Required Verification Documents

New First-Year students (including transfer students) financial aid eligibility will be determined regardless of whether the verification process is complete. Once verification is complete, financial aid eligibility will be reevaluated and adjusted if necessary. Verification documentation must be submitted no later than 60 days prior to the planned term of enrollment. Submitting the required documents by the due dates mentioned, facilitates the college's ability to verify all information in a timely manner, ensure that financial aid awards and reconciliation of funds are accurate, and that financial aid is posted to the student’s account in a timely manner.

When a returning student is selected for verification, written notification will be sent to the student identifying the documents required for the verification process. This notification will be sent to the student by the Financial Aid Office no later than two weeks from the time the Financial Aid Office receives official notification that the student was selected. The student must then submit all necessary documents to the Financial Aid Office. Failure to submit the required documentation will delay or eliminate the disbursement of federal, state, and institutional financial aid funds. Additionally, students who are obtaining financial assistance through federal student loans, who fail to submit documentation for verification in a timely manner, could cause the cancellation of loan assistance.

No financial aid will be disbursed to a student’s account if the student is selected for verification and the verification process is incomplete. If financial aid has already been disbursed and the student is subsequently selected for verification, further disbursements are stopped until which time the process is complete. If a student completely withdraws from enrollment at Spelman College or the period of enrollment (i.e., semester) ends before the verification process is complete, the student loses any calculated aid eligibility as of the date of withdrawal or end of period of enrollment whichever comes first, and any disbursed aid is returned to its source.

The Financial Aid Office has authority and is required to resolve any conflicting information in the student’s financial aid file or other related educational records prior to determining or disbursing financial aid funds. In most cases, additional documents will be requested from the student (or student’s family/guardian). Failure of the student (or student’s family/guardian) to resolve the conflicting information with documentation acceptable to the Financial Aid Office will eliminate financial aid eligibility. The Financial Aid Office produces tracking letters that are sent to students (or student’s family/guardians) on a regular basis requesting required documentation (such as tax transcripts, verification worksheets, etc.)

The College will submit the verified corrections to the U.S. Department of Education federal processor electronically. This will ensure that corrections are made known to all parties and that the need-analysis will be updated accurately and according to federal standards.

Any student identified in default on an educational loan or who owes an overpayment of Title IV financial aid funds is immediately ineligible for all financial aid at Spelman College. If aid has been disbursed during an enrollment period and the student is identified as in default during that enrollment period, all financial aid processing will stop, and no further disbursements will be made. Processing will resume at the point that the default or overpayment has been satisfied.