Some Tips for
New and Prospective Students
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Financial Aid Award Letters
No paper award notifications will be sent. Your aid eligibility will be posted on Tab 4 (Financial Aid Award Letter) in your file (My Aid Status link) at www.finaid.ucsb.edu and you will be sent an email when it is ready to be viewed. You do not need to take any action on grant or scholarship eligibility. It will automatically be disbursed to your BARC (Billing, Accounts Receivable, Collections) account with the UCSB Billing Office once you are registered in at least six units. For fall quarter, the disbursement process will begin in early August.
You will need to tell us how much of the loan eligibility you and your parents, if applicable, decide to borrow. In your file on our web site, you will find links to the “Student Loan Request Form” and the “Parent Loan Request Form”.
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The “Student Loan Request Form” is an on-line form on Tab 5, and you will be able to electronically submit your request.
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The “Parent Loan Request Form” is on Tab 6. This form displays only if your have PLUS Loan eligibility. This form cannot be submitted electronically. It must be printed, completed, signed by your parent, and submitted to the Financial Aid Office.
New Loan Borrowers
DIRECT LOANS (both subsidized and unsubsidized): If we identify you as a new borrower when we notify you of your aid eligibility, you will be directed to complete an electronic Master Promissory Note (MPN) for the Direct Loan Program and to complete the “Entrance Counseling” requirement. All financial aid applicants have Direct Loans as part of their aid eligibility, and we urge you to use the on-line process to complete the MPN and entrance counseling requirements now. This will allow your loan requests to be processed and approved much more quickly later this summer.
The Direct Loan electronic Master Promissory Note requires that you use your federal Dept of Education PIN. Here are the links to complete these requirements:
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If you still need a Dept of Education PIN Number, go to http://www.pin.ed.gov/PINWebApp/pinindex.jsp
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To complete an electronic Master Promissory Note (MPN), go to https://dlenote.ed.gov/empn/index.jsp
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To complete the Entrance Counseling requirement, go to: https://www.dlssonline.com/borrower/EntrCounselingStart.do
PERKINS LOAN: Due to limited funds, not all students receive Perkins Loans as part of their aid eligibility. If you do have a Perkins Loan, you will be directed to complete a Perkins Loan Master Promissory Note and to complete an on-line Perkins Loan Entrance Counseling requirement that are separate from Direct Loan MPN and borrowers’ requirements.
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A link in your file will display your Perkins master promissory note. You will need to print this master promissory note, complete questions 1-5, sign it where indicated, and mail (or hand-deliver) all 4 pages to our office.
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You will also be provided with the link to the on-line Perkins Loan Entrance Counseling site.
PLUS LOANS (Parent Loan for Undergraduate Students): A parent or step-parent that chooses to borrow through this program must complete a PLUS Master Promissory Note (MPN). This can be done on-line, and we encourage parents to do this now to ensure that the processing of a PLUS loan request proceeds as quickly as possible. A parent must also have his/her own Dept of Education PIN to electronically complete a PLUS MPN. Here are the links to complete these requirements:
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If you still need a Dept of Education PIN Number, go to http://www.pin.ed.gov/PINWebApp/pinindex.jsp
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To complete an electronic Master Promissory Note (MPN), go to https://dlenote.ed.gov/empn/index.jsp
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No entrance counseling is required for PLUS loans.
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Either natural parent may be the borrower and complete the MPN. Step-parents may also be the borrower. More than one eligible borrower can request funds within an academic year. But only one parent or step-parent can be listed on each promissory note.
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At the time PLUS eligibility is requested, we very strongly encourage parents to authorize us to credit their PLUS loan disbursements to the students’ BARC accounts.
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If a parent instead chooses to have the PLUS loan disbursements sent directly to him/her, each quarter’s disbursement is not made until after the first day of classes each quarter.
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More importantly, disbursements are not made until registration charges are paid or deferred. Thus, PLUS Loan funds disbursed under this option will not be available to pay university charges by the applicable deadline dates or to pay non-university expenses until after classes begin each quarter.
Aid Disbursements
With the exception of PLUS loans that parents request be sent directly to them, all aid is credited to students’ BARC (Billing, Accounts Receivable, Collections) accounts with the UCSB Billing Office.
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In early-August, we will start a weekly schedule of crediting fall quarter aid to students’ BARC accounts.
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For new students, not every student’s aid is ready to be disbursed in the initial disbursement process, and in some cases, only a portion of some students’ total awards will be ready to disburse.
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Undergraduate students must be enrolled in a minimum of 6 units and graduate students must be enrolled in a minimum of 4 units in order for aid to be disbursed and credited to BARC accounts. ACG and SMART grants require eligible students to be enrolled in a minimum of 12 units.
Students can monitor our progress in crediting aid to their BARC accounts. Just click on the “My Aid Status” link above and go to Tab 7 (Disbursement Information). Additionally, students can access their BARC accounts at https://mybarc.ucsb.edu and view their account activity. For your convenience, links to both the Financial Aid Office’s and the Billing Office’s web sites are also available on GOLD (Gaucho On-Line Data).
Special Rules for Pell Grant, ACG, SMART Grant, and Cal Grant B Recipients
Census date falls on the 15th class date each quarter. It is the date on which the university takes a snapshot of students’ registration status (e.g., unit level, fee payment, etc.). Besides being the university’s official registration information for the quarter, it is also the data on which eligibility for several of the federal and state financial aid programs are determined.
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Pell Grant: This grant’s unit requirement is based on whether an eligible student is enrolled full-time (12 or more units), 3/4-time (9-11.5 units), 1/2-time (6-8.5 units), or less than 1/2-time (below 6 units) at census date. Students who are enrolled less than full-time on census date will have their Pell Grants for that quarter reduced to an amount that reflects their enrollment level.
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Academic Competitive Grant (ACG) and SMART Grant: Both of these programs require that students be enrolled full-time (12 or more units) at census date. Students who are enrolled less than full-time at census date will have that quarter’s award reduced to $0.
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Cal Grant B Access Grant (also called Cal Grant B Stipend): This grant’s unit requirement is based on whether an eligible student is enrolled full-time (12 or more units), 3/4-time (9-11.5 units), or 1/2-time (6-8.5 units) at census date. Students enrolled less than 1/2-time (below 6 units) are not eligible for that quarter’s award.
NOTE:
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“Variable Unit” course units will be counted as the number of units shown on the student’s registration record. The units that a student may earn by the end of the quarter are not what are used in the unit count.
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If your grant is reduced or cancelled based on census date units, it cannot be increased or reinstated if you add more units at a later date.
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The reductions may include billing the student’s BARC account for the amount of the reduction.
Refunds Paid Via Gaucho Direct Deposit
All students have BARC accounts maintained by the UCSB Billing Office. University charges (e.g., fees, housing, library fines, etc.) are posted to students’ BARC accounts. Financial aid is credited to students’ BARC accounts and is first applied to student charges. Excess credit is refunded to the student.
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All refunds resulting from financial aid funds disbursed through BARC will be made via the electronic deposit of funds directly to the students’ personal checking accounts using Gaucho Direct Deposit. Gaucho Direct Deposit allows students to have faster access to money. You can complete the Gaucho Direct Deposit Authorization Form on-line and mail it to the Billing Office or sign-up when you are on campus during the Summer Orientation process. For more information regarding refunds and Gaucho Direct Deposit, please visit the Billing Office website at http://www.barc.ucsb.edu/refunds.htm
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Fall quarter refunds resulting from excess credit on students’ BARC accounts will begin on September 15, 2008, and they will continue on a bi-weekly basis thereafter. We recommended that you sign up for Gaucho Direct Deposit no later than September 1, 2008
Fall Fee Payment Deadline
September 15, 2008 is the deadline for undergraduate students to pay their registration fees.
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If your aid is not sufficient to pay your BARC charges or your aid is not ready to disburse by the deadline, you can enter into a deferred billing agreement with the UCSB Billing Office by completing a “Payment Agreement Form”. This form is available on the Billing Office’s website at http://www.barc.ucsb.edu where a link to the Billing Office’s “Payment Plan Agreement Form” is available.
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Completing this deferred billing process by the September 15 fee payment deadline prevents undergraduate students from receiving a $50 “late payment fee” from the Office of the Registrar.
Scholarship Checks from Outside Agencies
We encourage you to contact the agency that will be sending your scholarship check to UCSB to ensure that they send your scholarship proceeds to the Financial Aid Office and that the checks are mailed at least 4 weeks prior to the fee payment deadline. Please do not expect any agency scholarship funds to be credited to your BARC account on the same day the agency check arrives on campus. It takes a minimum of 7-10 days for the process to be completed.
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After being logged-in by the Financial Aid Office, all scholarship checks are processed through and released by the UCSB Billing Office.
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Checks made payable only to the “student” or to the “student and UCSB” cannot be applied to students’ BARC accounts without the students’ endorsements. Under these circumstances, students must visit the Billing Office to claim their checks and apply them to their university account, if applicable.
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Checks made payable only to “UCSB” or to the “student or UCSB” are deposited into a university account. Subsequently, the scholarship proceeds are electronically credited to the students’ BARC accounts by the Financial Aid Office.
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The Financial Aid Office must coordinate these agency scholarship funds with students’ financial aid eligibility. If aid must be reduced, need-based self-help (loans or work-study) is reduced first. Most scholarship checks are received by the Financial Aid Office, and they undergo this treatment before the checks are released to the Billing Office or before the funds are applied to students’ BARC accounts, as applicable.
You are encouraged to use the Billing Office’s “Payment Agreement Form” to defer the payment of your fees if your agency scholarship check(s) is not available by the deadline to pay fees.
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