Admissions & Aid
The Financial Aid Process
Applying for financial aid is essential to affording college! You must apply in order to find out if you qualify for a scholarship, loan, grant, work-study award, or other aid. The process can seem overwhelming, but you'll complete it with ease if you:
- read the instructions carefully
- get all your paperwork together before you begin
- follow all the steps
- meet all the deadlines
FAFSA
Start by filling out your FAFSA. The online process has been simplified and has very clear instructions. The Financial Aid Office at Salem State does not have paper FAFSA applications. All applications must be done online. Students and parents will each need their own unique Federal PIN Number to sign the FAFSA electronically. The student's Federal PIN Number may also be used to sign other financial aid documents throughout their college career.
Your FAFSA will be processed and you'll receive a Student Aid Report (SAR) from the Department of Education. Generally our office will receive an electronic FAFSA within a week of you receiving your SAR.
Your SAR has your EFC (Expected Family Contribution), which measures your family's financial strength and helps determine eligibility for federal, state and institutional student aid.
SSC uses the EFC to decide how much aid you are eligible for based on our cost of attendance. The numerical value of the EFC does not necessarily mean that is what you will be required to pay "out-of-pocket" for attending at Salem State* It is used as a guideline for our office to effectively and fairly distribute the available aid funds that we have to our eligible student population
* For example: an on-campus student with a $0 EFC should expect to pay a portion of their college costs either through alternative loans, a payment plan or out of pocket.
You may be asked by our office to fill-out other forms if more info is needed.
What Happens Next?
You FAFSA is received by our office electronically; the next step is we will "package" your award and mail out an award letter. Packaging occurs in this order:
Incoming Freshman- Packaging is performed weekly from:
April 10th - May 1st. After that, it is performed approximately every 2 weeks throughout June
Returning Students with completed financial aid files*
Packaging begins May 1st and is performed approximately every 2 weeks throughout June and July. After that it is done monthly.
Graduate and Continuing Education Students with completed financial aid files*
Packaging is begins in late May and is performed approximately every 2 weeks throughout June and then monthly thereafter.
FAFSA's received and/or files completed AFTER June 1st will take a minimum of 4-6 weeks to process.
* A completed file means any and all additional documentation requested by our office has been received and entered into our system. You may track your submitted documents or check the status of your file through your navigator account.