Ability to Benefit (ATB)
ATB is a federal financial aid program that allows students without a high school diploma, GED, or home school diploma to qualify for financial aid “if they can prove they have the ability to benefit from a college education”. Getting financial aid through ATB can help pay for tuition, fees, books and supplies, and other educational expenses for college-level classes. Read ATB Policies and Procedures.
Accrued Interest
Interest that accumulates on the unpaid principal balance of a loan.
Adjusted Gross Income (AGI)
Your Adjusted Gross Income is your total, taxable income minus any adjustments to income reported on your Federal Income Tax Return.
Amortization
This is the process of paying off debt (both principal and interest) by making regular payments.
This can also refer to the length of time it will take for your payments to pay off the debt. For example, “if you pay $300 a month, your loan will have an amortization of 10 years.”
Annual Student Loan Acknowledgment
This is a required process for students who want to take out a student loan at Bates Technical College. This is an acknowledgement of your responsibility to pay back your loan. Students will need to complete this on the www.studentaid.gov website for every academic year they request a loan.
Associate degree
An associate degree is an undergraduate degree awarded after completing a two-year, post-secondary program.
Award Notification
This is a document that details which awards you are eligible to receive for the academic year. A new award notification will be sent to you whenever there is a change to any of your awards. This will usually happen close to the start of the quarter when our office adjusts students’ awards to reflect their current enrollment status.
Bachelor’s Degree
A bachelor’s (baccalaureate) degree is an undergraduate degree awarded after completing a four-year, post-secondary program.
Budget
This is also referred to as a student’s Cost of Attendance (COA).
Please see our Cost of Attendance webpage for more information.
Capitalization
Capitalization is when unpaid interest is added to the principal balance of a loan.
Central Processing System (CPS)
This is the system that processes FAFSA information. This system calculates students’ eligibility for financial aid and Expected Family Contribution (EFC).
Consolidation
Consolidation is only available for federal loans, not private loans. You can consolidate federal student loans into one payment plan. Your monthly payment may decrease but your number of payments will increase, resulting in a higher amount of interest paid over the lifetime of the loan.
Cost of Attendance (COA)
See our Cost of Attendance webpage for more information.
Default
If the borrower of a loan does not make payment for an extended period of time, when payment is required, their loan can go into default. Students with a default federal student loan are ineligible to receive any federal financial aid.
With regular, on-time payments, a borrower can bring their loan out of default.
If you have a default loan, please contact your loan servicer to work out a payment plan. If you do not know who your loan servicer is, contact the National Students Loan Data System (NSLDS) for more details.
For more loan counseling resources, visit our Loans webpage.
Deferment
This is an authorized period of time where your lender agrees to postpone loan payments. Interest will not accrue on subsidized loans during deferment.
Dependent Student
Most students under the age of 24, or who will not turn 24 before December 31 of the award year, are considered to be dependent.
Dependent students must provide information for at least one parent when applying for financial aid. Visit the Federal Student Aid (FSA) office’s Dependency/Independent Student webpage for a list of factors that determine your dependency status.
If you answered “no” to all of the FSA’s dependency questions, you may still be able to apply for financial aid without providing a parent’s information. Contact the Financial Aid Office for more information.
Disbursement
A disbursement occurs when your financial aid awards are applied to any current, outstanding tuition and fees for the quarter. This occurs on the second day of the quarter. See the college calendar for specific dates.
For more information on refunds, see the definition for “Refund” on this webpage.
ED, DOE, USED, DE (U.S. Department of Education)
U.S. Department of Education is a government agency that administers several student financial aid programs. These programs include the Federal Pell Grant, Federal Work Study Program, and Federal Direct Loan.
SAI
Student Aid Index (SAI)
“The SAI is calculated according to a formula established by law. Your family’s taxed and untaxed income, assets, and benefits (such as unemployment or Social Security) all could be considered in the formula. 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 your school to calculate how much financial aid you are eligible to receive.”
Financial Need = Cost of Attendance – SAI
-Office of Federal Student Aid’s How Aid is Calculated webpage.
Electronic Funds Transfer
This is also known as “direct deposit.” This is a type of refund preference that you can select with BankMobile Disbursements. If you select this option, BankMobile Disbursements will deposit your refunds directly into your savings or checking account.
Eligible non-citizen
An “eligible non-citizen” is a student who is not a U.S. citizen but is eligible to receive Federal student aid.
Please visit the Federal Student Aid’s (FSA) Eligibility for Non-U.S. Citizens webpage for more information on different categories of eligible non-citizens.
Enrollment Status
A student’s enrollment status is determined by how many financial aid eligible units/credits they are enrolled in for the quarter.
See our FAQ’s for Financial Aid page for more details on how enrollment status is determined.
Entrance Counseling
See “Annual Student Loan Acknowledgment.”
Exit Counseling
Students who are leaving school, graduating, or dropping below half-time enrollment must complete student loan exit counseling.
Your exit counseling will help you understand your repayment options and responsibilities.
Complete your undergraduate student loan exit counseling on the FSA’s Loan Exit Counseling webpage.
FAA (Financial Aid Administrator)
These are staff members at an eligible institution who help award and disburse monetary resources.
FAFSA (Free Application for Federal Student Aid)
This is an application that is used to determine a student’s eligibility for several forms of federal aid. You can complete the FAFSA at www.studentaid.gov. If you need help completing your FAFSA, see our additional resources on STEP 3 of the Steps to Enrollment webpage.
Federal Methodology
The Federal Methodology is a formula used by the federal government to determine a student’s eligibility for financial aid.
FERPA
FERPA is the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act, which protects students’ personally identifiable information in education records.
Visit the Registration Office’s FERPA webpage for more information.
If you would like our staff members to discuss your information with anyone other than yourself, please complete a Student Release of Information form. You can find the form on the Bates Forms webpage.
Financial Aid
Financial aid includes funding processed by the Financial Aid office and other offices as well.
Visit Bates’ Types of Funding webpage for more information on the types of aid that are available to students.
Financial Aid Package
This is the combined amount of all financial aid that a student receives.
Students can view their awards on the ctcLink Student Homepage under the Financial Aid tile.
Forbearance
This is an authorized period of time where your lender agrees to postpone, reduce or extend loan payments. Interest will continue to accrue, resulting in an increased principal balance of the loan.
Garnishment of Wages
If the borrower of a federal student loan stops making payments, they can be subject to garnishment of their wages. This is where the federal government deducts a portion of the borrower’s paycheck in order to force payment of a loan that is in default.
Grant
Grants are financial aid funds that do not have to be paid back and are awarded based on a student’s financial need.
Independent Student
Independent students do not need to provide a parent’s information when applying for financial aid.
Students over the age of 24, or who will turn 24 before December 31 of the award year, are considered to be independent.
For a list of factors that determine the dependency status of students under the age of 24, visit the Federal Student Aid (FSA) office’s Dependency/Independent Student webpage.
Interest
A percentage of the principal balance of your loan. Interest will have to be paid off in addition to the principal.
Less than half-time
Students enrolled in less that 6 financial aid eligible units/credits have an enrollment status of less than half-time. Less than half-time students may be ineligible for certain types of financial aid.
Loan
Loans are a type of financial aid that will need to be paid back. The amount you borrow is the principal. Your interest rate is a percentage, your interest every payment period will be this percentage of your principal balance.
Pell Census
The Pell Census Date is the point into the quarter in which your enrollment (credit load) is locked in for financial aid purposes. During Fall, Winter, and Spring terms, the census date correlates with the last day you can drop courses for a full tuition refund at Bates Technical College. Please refer to the college calendar.
Pell Grant
Federal Pell Grants are awarded to qualified undergraduate students who are enrolled in an approved program (career pathway). Awards will be adjusted based on enrollment. The U.S. Congress has established a lifetime limit of 6 years or 18 quarters of Pell Grants.
Plus Loan
Direct PLUS Loans are loans that a parent takes out in order to pay for their dependent student’s educational expenses. A completed FASFA is required to get a PLUS loan. Parents must complete the Plus Loan Application, Master Promissory Note, and Annual Student Loan Acknowledgement prior to the first disbursement of the academic year.
Post-secondary
Education beyond the high school level.
Principal
The amount still owed on a loan, upon which interest will be charged.
Refund
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Repayment Schedule
This is a plan which details your principal and interest due each installment, the number of payments required to pay off the loan, your interest rate, and the due dates of your payments.
To establish, modify, or check your repayment schedule, contact your loan servicer. If you do not know who your loan servicer is, contact the National Students Loan Data System (NSLDS) for more details.
Satisfactory Academic Progress (SAP)
In order to be eligible for funding from the Financial Aid office, students must maintain a satisfactory SAP status. Eligibility standards are different for the Workforce Education Services (WES) office.
For more information on how your SAP status is determined, please visit the SAP Policy webpage.
Scholarship
Scholarships are a type of Financial Aid funding that usually does not have to be paid back. Scholarship recipients typically must excel in a particular field or be a member of a specific group, depending on the scholarship.
The Bates Foundation helps students find scholarships for which they are eligible. Visit the Apply for Scholarships webpage for more information.
Subsidized
The federal government will pay the interest of a subsidized loan while the student is attending school at least half-time or during grace and deferment periods.
Title IV (4) Earned
Title IV (4) funds are awarded to a student under the expectation that the student will attend classes for the whole term for which the assistance was awarded. When a student withdraws, the student may no longer be eligible for the full amount of the Title IV (4) funds that the student awarded and disbursed.
If a student received Title IV (4) grants or loan funds and withdraws from a course or school after beginning attendance, the school will perform a Return to Title IV (R2T4) calculation to determine the amount of Title IV (4) aid earned by the student. If the amount disbursed to the student is more than the amount the student earned, the funds that were unearned must be returned.
Title IV Student Aid
Title IV (4) aid programs are financial aid programs authorized by the Federal Government in the Higher Education Act. For more information, visit the Types of Funding webpage.
Unsubsidized
Students must make regular, on-time payments on unsubsidized loans even when the student is enrolled in school or during grace periods. If there is unpaid interest for your loan by the time your payment is due, any unpaid interest will be added to the principal of the loan and contribute to a larger amount of interest for your next payment.
Work-Study Program
The Bates Technical College Financial Aid Office offers on-campus work-study positions that help provide jobs for eligible students.
For more information, visit the Study Work-Study Program webpage.