Financial Aid Office aims to guide students towards success

Courtesy of Financial Aid Office //

Many students confuse the roles of the accounting and financial aid offices. With registration just a few weeks away, understanding your financial situation could not be more important. The financial aid office is available to guide students in the financial aid application for federal, state and local scholarships and federal and private loans. The accounting office manages the day-to-day billing and accounting activity.

By this time in the semester, a student account should be satisfied. However, sometimes a student may still be waiting for a loan disbursement or other outside funds to be posted. If you know the right office to ask, your status may be easily fixed.

If you have a hold on your account in Self-Service, your first course of action should be to make sure all your expected financial aid has been applied.

If your financial aid has not been applied, you should contact the Office of Financial Aid  immediately. In most cases, it is a simple fix to accept your offer letter. Although, there may be other outstanding documents. The Office of Financial Aid is located in the Joseph Henry Apple Building, Third Floor, and can also be reached via email at finaid@hood.edu.

If your expected financial aid has been applied, proceed to the accounting office to pay your balance. The accounting office will work with you; however, your balance must be below the threshold before a hold can be removed. The Accounting Office is located in Alumni Hall, Second Floor.

The thresholds are as follows:

• Undergraduate <$500
• Graduate <$100
• Doctorate = $0

It is important for students to know that a hold is not removed automatically and is a manual process; if a payment is made online, the accounting office will not receive notification until the next business day. Please allow one to two business days for a hold to be removed. If a student wishes to have a hold removed more quickly AFTER a payment has been made, an email can be sent to accounting@hood.edu.

As with every registration cycle, students should review their degree progress with their advisers and register for courses that move students toward completing their degree. This would also be a suitable time to review Hood’s policy on satisfactory academic progress and any other outside sources from which funds are received, i.e. State of Maryland, and private scholarships.

When in doubt, ASK!! The financial aid team is here to help and guide students to success.