Determining Your Need

The major factors in determining your need and eligibility for financial aid at KSC include:

FAFSA filing date

Keene State has a FAFSA filing deadline for currently enrolled students of March 1 for the upcoming academic year. FAFSAs received after March 1 are not typically given priority consideration for Institutional funding. Incoming, first-time students do not need to meet this priority deadline to be considered for institutional funding.

Cost of Attendance

• The Cost of Attendance at KSC is reflected on your Award Letter. It represents the direct and indirect cost to attend for a full academic year and includes billable charges like tuition, fees and on-campus housing, but also includes the unbilled expense that a typical student incurs while attending KSC like books, supplies, personal expenses and off-campus living costs.
• The Cost of Attendance represents the maximum amount of financial aid (including private scholarships and all loans) a student is eligible to receive during an academic year. For example, you could not borrow $50,000 in student loans if your cost of attendance at KSC is only $20,000. You would be capped at $20,000.

Student Aid Index (SAI)

• Your SAI is an index number that we use to determine how much financial aid you are eligible to receive here at KSC. The information you report on your FAFSA is used to calculate your SAI.
• The SAI is calculated according to a formula established by federal law. Your family’s taxed and untaxed income, assets, and benefits (such as unemployment) all could be considered in the formula. Also considered is your family size.
• Your SAI is not the amount of money your family will have to pay for college, nor is it the amount of federal student aid you will receive. It is a number used by KSC to calculate how much need-based financial aid you are eligible to receive.
• If your FAFSA is selected for the verification process, your “verified” SAI may be different from the SAI you saw on your FAFSA confirmation page or FAFSA Submission Summary. This is typically due to corrections or adjustments that are made to your application based on the supplemental verification information you provide to our office.