Financial Aid

To keep your financial aid accurate and compliant with federal rules, all students must report any outside scholarships or tuition assistance they receive.

Why Reporting Matters

• Federal rules require colleges to include all outside funding—such as private scholarships, grants, employer tuition benefits, stipends, or other educational assistance—when calculating your aid.
• If total aid exceeds your calculated financial need, the college must adjust your aid package to prevent a federal over award. 

What You Should Report

• Private scholarships from community groups, nonprofits, clubs, or foundations
• Scholarships from an employer or your parent’s employer 
  Employer tuition assistance or reimbursement programs
• Any outside grants, stipends, prizes, or third‑party educational benefits

If You’re Not Sure…

• When in doubt, report it.
• If a resource does not need to be included in your financial aid, our office will let you know after reviewing your form.

Why This Helps You

• Prevents unexpected changes to your financial aid later
• Ensures full compliance with federal regulations
• Helps us keep your aid package accurate, transparent, and up‑to‑date

Report Outside Aid

The first step is to complete your Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) at studentaid.gov by the deadline.  

For the 2026-2027 award year:

• The FAFSA for the 2026-2027 award year is open until 6/30/2027.  SCC suggests completing this FAFSA by 4/1/26 to give you priority for some scholarships and grants. Some state grants require your FAFSA to be complete by 7/1/26.
• FAFSA uses tax information from 2024.  For more information visit our apply page. 

The FAFSA for 2027-2028 is expected to open 10/1/2026.

Make sure to add SCC to your FAFSA!  SCC’s school code is 004603.  

Find more information about applying for financial aid.

When you complete your FAFSA, the Department of Education calculates your Student Aid Index (SAI) based on the information that you and the required FAFSA contributors enter.  Your SAI helps your school determine your eligibility for need-based aid.  For more information on SAI, please visit https://studentaid.gov/help-center/answers/article/what-is-sai

After your FAFSA is processed and sent to SCC, we will process it and see if any other information is required from you.  You may receive a request for additional documentation, such as identification verification, transcripts, or tax information.  It is very important that you respond to any request for information, as we cannot process your aid package without it.  It is important to check your Hawknet Self-Service and SCC email for notifications.

After we have received all the information we need, we will generate your financial aid offer.  You will receive a notification to go into your Hawknet Self-Service and take action on your offer.

There are a number of reasons that this can happen. Some of the reasons are listed below.

• A financial aid package is created on the assumption that the student will be attending full-time, which is defined as taking at least 12 credit hours per semester and 24 credit hours per academic year.  If you take fewer than 12 credit hours per semester, we are required to reduce the amount of grant and loan money that you receive.
• If you don’t begin attendance in a class, we cannot disburse financial aid for that class.  If you stop attending a class before it ends, we may be required to return some of the funds that you already received, and you may owe SCC money.
• If some or all of the classes you are taking are not in your degree program, some kinds of aid will not pay for them.
• SCC utilizes a “Pell lock date” for Pell Grant awarding, which is generally the 11th day of the term.  If classes are added after that date, they may not be eligible for Pell Grant.

More information about different kinds of aid can be found here. 

We strongly encourage everyone to apply for scholarships. There are lots of opportunities to get help paying for college.  Please visit our scholarship page.

Borrowing student loans should be a last resort.  Before receiving a student loan, you will have to go to studentaid.gov and complete Entrance Counseling and sign a Master Promissory Note to accept the terms of the loan.  Please pay close attention to the information in both of these steps and make sure you understand them.  If you have questions, please contact the Financial Aid office.

You will have to go into your Hawknet Self-Service and select to accept any offered loans.

More information is available on our loans page.

Check out our full Financial Aid FAQ page, or reach out to our Financial Aid staff.