Selected for Verification
Each year, The Department of Education selects students’ financial aid applications nationwide for “verification,” a process of confirming data supplied by the applicant and/or parents on aid applications. Through verification, Texas A&M University-Texarkana resolves discrepancies on students’ aid applications. Because students sometimes make errors on their application, there is a process for verifying applications and making corrections. The Central Processing System (CPS) selects which applications are to be verified, but TAMUT has the authority to verify additional students if needed. At TAMUT, federal verification is performed on all applicants selected by the CPS and any application that the university has reason to believe is incorrect or has conflicting documentation. In addition, verification must be completed for a selected student before a financial aid administrator exercises professional judgment to adjust any values that are used to calculate the EFC. Under certain circumstances a CPS selected application may be excluded from some or all of the federal verification requirements.
Aid funds cannot be assessed until the student submits all requested documents and the accuracy of student information can be confirmed. Per institutional policy, student financial aid packages will be processed in the order of the package completion date (date the last required document was received).
Student Notification
Students will be notified they have been selected for verification via email. They will be informed of any deadlines, documentation requirements, and consequences for failing to comply. Letters informing students of required documentation will be sent out 3 times before disbursement to students selected for verification. Students can also check the status of their documentation anytime in Web For Student. If there are any changes to the student’s award due to verification, a new award letter will be sent to the student.
Complete File
In order for the documentation to be considered complete, students must have all required documents completed and submitted. There must be no incomplete information on any required forms, and must contain signatures where applicable.
Timing
Students who have been automatically selected for verification will not be offered a financial aid award until the verification process has been completed. These students will have until 14 days prior to the end of the payment period or student’s last day of enrollment (whichever comes first) to turn in their documentation. This information is listed on the email communication and sent to students whenever there are missing documents needed to complete the verification process.
There are, however, situations where a student may be selected for verification after a financial aid award has been offered or disbursed. For example, conflicting information, the student may be manually selected after aid has been awarded. In this situation, manually selected students will have 14 days to turn in all required documentation. They will receive weekly email reminders of their duty to turn in documents. If they fail to turn in documents by the deadline given, any subsequent disbursements of aid will be canceled.
Failure to Comply
If a student fails to turn in complete documentation by the prescribed deadlines, they will not receive a financial aid award until their file is “completed”. If a student who has not yet been awarded submits verification documents after the published deadline, verification may still be completed if it is within 120 days from their last date of attendance and before the Department of Education’s deadline published in the Federal Register. Upon completing verification, the student may be awarded based on funds availability, eligibility at that time, and/or regulation on late disbursements. TAMUT considers the student to be the responsible party for providing information and completing the verification process.