February is Financial Aid Awareness Month, a campaign to make students aware of the need to apply for financial aid as soon as possible to meet state grant and school scholarship deadlines.
Financial Aid Awareness Month is a national and statewide campaign that most colleges take part in, including ETSU. Tennessee Gov. Don Sundquist declared February Financial Aid Awareness Month and this campaign has been in place for several years.
The Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) is used to apply for federal and Tennessee state grants, all of which have differing deadlines and limited budgets.
“A lot of the programs, the earlier a student applies, the better chance they have of getting help because funds are limited,” said Theresa Sears, a client services coordinator in ETSU’s Financial Aid department.
Financial Aid encourages students to apply for aid as soon as possible after Jan. 1 to meet priority deadlines.
Priority deadlines are dates that Financial Aid uses to get applications in well before the actual deadline.
The deadline for Tennessee state grants is in April, but because of processing times, Sears suggests students by the first of March.
For ETSU academic scholarships the priority deadline is April 15.
There is no actual deadline for federal aid, but by waiting until the last minute to apply, students are at risk of being purged from classes and losing their schedules.
“There are students at colleges all across the country who apply at the last minute, so the application process is swamped at that time, causing delays in the receipt of grants and funds,” Sears said.
The campaign has proven to be helpful, she said. “I think our students are doing better at applying early to meet the priority deadline.

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