Enrollment Services

Financial Aid

How Funds are Awarded

All students with a completed FAFSA application listing SOU as one of the schools and who have been fully admitted in a degree-seeking program at SOU are considered for federal, state, campus-based and institutional funds. Campus-based funds include Perkins Loans, Supplemental Grants, and Federal Work-Study.

Please note: financial aid received at another institution during the same academic year can reduce the aid available at SOU due to federally mandated limits. Students will not receive financial aid funding from more than one institution in any given term.

The Financial Aid Office uses "Federal Methodology" (the standard, federally approved method) for determining what funds the family (parent and/or student) should have available to meet the year's educational costs. The analysis of the Estimated Family Contribution (EFC) is based primarily on prior year parent and student incomes. The EFC figure is shown on the first page of the Student Aid Report (SAR), which is the document applicants receive from the federal processor after filing the FAFSA.  Only your official EFC, as calculated by the federal processor, will be used by the SOU financial aid office to determine your aid eligibility, but you may use an EFC Estimator to get an idea of what your EFC may be.

The EFC figure is then subtracted from the standard budget (or Cost of Attendance),  representing costs for the academic year. The remaining figure is considered the student's financial eligibility.

Students with the lowest EFC are awarded campus-based and instutional funds until those funds are fully committed. The Direct Stafford/Ford Loans and the Pell Grant remain available all year.

SOU funding policy is (a) to first fund students with the lowest estimated family contribution, and (b) to fund fully within our institutional policy limits. We attempt to fully meet the student's financial eligibility from the available funds. Below is a sample package for a high-need, dependent, on-time filer (March 1) of sophomore standing.

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