Financial Aid Glossary

Financial aid is an area associated with many acronyms and special terms. See the following table for the most commonly used terms and meanings.

Term	Meaning
APTS	Aid for Part-Time Study, a program for undergraduate NYS residents enrolled for 3-11 credits per term
COA	Cost of Attendance. This is not the actual charges a student will incur, but instead it is a general default figure based on a student's degree program, dependency status, enrollment pattern and state of residence. Students are assigned a cost of attendance and aid cannot exceed this figure.
FAFSA	Free Application for Federal Student Aid
FA-DDX	Future Act - Direct Data Exchange. Students and contributors to the FAFSA are required to use this direct data exchange to have their tax information automatically transferred to institutions.
Federal Methodology	Federal Methodology is the formula created by Congress to determine the federal student aid index (SAI).
Financial Need	Cost of attendance (COA) - student aid index (SAI) - other financial aid (OFA) = Financial need
FPS	FAFSA Processing System- The system used by the U.S. Department of Education (ED) to process the FAFSA, match applicant information against several federal databases, calculate the SAI, and notify the student and the school of the processing results.
FSA ID	Federal Student Aid identification- a username and password. This is used to log into multiple U.S. Department of Education websites. Each contributor on the FAFSA (parent, other parent, or spouse) must create their own FSA ID.
FSEOG	Federal Supplemental Educational Opportunity Grant, a campus-based program.
FWS	Federal Work Study Program, a campus-based program.
GAS	Good academic standing, which consists of G.P.A., POP and S.A.P.
GPA	Grade point average
HESC	New York State Higher Education Services Corporation, which administers the NYS Tap program, other state scholarships and various loan programs.
Independent Student	An independent student is an individual who meets one of the federal independency criteria. Please see Federal Dependency Information for a complete list of the criteria.
ISIR	Institutional Student Information Record
LCF	Loan Counseling Form, a required form in order to receive a federal student loan award.
Mit Circ	Mitigating circumstance, a process in which a student may file an appeal for reconsideration after failing to meet academic standards.
MPN	Loan Agreement for Federal Student Loans (Master Promissory Note)
NYS	New York state
PGVT	Persian Gulf Veterans Tuition Award Program
PELL	The federal entitlement Pell Grant Program
POP	Pursuit of program, criterion for maintaining good academic standing for eligibility for New York state financial aid.
Priority Deadline	The priority deadline is the date that we must have received all data in order for the student to be reviewed and aid to be processed by the payment deadline of each term.
SAI	Student Aid Index. This figure is an index number calculated by the FAFSA Processing System when the student submits the FAFSA. The calculation is prescribed by Congress and financial need is determined based on this figure.
SAP	Satisfactory academic progress. Students must maintain SAP to receive financial aid.
SUB	Federal Subsidized Loan
SUNY	State University of New York
SUSTA	State University Supplemental Tuition Award
TAP	New York state Tuition Assistance Program, a grant program for undergraduate NYS residents.
TEACH	Teach Education Assistance for College and Higher Education Grant, available to non-M.B.A. graduate students at Empire State University.
Third Party Sponsorship	Third-party sponsorship is tuition assistance provided through an employer, union or other organization, to a member of that organization.
UNSUB	Federal Unsubsidized Loan
VA	Veterans Administration
VESID	Vocational and Educational Services for Individuals with Disabilities, formerly OVR.
VMRC	Veteran and Military Resource Center
VVTA	Vietnam Veterans Tuition Assistance Program

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