Understanding Your Offer

Congratulations and Welcome to UTSA! We’ve compiled some common terms and processes regarding financial aid to help you get started!

Determining Your Cost of Attendance

The Cost of Attendance (COA) represents an estimate of what UTSA has determined to be the average expenses a student might incur while attending school each semester. Potential costs included in the COA are tuition and fees, books, housing and meals, transportation and personal/miscellaneous expenses. The COA assigned to you will be based on full-time enrollment if you are an undergraduate student (12 hours or more) or part-time enrollment if you are a graduate student (4-8 hours). Cost of living expenses are based on your answers to the student housing question on the FAFSA. You may be required to confirm your housing status as indicated on your FAFSA. Federal guidelines prohibit us from offering you financial aid in excess of your COA. This established COA may be estimated higher than what your actual direct costs may be.

Determining Your Financial Need and Offers

We follow the federal methodology established by the Department of Education to determine need and eligibility for financial aid. We are required to establish a COA for each student. We then subtract the Student Aid Index (SAI), which is referred to as Expected Family Contribution (EFC) for the 2023-2024 academic year, derived from information provided on the FAFSA to determine the remaining financial need. Your estimated COA, resources, SAI and remaining need are listed on your offer letter. Resources such as outside scholarships, exemptions, waivers and employer reimbursements will affect your financial aid package. If any of these apply, please submit either the Outside Scholarship Notification Form or External Resource Form, so we can revise your offer.

Accepting Your Offer & Completing Requirements

In order to view your financial aid offers online, log onto your myUTSA Account. Note: You will be prompted to authenticate yourself through your DUO account when trying to access financial aid information on your myUTSA Account. Don’t have a DUO account? Click here to learn how to set it up. Learn more about how

Learn how to accept your financial aid offer and view outstanding requirements. Here are some other things to note:

1. 1. Accept or decline your financial aid and scholarship offers. You may choose to leave offers as “undecided” or accept a partial amount. You are accepting for both the fall and spring semesters. Financial Aid Offers can contain a combination of grants, scholarships, loans and work-study eligibility. Please note that offers that state “eligibility” will not disburse until you have completed the requirements to receive this fund. Additional information and requirements for specific offers can be found under the Understanding Aid section on the website.
   2. Review your myUTSA Account for unsatisfied requirements, and/or holds that will prevent disbursement of aid.
      • If you have outstanding requirements, we will email your UTSA email address to inform you of this.
      • If a form is required, download it from the Financial Aid Forms website. All of our forms must be filled out online, printed and physically signed prior to submission via the methods listed on the form.
      • Outstanding documents must be processed by our office in order for aid to disburse. Processing time is typically 5-7 business days. However, documents submitted in peak times (July, August or January) will have a longer processing time, which may require you to submit payment or make alternative payment arrangements. You can review the tuition and fee loan option on our website or installment plan option at the Fiscal Services website.

Types of Aid Offered and Your Financial Aid “College Financing Plan”

The Financial Aid “College Financing Plan” is a consumer tool designed by the Department of Education to simplify the information that prospective students receive about costs and financial aid. It is meant to aid in making informed decisions about which postsecondary institution to attend. The College Financing Plan gives you a snapshot of your financial aid offers, which can then be compared to other institutions. Graduation rates include only first-time freshmen graduating in six years and do not include transfer students graduating from the University. To view your personalized College Financing Plan, please log in to your myUTSA Account.

Gift Aid (Grants/Scholarships)

Gift aid is money that does not have to be paid back (i.e. grants and scholarships). Grants are offered to you based on your Student Aid Index (SAI), which is referred to as Expected Family Contribution (EFC) for 2023-2024 year, as determined by FAFSA and funding availability. This amount can be adjusted based on any resources or exemptions you may receive. We also encourage you to apply for outside scholarships to help increase your gift aid.

Student Loans

Student loans are not based on credit and are guaranteed by the government. These loans will have to be repaid.

Subsidized Loans: loans based on need and the interest that accrues while a student is enrolled at least half-time is paid by the federal government. This type of loan is for undergraduate students only.

Unsubsidized Stafford Loans: loans that accumulate interest even when the student is attending college.

Federal Direct Stafford Loan Requirements

Subsidized and Unsubsidized Direct Stafford loans are low-interest loans offered by the Department of Education to help cover educational expenses. You may accept your Stafford loan(s) online through your myUTSA Account. Once you have accepted your loan, complete the Stafford Loan Entrance Counseling session and electronically sign your Master Promissory Note (MPN) at www.studentloans.gov.

Other Options for Your Remaining Costs

Your “Remaining Cost” can either be paid out-of-pocket or through other options that require additional research and actions.

Net Price/Cost

Net price gives you a realistic indicator of what you could potentially pay out of pocket after your gift aid (grants/scholarships) is applied. Your net price is calculated by subtracting your gift aid from your cost of attendance.

Disbursement of Financial Aid

Federal, state and institutional aid is disbursed ten days before the start of the fall and spring semesters provided that all paperwork and requirements are complete. This is the earliest date, by law, that UTSA can disburse aid. You may receive notifications that your bill is unpaid prior to the disbursement of your aid. For information on how specific funds disburse, please visit our website for fall and spring disbursements or for summer disbursements. Financial aid will only disburse if you are enrolled in the required number of hours, have accepted your aid, completed all requirements and do not have any holds.

Refunds

All financial aid will be applied towards your tuition and fees first and will then be applied to any additional charges billed to you at UTSA (e.g. housing, meal plan, parking permit). If your financial aid amount is in excess of your total UTSA bill, the remaining amount will be issued to you as a refund. Refunds will be sent via US Mail (paper check) or via direct deposit approximately three business days after your account balance on your Rowdy Pay shows zero. We recommend that you sign up for Direct Deposit on your myUTSA Account, as this is the fastest way to get your refund.

Withdrawal

If you decide not to attend UTSA and you have registered for classes, you will need to officially withdraw from those classes by withdrawing prior to the first day of class. International students and athletes must have prior approval from their respective offices before they can withdraw. If you do not officially withdraw, your classes may be held and financial aid will be credited to your account. If you officially withdraw, your financial aid will either be canceled or a calculation will be computed to determine how much of the unearned aid and will be returned to the original source which could result in a balance due to UTSA. Please review additional information about withdrawing from the institution and how it can affect future aid. If you are registered at another institution and have not officially withdrawn from UTSA courses and canceled your financial aid, the other institution will not be able to disburse your financial aid. Federal law prevents disbursement of financial aid at more than one institution within a term. To cancel your aid before it disburses, you may use the Request to Cancel All Aid form on our website.

Exceptional Financial Circumstances

Certain situations, including the loss of employment and unexpected costs, can affect your SAI and the ability to pay. If you feel you have an exceptional circumstance, please review our Special Circumstances site for additional information.

Financial Aid Revisions

This financial aid package was determined using information from your FAFSA. UTSA reserves the right to modify, reduce, and/or cancel your offer due to any revisions you make to your FAFSA, the verification of income process, laws that are amended or if funds are withdrawn or exhausted.

Obligations to Continue to Receive Financial Aid

You must maintain Satisfactory Academic Progress (SAP): This is an important requirement for financial aid recipients. Students must meet the following three criteria to continue to receive most types of financial aid:

• Undergraduate students must have a 2.0 cumulative GPA; graduate students must have a 3.0 cumulative GPA.
• Students must successfully complete a minimum of 67% of all attempted coursework. Grades of F, IN, NR, W, RP, EX and repeated courses are considered hours attempted, but not completed.
• The number of credit hours a student attempts may not exceed 150% of the number of credit hours required for graduation in his or her program of study (typically 180 credit hours for undergraduate students and 54 for graduate students).

Enrollment Requirements

Undergraduate students are automatically offered aid based on a full-time budget (12 or more hours) and graduate students based on a part-time budget (4-8 hours). Grants are offered based on full-time enrollment but will be prorated to 75% for three-quarter time enrollment or 50% for half-time enrollment. Most scholarships require full-time enrollment. Students must be enrolled at least half-time for most financial aid to disburse. There are specific enrollment requirements for Stafford Loans and grants which can be found on our website. If you are an undergraduate student with accepted loans and plan to be enrolled part-time, you will need to notify our office by submitting an Enrollment Change Form.

Credit hours required for full-time, three-quarter-time & half-time status

Undergraduate Enrollment Requirements

Semester	Full Time	3/4 Time	1/2 Time
Fall/ Spring	12+	9 – 11	6 – 8
Entire Summer	12+	9 – 11	6 – 8

Graduate/Doctoral Enrollment Requirements

Semester	Full Time	3/4 Time	1/2 Time
Fall/ Spring	9+	6 – 8	4 – 5
Entire Summer	5+	4	3