HRSA SUCCESS Scholarship FAQs
FAQs about the HRSA SUCCESS Scholarship for CSD graduate students
Q: What criteria must I meet to apply?
A: If ONE of these scenarios applies to you, then you are eligible for consideration
- I am from an Appalachian County http://www.arc.gov/counties
- I am a first generation college student
- I am from an economically disadvantaged environment
- I am from an educationally or environmentally disadvantaged background
IF you meet ONE of the above scenarios, you must ALSO demonstrate sufficient financial unmet need as determined form the Office of Financial Aid, then you will be eligible for consideration of this award.
If you are uncertain if you meet any of these criteria, please see the application for addition information.
**Please refer to the 200% column below for poverty guidelines
Q: I am less than 24 years of age, can I complete the FAFSA and apply as an independent?
A: While UK considers all graduate students "independent", for purposes of this grant, if you are less than 24 years of age, you must apply as a dependent, and therefore must apply accordingly and include your parental income on the FAFSA.
You may be considered "independent" ...If you are married, have children who receive half or more of their support from you (the applicant), have dependents other than children or spouse who live with you and receive more than half of their support from you (the applicant) a veteran of the US armed forces, and at any time since you (the applicant) turned 13, both parents were deceased or if you (the applicant) were in foster care or was a ward of the court, an emancipated minor or in a legal guardianship as determined by the court.
In the event that there are extenuating circumstances – abandoned by parents or homeless before college, violence in the home, unfit parent – students can appeal to be considered independent for financial aid. If you have another situation not listed here, please discuss with us.
Q: I am between 24 and 27 years of age, how do I identify myself for purposes of this grant?
A: There are two options.
- If you have been listed as a dependent on your parental federal income tax for at least one of the preceding three years, you must identify as a dependent and complete the FAFSA online based on parental family federal income tax.
- If you have not been listed as a dependent on your parental /family federal income tax for 3 or more years you qualify as independent, you will need to submit this documentation to us by uploading your documents online on the HRSA application.
Q: What is needed to document independent status between the ages of 24-27?
A: Provide the first two pages of the 1040 tax return form. You can redact any identifying information such as SSN, DOB. You must provide this documentation for the past 3 years.
Q: I am over 27 years of age, how do I apply?
A: You are considered independent for the purposes of this grant.
Q: I don’t live with either parent, how should this be reported on the FAFSA?
A: The parent who provides the most support should be listed on the FAFSA.
Q: My father is on disability and receives SSI plus a small pension. Do I have to include the pension and the disability income on the FAFSA?
A: No, the FAFSA calculations only use the adjusted income. The SSI is not considered part of you adjusted income.
Q: My mother is disabled and does not file taxes. How should I complete this information on the FAFSA?
A On the FAFSA there is a spot to explain this situation. You are not automatically considered independent because of this and so there would need to be some extenuating circumstance to grant an over-ride if needed.
Q: I am 23 years old and my mother is deceased and I have no contact with my father. My grandparents have provided some support but they do not claim me as a dependent.
A: Enter for parental income $0 since you have no relationship with your father.
Q: Will changing the FAFSA (and including parental income information) change my ability to qualify for loans?
A: Adding parental information will not change the status as independent for financial aid. The calculations will not pick-up/include the parent data but we will receive the information when we get the results of the updated FAFSA. We will receive the parental information for the purposes of identifying the unmet financial need for the purposes of the HRSA scholarship.
Q; When can I expect that my tuition will be paid?
A: Once scholarship recipients have signed and returned their letter of agreement, tuition paperwork will be processed. The scholarship will be applied to the student’s account to pay tuition fees in approximately 4 weeks.
Q: When can I expect that I will receive my stipend?
A: If you are eligible for a stipend (and this varied based on unmet need), after recipients have accepted their scholarship and tuition paperwork has been submitted, stipend paperwork will be processed. The stipend is payment will occur approximately 6-8 six weeks after the award is accepted.
Q: My tuition scholarship award is less than I thought it would be why is that?
A: Your scholarship award often have to be reduced by any “uncovered grant” expenses that are typically included in tuition. For example, Johnson Center and Student Health fees are not covered by the grant, but are included in your tuition. Therefore, we cannot pay them directly as tuition and thus have to reduce the tuition award these uncovered expenses. We will offset this reduction by adding any uncovered expenses to your stipend.
Q: What about if I am already getting financial support through another training program (i.e. LINKS or SPEAC-IT or other)? Can I still apply?
A: Yes you can still apply. The Office of Financial Aid (OFA) will determine the amount of unmet need AFTER receipt of the other scholarship grant money. After deduction of the awards from other scholarships, the amount of remaining unmet need still needs to exceed 50% of annual tuition costs.
Q: Can I accept student loans and the HRSA scholarship grant money?
A: You may. However, Direct Loans will be placed on hold until the HRSA scholarship amount is determined unless you contact us (Rhonda) to release funds. This is to prevent you from having to return loan funds after the scholarship credits which happens when the loan amount exceeds the HRSA scholarship amount applied directly to your student account. A portion of the HRSA scholarship may be in the form of a stipend sent directly to you. Office of Student Financial Aid and Scholarships staff will ask Student Account Services staff to not post any late charges to your account for August due to the delay in receipt of HRSA funds.
Q: When the Office of Financial Aid (OFA) allocates the HRSA funds toward the student loans, what do I have to go through with my loan borrower service? Do I repay these myself, or will the university be taking care of this? Since I have already paid my tuition for this fall, how will that repayment process will work?
A: The Office of Financial Aid will reduce or cancel the loans after the HRSA scholarship amount is determined. That information will be relayed to the students’ loan servicers. Students will receive a notification from their loan servicers within about 3 weeks of the changes to the loans being made on their student accounts here. If you have already paid the tuition, then that amount will be refunded back to you. If you have received a residual refund due to your student loan crediting your account before HRSA scholarship funds paid, then you will need to return the residual to fully cancel the loan.
