As this semester starts to wind down … the new academic year is also quickly approaching. In order to prepare yourself for the upcoming year, and to receive the most financial aid possible …

• Visit our Getting Started page to see which financial aid application you need to complete: is it the FAFSA or WASFA application?
• Complete your 22-23 WSU General Scholarship application to put yourself in contention for the various scholarships offered through this review process

The relief due to COVID for federal student loans ends January 31, 2022. To learn more about this and preparing for repayment, please visit studentaid.gov’s COVID-19 announcement.

From our partners over in Admissions: A quick reminder National Transfer Student Week starts Monday, and we are working to have reminder emails sent out Monday morning to prospective and current transfers, along with external advisors who haven’t registered for the 10/19 workshop (we are at 34 registrants). Any reference you all can make to the events in individual communications is also appreciated. We also created a form for WSU staff and faculty to share their own brief transfer journey stories and advice, so please feel free to share yours, if applicable. The transfer week play on the shoes is optional, but we plan to maintain staff/faculty and student profiles throughout the year as part of our student resources website sections. Thanks again for the collaboration and support!

On August 6, 2021, the US Department of Education announced it will extend the pause on student loan payment  and interest accrual past its September expiration date.  The pause on payments will now be in place through January 31, 2022.  For more on this, please see the NASFAA Press Release.

The US Department of Education (ED) released a Dear Colleague Letter (Gen-21-05) that made some important changes for students selected for verification. As of 7/13/21 ED is focusing the 2021-2022 award year’s efforts strictly on identity and fraud. This means they are waiving verification for most students. The students who are selected to supply confirmation of identity will still be required to sign the statement of educational purpose and high school completion status.

SFS is working to identify the students who can have the verification processed waived. We will send a communication to all of these students letting them know they will no longer need to supply documents to our office. We will also place a comment on each account. Our anticipated timeline is to have this completed by the end of July.