Additional research funding reduced my Child Car Subsidy. Can I get it back?
The Child Care Subsidy, along with many other forms of financial aid authorized through the Office of Financial Aid, is based upon both the Cost of Attendance (COA) and the demonstrated need of the student. To determine need, the university uses a “standard” COA that is the same for all students in your particular program. We subtract your Student Aid Index (SAI) from the COA, and the resulting amount is your demonstrated need.
For example: If your COA is $48,000 and your SAI is $5,000, your demonstrated need would be $43,000. If your financial aid, including the Child Care Subsidy, was reduced after receiving other assistance, your total aid exceeded your demonstrated need.
It may be possible to restore some, or all, of the reduced aid through a COA re-evaluation. There are two processes you can use:
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The department providing additional assistance may contact us. If you have submitted expense documentation to your department, the department can forward that to our office, and we may be able to increase your student budget or COA. For example; if you are traveling for research, copies of airfare expenses or a mileage statement signed by your academic advisor can be used to increase expenses and offset the funding being offered. This would result in no change to your initial Child Care Subsidy. If you did not give your department documentation, share that with the Office of Financial Aid to prevent a reduction in your aid or so we can consider your situation.
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You may request an adjustment for any expenses that exceed our standard budget amounts. A worksheet becomes available each October that identifies the amounts used to create your COA. You may then review these costs, identify those expenses that exceed (or are not included) in the COA, and submit the completed worksheet along with the documentation of each expense to request an adjustment. This same process can be used to determine if the Office of Financial Aid can restore other forms of assistance such as a Federal Direct Unsubsidized Loan and/or a Federal Direct Graduate PLUS Loan.