Financial Aid Glossary
Financial aid is an area associated with many acronyms and special terms. See the following table for the most commonly used terms and meanings.
Term | Meaning |
---|---|
APTS | Aid for Part-Time Study, a program for undergraduate NYS residents enrolled for 3-11 credits per term |
COA | Cost of Attendance. This is not the actual charges a student will incur, but instead it is a general default figure based on a student's degree program, dependency status, enrollment pattern and state of residence. Students are assigned a cost of attendance and aid cannot exceed this figure. |
FAFSA | Free Application for Federal Student Aid |
FA-DDX | Future Act - Direct Data Exchange. Students and contributors to the FAFSA are required to use this direct data exchange to have their tax information automatically transferred to institutions. |
Federal Methodology | Federal Methodology is the formula created by Congress to determine the federal student aid index (SAI). |
Financial Need | Cost of attendance (COA) - student aid index (SAI) - other financial aid (OFA) = Financial need |
FPS | FAFSA Processing System- The system used by the U.S. Department of Education (ED) to process the FAFSA, match applicant information against several federal databases, calculate the SAI, and notify the student and the school of the processing results. |
FSA ID | Federal Student Aid identification- a username and password. This is used to log into multiple U.S. Department of Education websites. Each contributor on the FAFSA (parent, other parent, or spouse) must create their own FSA ID. |
FSEOG | Federal Supplemental Educational Opportunity Grant, a campus-based program. |
FWS | Federal Work Study Program, a campus-based program. |
GAS | Good academic standing, which consists of G.P.A., POP and S.A.P. |
GPA | Grade point average |
HESC | New York State Higher Education Services Corporation, which administers the NYS Tap program, other state scholarships and various loan programs. |
Independent Student | An independent student is an individual who meets one of the federal independency criteria. Please see Federal Dependency Information for a complete list of the criteria. |
ISIR | Institutional Student Information Record |
LCF | Loan Counseling Form, a required form in order to receive a federal student loan award. |
Mit Circ | Mitigating circumstance, a process in which a student may file an appeal for reconsideration after failing to meet academic standards. |
MPN | Loan Agreement for Federal Student Loans (Master Promissory Note) |
NYS | New York state |
PGVT | Persian Gulf Veterans Tuition Award Program |
PELL | The federal entitlement Pell Grant Program |
POP | Pursuit of program, criterion for maintaining good academic standing for eligibility for New York state financial aid. |
Priority Deadline | The priority deadline is the date that we must have received all data in order for the student to be reviewed and aid to be processed by the payment deadline of each term. |
SAI | Student Aid Index. This figure is an index number calculated by the FAFSA Processing System when the student submits the FAFSA. The calculation is prescribed by Congress and financial need is determined based on this figure. |
SAP | Satisfactory academic progress. Students must maintain SAP to receive financial aid. |
SUB | Federal Subsidized Loan |
SUNY | State University of New York |
SUSTA | State University Supplemental Tuition Award |
TAP | New York state Tuition Assistance Program, a grant program for undergraduate NYS residents. |
TEACH | Teach Education Assistance for College and Higher Education Grant, available to non-M.B.A. graduate students at Empire State University. |
Third Party Sponsorship | Third-party sponsorship is tuition assistance provided through an employer, union or other organization, to a member of that organization. |
UNSUB | Federal Unsubsidized Loan |
VA | Veterans Administration |
VESID | Vocational and Educational Services for Individuals with Disabilities, formerly OVR. |
VMRC | Veteran and Military Resource Center |
VVTA | Vietnam Veterans Tuition Assistance Program |