financial aid funding for one repetition of a previously passed course. A passed course is defined as one in which a grade of A, B, C, D, or P is received. If you enroll in a course in which you have previously received passing grades twice, the course will not be counted towards your enrollment level for financial aid purposes. For example, if you are enrolled in a total of 12 credit hours and 3 credits you have repeated in the past, you will only be considered enrolled in 9 hours for financial aid purposes. You may repeat a failed course until it is passed. Your enrollment for financial aid purposes will be calculated accordingly.