Financial Aid Policy

How a student receives financial aid, as well as other factors will determine what requirements a student must meet in order to use the correspondence courses in defining their enrollment status for Financial Aid purposes. For more information about this program, please contact the Office of Financial Aid.

Items that apply to all Financial Aid students:

A. You must be a University of Mississippi student in order to use correspondence courses in defining your enrollment status for Financial Aid purposes.

B. The tuition for a correspondence course will be charged to your Bursar account as soon as you enroll.

C. The tuition for a correspondence course(s) is separate from the tuition charges for non-correspondence study courses and is not included in the standard full-time student (12-19 hours) tuition that is charged for non-correspondence study courses as assessed by the Bursar’s Office, regardless of the number of hours for non-correspondence courses work which the student has been charged.

DETERMINING REQUIRMENTS

1. Do you qualify for only institutional or military financial aid?
If your only source for financial aid is institutional aid [faculty-staff scholarship, child of faculty/staff scholarship or banking hours] or military aid [DANTES or VA] then you may be able to use that aid to assist with the tuition for your correspondence course(s). You may enroll in the correspondence course(s) at any time and you will have the standard enrollment period of one calendar year to complete an Independent Study course and may purchase up to two three-month extensions after the deadline.

3. Do you qualify for federal financial aid?
If your financial aid package consists of some form of federal aid [SEOG, Perkins loans, Stafford loans, Pell Grants, etc], you must adhere to very specific deadlines in order to use correspondence classes taken in addition to regular coursework to be included in determining your enrollment status for student aid eligibility.

1. The correspondence work must apply toward your degree or be remedial work taken to help you in your course of study.
2. To increase your enrollment status for financial aid purposes, the class must be enrolled in, and completed within the semester in which the hours are used.
3. The total hours cannot be more than the number of hours you are enrolled through the regular registration system; i.e., if you are enrolled for three credit hours via the regular registration system, the maximum correspondence credit hours you can use to increase your enrollment status for financial aid purposes is three.
4. Before enrolling in an Independent Study course, your Academic Dean must approve your application.
5. After enrolling in the course, you must submit a Department of Independent Study Enrollment Notification form to the Office of Financial Aid. You should request the form from the Office of Independent Study when you enroll in the course(s)
6. Consult with a Financial Aid advisor who can assist you in determining the ramifications of using an Independent Study course in determining your student aid eligibility. Failure to submit Enrollment Verification on time may disqualify or decrease your eligibility for some financial aid programs.
7. The tuition for a correspondence course(s) is separate from the tuition charges for non-correspondence study courses, and will not be included in the calculation of fees for the semester, and is not included in the standard full-time student (12-19 hours) tuition that is charged for non-correspondence study courses.
8. Once you take the mid-course test (or if there is no mid-course test, half of the lessons) request a Verification of Official Enrollment form from the Department of Independent Study. This form will need to be deliver to the Office of Financial Aid. This form places the Office of Financial Aid on notice that you are officially enrolled in the course.
9. Financial aid CANNOT BE DISBURSED for correspondence classes until after you have completed and submitted the Verification of Official Enrollment form to the Office of Financial Aid.
10. If you do not finish the course by the completion date, you may request two (2) extensions of an additional three (3) months to complete the course. The extension must be requested before the course expires and the student must have reached the half way point in his course. The fee for an extension request is $150.00. During the extension period the student will receive an I [Incomplete] mark for the course. If the I mark for the course has not been changed to a regular grade by the end of the extension period the I automatically changes to an F.
11. In order for a correspondence course to be eligible for inclusion in a particular term, the student must follow a strict registration and completion schedule. Please see the chart below for those dates.

The beginning and ending dates for inclusion of correspondence work in a semester at the University of Mississippi are:

Registration Period	Completion Date Before or On	Credit Hours Included In
August 11 - September 8, 2008	November 21, 2008	Fall 2008
January 7, 2009 – February 3, 2009	April 17, 2009	Spring 2009
May 12, 2009 – June 1, 2009	July 10, 2009	Full Summer 2009
August 10, 2009 – September 4, 2009	November 20, 2009	Fall 2009
January 6, 2010 – February 2, 2009	April 16, 2010	Spring 2010
May 18, 2010 – June 7, 2010	July 16, 2010	Full Summer 2010

Please Note: Students with Financial Aid are not prohibited from enrolling in correspondence courses at any other time of the year. The dates listed above are only for students wishing to use their correspondence course(s) for inclusion in financial aid calculations. Students who qualify for financial aid have the option of selecting to enroll in a correspondence course and paying for the course without using financial aid. If they select this option then they would have the standard enrollment period of one calendar year to complete an Independent Study course and may purchase up to two three-month extensions of the deadline.