Virginia Tech to start delivering financial aid notifications

The Virginia Tech Office for University Scholarships and Financial Aid will start delivering long-awaited financial aid notifications to admitted students in the coming weeks.

Out-of-state students will start receiving notifications by noon Monday, April 22. The Office for University Scholarships and Financial Aid plans on sending email notifications to these students and encourages them to check their applicant portals regularly for important financial aid information.

Normally, financial aid packages are assembled and sent out in February. This past year, the federal government overhauled the Free Application for Federal Student Aid – known more commonly as FAFSA – process and then delayed the rollout, increasing difficulties both for families trying to access the FAFSA form and universities putting together aid packages, which are based partly on students’ information on the form.

“We’ve been doing our best to evaluate the data coming from the U.S. Department of Education,” said Beth Armstrong, director of the Office of University Scholarships and Financial Aid at Virginia Tech. “We want to make decisions that are most advantageous for students.”

The administrative staff within the Office for University Scholarships and Financial Aid continues to evaluate in-state students for available aid and scholarships. State grant eligibility is tied to the FAFSA and more scholarships exist for in-state students, so aid packages for in-state students take a little longer to process.

The staff, though, anticipates notifying in-state students by 5 p.m. April 26, after the out-of-state student notifications.

Some admitted students need to correct mistakes on their FAFSA forms and resubmit those forms to the U.S. Department of Education. The Office for University Scholarships and Financial Aid has started receiving some corrected FAFSA forms and will begin processing those as soon as possible.

“We know there has been a lot of frustration, and we want people to know that we have heard you and we understand those frustrations,” Armstrong said. “We want to ensure that we provide information they can rely on to make informed decisions about their next steps.”

For current Virginia Tech students, they will not receive financial aid notifications until after the posting of spring semester grades. The staff expects to send email notifications about financial aid to this group during the first or second week of June.

The Office for University Scholarships and Financial Aid is extending office hours to accommodate telephone calls and emails for families needing assistance (Note: office staff is not available for in-person meetings). Office hours now run from 8 a.m. to 7 p.m. Monday through Thursday and from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Friday. Starting Saturday and continuing each Saturday through May 11, office hours will be from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.

Those with questions can contact the office at finaid@vt.edu or by phone at 540-231-5179.