An award letter from your financial aid office is the documentation you will receive informing you of what type of financial aid for college you are eligible and how much you will get. This award letter might not even be a letter at all, it might come as an email.
The process of getting your financial aid award letter start with you filling out your FAFSA. Once you FAFSA is filed and all necessary signatures are received it is processes by the government, which usually takes one full business day. Once the government processes your application it is made available to the school(s) that you put on your FAFSA. Schools do not download applications everyday and they are not required to do so. Some schools download applications from the government once a week, once ever 3 days, or a few times a day. So even though the government might be showing your application being fully processed, that just means it is available for the school to download, it does not mean the school has gotten it yet.
Once the school downloads your FAFSA, it will probably not be processed by the school right away. Schools process applications in the order it was received and chances are there are LOTS of FAFSA’s in front of yours. Most schools are open and will tell you what applications they are working on so you can get an idea of when your application is going to be done.
Once your school processes your application, your award letter will be generated. Your award letter will tell you what types of aid you are getting and how much. The letter is usually for the entire year, but broken down into semesters. These amounts on the letter are also subject to you attending the number of credits you put on your application. For instance, if you put on the FAFSA that you were going to attend college full-time, your letter will reflect aid for that. If you decide to change and only go half-time, the aid will be adjusted accordingly.
Your financial aid award letter will show you what you are eligible to get for college for the year. This might include the Pell Grant, FSEOG, ACG Grant, TEACH Grant, Stafford Loans, Perkins Loans, Work Study, and possibly aid given to you by the state in which you are attending college. What types of aid you are eligible for will depend on your financial situation and the large majority of student will not be eligible for grants, only loans.
The Federal Student Aid Information Center (800-433-3243) is unable to discuss any aspect of your award letter with you. If you have any questions at all regarding your award letter, you must contact the financial aid office at the school that sent you the letter.