Southern Adventist University provides financial aid for students in the form of graduate assistantships, loans, and limited scholarships. These funds come from Southern Adventist University, private groups, donors, corporations, and Title IV funds from the Federal Department of Education. Financial aid applicants will not be denied assistance on the basis of sex, race, color, national origin, religion, or ethnicity. The Student Finance Office follows established procedures and practices which will assure equitable and consistent treatment of all applicants.
Students are urged to contact the Student Finance Office, PO Box 370, Collegedale, TN 37315-0370, phone 1.800.SOUTHERN, or visit our website at southern.edu/finance for additional information.
Financial aid awards are made for one academic year to students who are accepted for admission, and are enrolled for at least five credit hours. Recipients of government aid must hold U.S. citizenship or a permanent resident visa. Students desiring aid must reapply each year and continue to make satisfactory academic progress (SAP) toward a degree to receive financial aid.
The federal government also requires that the university have an official copy of the baccalaureate undergraduate transcript from an accredited institution prior to disbursement of federal financial aid to graduate students. Provisionally accepted students will not receive loan proceeds until an official copy of their undergraduate transcript is submitted to the Graduate Studies office.
WARNING: If a student purposely gives false or misleading information on the federal aid application, s/he may be fined $20,000 by the US Department of Education, sent to prison, or both.
The Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) must be submitted annually to apply for the federal, state, and institutional aid programs. This application needs to be completed online at studentaid.gov/fafsa. Southern Adventist University's TITLE IV school code is 003518.
Southern Adventist University strongly encourages selecting the automatic IRS Data Retrieval Tool when completing the FAFSA to ensure accuracy of financial information and avoid potential delays.
A financial aid offer letter will be available online through the Financial Planning section of MyAccess, to each accepted applicant after the Student Finance Office receives the FAFSA results. To confirm and reserve the funds offered, students should click accept on all awards they wish to receive.
When financial aid recipients receive additional resources not included in the financial aid offer letter, it is the student's responsibility to report these funds to the Student Finance Office. Federal regulations prohibit overawards. Therefore, when the total of all resources exceeds the allowable student budget, financial aid awards must be adjusted. When financial aid funds have already been credited to the student's account, any adjustments due to over awards will be charged to the student's account.
Financial aid awards are disbursed based on enrollment status each semester. The disbursement will show as a credit on a student's account. Loan funds received from the federal loan programs will in most cases be automatically credited to the student's account after the semester's census date and once the master promissory note (MPN) and entrance counseling requirements are met.
Credit balances caused by federal financial aid will be released to the student or parent within 14 days of disbursement, unless the Student Finance office has received written permission to hold the credit balance. If the student has a credit balance caused by a financial aid overaward, the necessary credit will be allocated to the financial aid funds, according to the Financial Aid Award and Disbursement Procedures. If any credit remains, the refund will be credited back first to any credit card that was used to make payment within 90 days of the refund. If the refund involves a credit card payment exceeding $2,000, the refund will be credited back first to the credit card regardless of the date of payment.