Financial Aid Administrators Told To Repackage SMART Recipients Using New Guidance For Remainder of 2007-08

Abstract:

While the SMART Grant program has never been the easiest to administer, many financial aid administrators are finding that new guidance issued by the Department is making it even more difficult. Six weeks into the fall semester - well after most schools have finished packaging and disbursing aid and students are well past changing their fall schedule - the Department issued a General Dear Colleague Letter GEN-07-07. The guidance says that students must be enrolled in at least one course that meets the specific requirements of the student’s National SMART Grant-eligible major in the payment period to be eligible for a disbursement. Schools were told that they need not implement this reversal of prior guidance for the 2007 fall payment period for students they have already packaged and/or for whom a SMART Grant has already been disbursed. However, schools must apply the new rule to students for the remainder of the 2007-08 award year.

The full article was originally published in NASFAA’s Today’s News on 10/12/2007.