Determining Your Financial Aid

We use your UTSA Cost of Attendance (COA) and your Student Aid Index (SAI) from your financial aid application to determine your aid offer. Your COA determines the maximum amount of financial aid you could receive, and your SAI determines the type of federal aid you are eligible for. Your SAI is not the amount your family will have to pay for college or the amount of aid you will receive.

Cost of Attendance (COA)

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 (15 hours in fall and 15 hours in spring) or part-time enrollment if you are a graduate student (4-8 hours in fall and 4-8 hours in spring). Housing expenses are based on your answers to the student housing question on your admission application. If your living arrangement does not match what is reflected on your financial aid offers, you must confirm your housing status with UTSA. 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.

Financial Need & Eligibility

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) 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. We encourage you to review our Rowdy Cents Budget Worksheet once you’ve been offered financial aid to determine your actual costs for the year.

Enrollment Requirements

There are some minimum enrollment requirements that you’ll need to meet in order to qualify for financial aid. These requirements are mostly based on your cost of attendance and student classification. 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). Various types of aid could have additional enrollment requirements such as grants, scholarships, and federal loans. Students must be enrolled at least half-time for most financial aid to disburse.

If your actual enrollment does not match your cost of attendance on your offer letter, we will reach out to you with next steps as we near the start of school otherwise your loans will not be disbursed. We will automatically update your cost of attendance to match your enrollment after census. 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.

Accepting Your Offer

In order to receive your aid, you must accept your financial aid offers and make sure that you’ve resolve any outstanding financial aid requirements and/or holds which will prevent the disbursement of aid.

You can accept and review requirements on our Financial Aid portal, which is accessed through your myUTSA Account. Please note that you will be prompted to authenticate yourself through your DUO account when trying to access financial aid information on your myUTSA Account.

Financial Aid Revisions

Financial aid offers are determined using information from your FAFSA or TASFA. There are many factors that can change your financial aid offers. UTSA reserves the right to modify, reduce, and/or cancel your offer due to any revisions you make to these financial aid applications, the verification of income process, laws that are amended or if funds are withdrawn or exhausted. If your aid gets adjusted, you will receive an email to your UTSA email address, which can happen throughout the academic year, even if aid has been accepted or paid out.

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 Financial Aid portal, accessed through 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) 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.

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.

Federal Student Loans

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

• 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.

Options for Remaining Costs

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

Disbursement of Financial Aid

Aid Applying to your UTSA Bill

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 (Not Attending UTSA)

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.

Maintaining Eligibility

The offering and disbursement of financial aid (federal, state and institutional) is contingent on student’s maintaining eligibility to receive financial aid funds. To continue receiving student aid, you must submit a FAFSA or TASFA by the priority deadline each year and make Satisfactory Academic Progress (SAP). SAP means maintaining good grades and completing enough classes to stay on track to graduate within the timeframe expected by your school and within federal mandated timeframes. Some funds are renewable such as Texas Grant and the Distinguished Presidential Scholarship or Distinguished Transfer Scholarship. Certain grants and scholarships have requirements to continue to receive year after year.