What’s the problem?

The California State University system's practice of automatically considering non-resident applicants as resident applicants for financial aid allocation has been causing significant issues for students.

This approach results in the release of inaccurate financial aid offers on July 1st, leading to a situation where students have their aid revoked and tuition raised after they have already moved to the school and commenced classes.

The consequences of this flawed system are profound, often plunging students into severe financial distress.

They do that?

Yes. It seems that financial aid offices award grants BEFORE they are aware of an official determination of residency status…

…even though an actual determination of residency is listed on each student’s Notice of Admission.

Notice of Admission

As evidenced by the included email images, the University claimed to assign the (incorrect) grant aid “before” the student was deemed a non-resident, on April 21. Yet, the University claims the student was deemed a non-resident two days prior, on April 19.

What Gives?

Though Residency may be determined and listed on the Notice of Admission (NOA) prior to July 1 when financial aid awards are released for acceptance….

Admissions does not share the NOA with the Financial Aid Office.

But, Why?

There has been no word from any university or Chancellor’s office representative regarding this question, though several have been contacted.

Contact your local university administrators or representatives from the Chancellor’s office to ask about this issue and encourage policy change.

Financial Aid Offices should be empowered to get residency status correct before releasing aid awards on July 1 to the fullest extent possible.

This may mean utilizing residency status on the Notice of Admission to assign financial aid awards initially, or it could require an alternative solution.