Understanding Your Offer

Outside Scholarship Form Policy When you apply for scholarships through an outside agency, they often require you to provide information about your costs, aid offer, and FAFSA. You can print this information directly from LionPATH. Student Self-Service You can find the links to view your Financial Aid Budget and Financial Aid Offer Letter in your LionPATH Student Home Base under the Financial Aid Offer. You will need to print the information and submit it to the scholarship agency. Certification of Forms by our office In the event that the scholarship agency is unwilling to accept the information that you have printed from LionPATH, requests to complete scholarship forms can be reviewed on a case by case basis with the understanding that the form can only be provided to the student for submission to the respective agency. Similar consideration may be given to students who need to submit their scholarship forms before the information is available in LionPATH.

Federal student loans, such as the Federal Direct Loan and the Parent PLUS Loan, generally have more favorable terms and conditions than private loans. We recommend using all federal loan eligibility before turning to private loans.

The Direct Parent PLUS loan is a federal loan available to the parents of dependent undergraduate students. The Direct Parent PLUS Loan offers flexible loan limits and a fixed 9.08% interest rate for the 2024-25 school year. Eligibility is determined by the applicants credit history.

Private education loans are managed through private lenders, issued in the student’s name, and require a co-signer. Eligibility, rates, terms, and conditions vary.

View your loan history through the National Student Loan Data System, the U.S. Department of Education's central database for student aid information. National Student Loan Data System (NSLDS) is the U.S. Department of Education's central database for student aid and provides aid information, including Title IV loans and Pell Grants.

NSLDS tracks this information from the financial aid approval stage through the closure stage. Data is transmitted to NSLDS from schools, agencies that guaranty loans, the Direct Loan program, the Pell Grant program, and other U.S. Department of Education programs.

You can view your NSLDS information by logging into studentaid.gov. Your profile will provide personalized information like your federal student loan balance, disbursement dates and contact information. You can also view information on your federal loan servicer(s). Log into studentaid.gov.

Employment policies: Supervisors must verify student eligibility prior to hire. All FWS positions require a documented job description. Students must know whom their immediate supervisor is and who to contact if the supervisor is not available. If the Office of Student Aid is reviewing a student's FAFSA information for accuracy, the student must stop working until the verification process is complete. Students are responsible for communicating this information with their supervisor and complying with any verification “to-do” items within their LionPATH account. A student's aid may not exceed their demonstrated federal financial need as determined by the FAFSA and as indicated on the Student Aid Summary in LionPATH. FWS will be reduced if the student's financial aid exceeds their demonstrated federal financial need. Students are encouraged to communicate with their supervisors regarding any changes to FWS. Conditions and limits of all FWS positions: FWS positions must not displace employees or impair existing service contracts. FWS positions must not involve constructing, operating, or maintaining any part of a building used for religious worship or sectarian instruction. FWS students cannot operate a vehicle as a condition of the job. Students are not permitted to work in FWS positions during scheduled class times, with few exceptions. Any exceptions must be approved and documented. Please contact the Office of Student Aid for details. Site Supervisors should establish a procedure for recording and verifying hours worked for all FWS students. Submitting falsified time sheets is considered fraud against the University and the federal government; legal action may be taken against the student. Federal regulation 34 CFR 668.16(g) requires the University to report to the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Inspector General if a school has credible information that a student may have committed fraud or other criminal misconduct in connection with his or her application or eligibility for federal student aid. Therefore, instances of student misconduct involving falsification of timesheets must be reported to the Penn State Office of Student Aid to ensure the University’s compliance with this federal reporting requirement.

You are responsible for monitoring your balance and communicating with your manager. Should you lose your funding or eligibility it is your responsibility to communicate with your supervisor/manager. Should your funds be exhausted, you will need to cease working as a federal work-study student. Additional opportunities for continued employment in your position would be at the discretion of the manager/supervisor as any future earnings would be their department’s responsibility.