A message from our Executive Director of Financial Aid
Sent: April 11, 2024

Hello Students,

We’ve been informed of a key update that we want to share with you.

✏️ FAFSA corrections will be available next week
The Department of Education (ED) has announced that early next week (the week of April 15), students can go back into their 2024-2025 FAFSA and submit corrections, if needed. We also heard that some people have intermittently been able to log in and make corrections. How do you know if you have to make a correction? Log into your studentaid.gov portal and use this guide to determine if your FAFSA requires additional action, like a correction. If you do not see your status as “Processed,” you must complete additional steps as instructed on the portal. Please note that you will have to submit a correction if you do not have a valid Student Aid Index (SAI). Institutions cannot create a financial aid offer without a valid SAI.

🕒 TASFA state aid offer delay
We are actively working on an issue related to our software, which is currently unable to determine an SAI for students who filed a Texas Application for State Financial Aid (TASFA). We are working as quickly as possible to get this resolved so that offers can go out, which may not be until the beginning of May. We apologize for the frustration and difficulty this has caused.

We remain committed to ensuring students receive communication about financial aid offers. There have been no changes to our anticipated timeline. Thank you for your continued patience. Incredible strides are being made daily. As always, please reach out with questions.

Best,

Erika Cox
Assistant Vice Provost and Executive Director
Financial Aid and Scholarships

A message from our Executive Director of Financial Aid
Sent: April 5, 2024

Hello Students,

Thank you for remaining patient with us during this rocky FAFSA filing year. I am sharing with you some of our progress over the past two weeks and updates to our timeline and deadline below.

FAFSA submissions
We have received all the delayed 2024-2025 FAFSAs and are now receiving new FAFSAs from the Department of Education (ED) within a few business days of submission. Our technical systems have been updated, and to date, we have received over 40,000 FAFSAs at UTSA.

Email notifications & Financial Aid Portal
I’m pleased to say that we are notifying our newly admitted students if they have outstanding requirements or missing items. Students must be admitted to UTSA first to receive these notifications. For students who are not admitted yet, I encourage you to apply or complete your admission application as soon as possible. Emails will go out weekly. You can also view these requirements on your Financial Aid portal, which you can access through your myUTSA account. We encourage you to review these requirements as they must be complete before your aid can pay your bill in August.

FAFSA “Action Required” for some students
There is an unusually high percentage of FAFSAs that ED sent that were marked “processed with action required.” If you see this status on your FAFSA Submission Summary (FSS), it means your application did not include a Student Aid Index (SAI). You will have to log back into your StudentAid.gov portal to make corrections or adjustments before ED can calculate your SAI. We must have an SAI to offer federal aid. Unfortunately, ED has announced that students can only make corrections or adjustments to their FAFSA sometime in the middle of April. We will send out another email update as soon as this is available.

Incorrect SAI calculations for some students
Recently, ED has also acknowledged they incorrectly calculated the SAI on some of the FAFSA applications they sent to schools. They are working on reprocessing these and will soon notify UTSA and other schools about the students who were impacted. As soon as we know who is affected, we will notify those students. According to ED, these FAFSAs should be fixed by mid-April.

TASFA Update
We have started to receive TASFA submissions from the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board (THECB). Unfortunately at this time, our technical vendor cannot calculate an SAI so we are pending a technical update. We do not know when this will take place at this time.

Timeline for Financial Aid Offer Letters
We will begin sending offer notifications to undergraduate students admitted for Fall 2024 within the next few weeks and early May for students admitted to graduate programs. Notifications to students who applied with a TASFA are currently on hold until the SAI calculation issue can be resolved. Keep in mind that only students admitted to UTSA will receive an offer. It’s important to closely monitor your UTSA email account for updates from One Stop or our office.

Priority Deadline Extended (Again)
Due to ongoing issues with FAFSA submissions and students’ inability to complete their missing action steps, UTSA has decided to extend its priority FAFSA deadline to May 1, 2024. However, it’s important to note that the State of Texas still maintains its priority deadline of April 15, which affects state funds like the Texas Grant. If you haven’t submitted your FAFSA yet, there’s still time. We have workshops available to assist you, or you can visit One Stop for personalized help.

We are starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel. We are fully committed to supporting you through the financial aid process. Please continue to check your UTSA email regularly for updates. We will do everything we can to ensure you have the necessary information to receive your financial aid. Thank you for your patience, Roadrunners! We’re all in this together. We hope to see you at UTSA Day tomorrow! 🔷🔶

Best,

Erika Cox
Assistant Vice Provost and Executive Director
Financial Aid and Scholarships

The University of Texas at San Antonio

A message from our Executive Director of Financial Aid
Sent: March 18, 2024

Hello Students,

I hope you enjoyed a restful 🌴😎 Spring Break! I have some new updates 📣 to share with you.

We are starting to receive FAFSA applications.
The Department of Education (ED) is starting to send FAFSA applications to all schools nationwide. So far, we have only received about 10% of our anticipated FAFSA volume. The files are coming in slowly so that ED can monitor progress and check for technical issues. ED has alerted schools that it will take at least two weeks or longer to receive all FAFSAs submitted through March.

Has UTSA received my FAFSA application?
If we have received your application from the ED, you will receive an email from “UTSA One Stop” with the subject “Received Your FAFSA Application” to acknowledge receipt. Please note that even if we have your FAFSA application, we can only process it once we have finalized technical updates to our software due to the FAFSA changes. We are working as diligently and quickly as we can. Remember, it can take at least two weeks or longer for UTSA to receive all FAFSAs from ED, so please be patient. We will email students directly every other business day as we receive FASFA applications. Please do not contact One Stop at this point until you hear from us regarding your financial aid offer letter. After that, if you have any additional questions, feel free to reach out to One Stop for assistance.

Fix for contributors with no Social Security number
ED has confirmed that students whose contributors do not have a Social Security number can now submit an online FAFSA. If you previously submitted a paper FAFSA due to this issue, we recommend you now submit an online FAFSA. Please submit your online FAFSA as soon as possible. All contributors must have an FSA ID to submit their portion of the FAFSA. Our priority deadline has been pushed to April 15, giving you more time to submit your FAFSA; however, be sure to submit it by this date to maximize your aid opportunity. There is a tip page that ED has published that allows you to subscribe to a listserv if you encounter issues.

Timelines for Financial Aid Offer Letters
There has been no change to when we expect financial aid offers to go out to students. Fall 2024 admits will likely be sent offers by late April, and currently attending UTSA students will be sent offers by mid-June. Visit our webpage for the latest on our key dates and deadlines.

FAFSA Workshops and Help
Do you still need help filing? Consider attending one of our FAFSA workshops or stopping by One Stop for assistance.

We appreciate your understanding as things have changed so quickly. As we’ve stated in previous emails, we are doing our best to update you on FAFSA and TASFA announcements as they become available from the ED. 🔷🔶

Best,

Erika Cox
Assistant Vice Provost and Executive Director
Financial Aid and Scholarships

The University of Texas at San Antonio

A message from our Executive Director of Financial Aid
Sent: Feburary 29, 2024

Hello Student,

We hope you’re doing well. It has been a challenging year with the 2024-2025 FAFSA application. We know how frustrating this experience has been for many of you. If you’ve already completed your FAFSA, that’s great! If you have submitted your FAFSA online, please be aware that the Department of Education (ED) will not send files to universities until sometime in the middle of March. We’ve highlighted the latest updates below, which you can view on our website.

The Good News
Texas has pushed back its priority FAFSA submission deadline to April 15, 2024, which means we have also moved the UTSA priority deadline to April 15. This allows more time for students and families who are experiencing challenges submitting the FAFSA online to make the priority deadline. Additionally, the TASFA application is now available online for Texas residents who are not eligible for federal aid.

Known FAFSA Issues
We acknowledge that many students are encountering difficulties while submitting the online FAFSA. Below is a summary of some issues and potential workarounds. We recommend visiting ED’s issues and alerts if you are experiencing issues.

• Issue: Parents without Social Security Numbers
  Students whose parents do not have a Social Security Number have been unable to submit a FAFSA online. If you are in this situation, we’re sorry for how frustrating this process has been. ED has stated that a fix to allow affected students to submit the FAFSA online will happen in the first half of March. Here are some options you can take right now:
  • Wait – This is our recommendation. Since we have pushed back our priority FAFSA submission deadline, we strongly encourage you to wait until ED fixes the issue so you can submit your FAFSA online. This is to prevent further delays in receiving an aid offer once we get your application from ED.
  • Submit an Unsigned FAFSA Electronically – You can submit an unsigned FAFSA electronically and receive an email stating it was submitted. If you select this option, you must log back in after mid-March to submit signatures. It’s important to note that you cannot be offered financial aid without a signed, submitted FAFSA.
  • Submit a Paper FAFSA – You can submit a paper FAFSA and mail it to ED, who will date the stamp when received. This will be the date that your FAFSA will show as completed when UTSA or other schools receive your application. ED has not given a date when paper FAFSAs will be processed and sent to schools. We only know it’ll be much later than mid-March. Again, we strongly urge you to wait until ED fixes the issue and submit it online.
• Issue: Inability to Make Updates
  If you need to update a submitted FAFSA, ED currently states that mid-March is when updates may be possible.

The Financial Aid and Scholarships team at UTSA is working hard to ensure you can access financial aid to pay for your education, and our office is here for you. We have workshops throughout March to assist you with completing your FAFSA should you need assistance. Counselors are also available at One Stop anytime to help with your questions. We know this isn’t easy. We’re all in this together.

‘Go Runners!

Erika Cox
Assistant Vice Provost and Executive Director
Financial Aid and Scholarships

The University of Texas at San Antonio

A message from our Executive Director of Financial Aid
Sent: Feburary 8, 2024

Hello Student,

I want to share some updates related to federal student aid for the upcoming 2024-2025 academic year. The US Department of Education underwent an overhaul this year to make the FAFSA easier and better. Unfortunately, the transition to the simplified FAFSA hasn’t been as smooth and it is impacting all universities and colleges nationwide.

The Good News
The FAFSA is open and available 24/7. The redesigned FAFSA has significantly less questions to answer and more undergraduate students could qualify for the PELL grant! If you haven’t done so yet, we encourage you to complete your 2024-2025 FAFSA. UTSA’s school code is 010115.

The Struggle is Real
Unfortunately, with any new process, issues can arise. The Department of Education is working hard to address these. If you are experiencing issues competing the FAFSA, see if the issue is logged on the Federal Student Aid open issues log . On that page, there are some helpful workarounds identified. One challenge that we have heard from student and families is the inability to go back in to make edits, once you submit your FAFSA. The Department of Education states students will be able to log back in and submit changes sometime in March. Also, dependent students whose parents do not have a social security number are unable to submit the FAFSA online and will have to wait to submit online until the issue is fixed. We realize this is frustrating. Please do not let this discourage you in completing the FAFSA. We still recommend going in to submit the form as soon as you can.

Delayed Timing
In order for UTSA to start processing your financial aid, we need the Department of Education to send us your FAFSA file. Recently, the Department of Education announced that they will not send files to schools until mid-March. This applies to any school you identified when you submitted your FAFSA. After we receive your information, it can take us several weeks to process your file. For new students, it is likely that we, along with many other schools, will not be able to send out financial aid offers to students until late April. We understand that this delay makes the decision of where to attend school much more difficult and time sensitive. Any changes to this projected timeline will be communicated to you.For our current UTSA students, our plan is to send out financial aid offers in June for currently attending students.

Not Eligible for Federal Aid?
Students who are not eligible for federal aid, but are Texas Residents can submit a TASFA application. Currently the online TASFA application is not available, but students can still submit a paper TASFA.

What is UTSA Doing
Our office and team are committed to helping make attending UTSA affordable. If you need help with completing your FAFSA, we have workshops to help you if you need it. We will also continue to send you updated information through emails like this and on our website.

Our primary goal is to ensure that you have the necessary resources to pursue your education at UTSA. We appreciate your patience during this time, and wish you continued success in your academic endeavors.

‘Go Runners!

Erika Cox
Assistant Vice Provost and Executive Director
Financial Aid and Scholarships

The University of Texas at San Antonio

Yes, our Financial Success team will be hosting several workshops for new and continuing students.

Both the 2024-2025 Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) and the Texas Application for State Financial Aid (TASFA) are now open.

Yes. Please refer to the “Key Dates and Deadlines” section of this webpage as this date can change.

The Department of Education (ED) is keeping schools updated on their timeline, which is fluid and changing. Please refer to the “Key Dates and Deadlines” section of this webpage for the latest date provided to universities.

Please note, you must include the UTSA school code (010115) and have successfully submitted your application for ED to send the files to UTSA, once they release them.

No, the Distinguished Presidential Scholarship (DPS) deadline will remain January 15. We encourage you to apply early!

Please refer to the “Key Dates and Deadlines” section of this webpage as this date can change.

The reason why the scholarship deadline is different because students do NOT need a FAFSA or TASFA on file to submit it. Students will only need a myUTSA ID to log into the UTSA Scholarship Hub, which they receive within 72 hours after they submit an admissions application to UTSA.

A contributor is anyone who is required to provide consent for Federal Tax Information (FTI) and a signature on the FAFSA including:

• The student
• The student’s spouse (if applicable)
• A biological or adoptive parent; or
• The spouse of a remarried parent who is on the FAFSA (i.e., a stepparent)

The new FAFSA is student-driven, meaning the student’s answers on their section will determine who will be a contributor (in addition to the student). Students will need the contributor’s name, date of birth, Social Security Number (SSN), and email address to invite them to complete their required portion of the FAFSA. Contributors will need to provide personal and financial information on their section of the FAFSA.

If a dependent student’s parents are unmarried and living together, both parents will be contributors, will need to have separate Federal Student Aid (FSA) IDs, and need to provide consent. Dependent students whose parents filed their U.S. income tax return as Married Filing Jointly only require one parent contributor to complete the FAFSA. If the student’s parents filed separately, both parents will be considered contributors and therefore need separate FSA IDs.

If an independent student is married and filed separately, both individuals are contributors and must have FSA IDs.

To create an FSA ID, please visit the Create Account webpage on the Federal Student Aid website.

For the FAFSA to process successfully, consent must be provided by all required contributors (student, parent, parent spouse, and/or student spouse) on the FAFSA. This allows the Federal Tax Information (FTI) transferred from the IRS to be provided to higher education institutions, state higher-education agencies, and designated scholarship organizations.

Consent is provided once for the academic year and cannot be revoked in that academic year. This consent is necessary even if the contributor does not have a Social Security Number (SSN), did not file taxes, or filed taxes in another country. To provide consent, contributors must have an FSA ID. The process of creating an FSA ID for those without a SSN will become available starting in December, using the Department of Education’s newly developed system to validate identity with credit bureau data.

Determining what parent(s) to include on the FAFSA is changing. Income and assets are to be reported for the parent who provides the most financial support even if the student does not live with that parent or lives with the other parent.

In previous years, if a student’s parents were divorced or separated, the parent with whom the student lived the most in the past 12 months prior to filing the FAFSA was to be listed; however, this is no longer the primary consideration.

Parental Income on the FAFSA

• Parents who live together
  • Parental income and assets in the case of a student whose parents are married and not separated, or who are unmarried but live together, shall include the income and assets of both parents.
• Divorced or separated parents
  • Parental income and assets for a student whose parents are divorced or separated, but not remarried, is determined by including only the income and assets of the parent who provides the greater portion of the student’s financial support.
• Death of a parent
  • Parental income and assets in the case of the death of any parent is determined as follows:
    • If either of the parents has died, the surviving parent shall be considered a single parent, unless that parent has remarried.
    • If both parents have died, the student shall not report any parental income or assets.
• Remarried parents
  • If a parent who is divorced or widowed and would be included on the FAFSA has remarried, the income of the parent’s spouse must be included if the student’s parent and the stepparent are married as of the date the FAFSA is completed.
• Single parent
  • For a single parent who is not divorced, separated, or remarried, the income and assets of the single parent shall be included.

The FAFSA Simplification Act will expand the Pell Grant to more students and will link eligibility to family size and the federal poverty guidelines that were in effect during the tax year being requested on the FAFSA.  Additionally, for students who qualify, the amount of Pell Grant will be based on enrollment intensity, which means they will look at how many credit hours you’re registered in to determine how much will pay out.

Though the FAFSA will ask how many of the student’s household members are in college, the answer will not be calculated into the Student Aid Index (SAI). As such, undergraduate students with siblings in college may see a change in their federal aid eligibility. Guidance for how a student should report their family size will align more closely with what was reported on the student’s/parent’s tax returns.

A new IRS Direct Data Exchange (DDX) will replace the IRS Data Retrieval Tool (DRT) built into the FAFSA for importing student, parent, parent spouse, and/or student spouse Federal Tax Information (FTI). Previously, users had the option to enter their tax information manually or use the IRS DRT.

All persons on the FAFSA must provide consent for the Department of Education to receive tax information or confirmation of non-filing status directly from the IRS. In a very small number of cases, students and families will have to enter their tax data manually, but for most, that data will be automatically transferred into the application. This change makes it easier to complete the FAFSA and reduces the number of questions to be answered.

When applicable, families must now report the value of their small business or family farm. If the family farm includes the principal place of residence, students should determine the total net value of all farm assets and subtract the net value of their principal residence to determine the final value of their farm assets.