Welcome

ANNOUNCEMENTS

• Incoming Spring 2023 Semester Students:

  Financial aid awards for the Spring 2023 semester for new incoming Freshman and Transfers will begin to be awarded on January 5, 2023. Please make sure your 2022/2023 FAFSA has been completed and the TCNJ school code (00264200) is listed on the FAFSA.

• Incoming Fall 2023/Spring 2024 Admits:

  Estimated financial aid award notification emails for the 2023/2024 academic year will be sent out during the latter part of March 2023.

  Please note that Early Decision admits will need to make their acceptance decisions with no knowledge of their potential eligibility for need-based financial aid due to the timing and processing of estimated awards.

• Current Students – Spring 2023 Semester Disbursement and Refunds:

  Spring semester financial aid, which includes student loans, cannot be disbursed to a student’s account until the College can confirm enrollment for the semester. This is a Federal/State financial aid requirement. The reason behind this requirement is that certain aid eligibility is based on the number of courses/units a student is registered for during the semester. Therefore, we must wait until after the Add/Drop period for course adjustments has ended and Spring semester schedules are finalized before we can disburse aid. We anticipate this process will take place on or around February 8, 2023.

  After the aid has disbursed to the student’s account, and the Spring term bill has been paid, the Office of Student Accounts will process any credits on the account as a refund. Traditionally, it takes 14 days for the College to process a refund. For questions on the refund process or about direct deposit information, please visit the Student Accounts website: https://studentaccounts.tcnj.edu/

• TCNJ Participating in the new Garden State Guarantee program:

  The Garden State Guarantee program will be effective as of the Fall 2022 semester. For more information please visit: https://financialaid.tcnj.edu/garden-state-guarantee/

• New and current TCNJ students:

  The 2023-2024 FAFSA is now available.

  This is the FAFSA that you will need to be considered for aid during the academic year that begins August of 2023. You can complete the FAFSA at www.studentaid.gov. Please note, you will need a completed FAFSA on file with our office even if you are only borrowing student loans.

  We highly recommend you file the FAFSA by February 15, 2023 to meet NJ State deadlines.

  Our office can only speak to students about financial aid matters unless the student grants the parent/guardian Authorized User status. To learn more click here: https://authorizeduser.tcnj.edu/

  We highly recommend students monitor their “To Do” list in PAWS on a weekly basis for any missing documentation. For PAWS tutorials please click on the following link: https://pawshelp.tcnj.edu/undergraduate-students/current-students/

  When submitting documents to the office please make sure that they are legible, accurate, signed (if required) and that all pages have indeed been submitted. Incomplete documentation will result in delays in processing your aid.

  You can review the billing calendar for important dates here: https://studentaccounts.tcnj.edu/billing/billing-calendar/

  Our current 2022-2023 Cost of Attendance budgets can be viewed here: https://financialaid.tcnj.edu/about/cost-of-attendance/.

  For financial aid tutorials to frequently asked question please visit: https://financialaid.tcnj.edu/financial-aid-tutorials/

  For parents looking to borrow loans for the next academic year, there are various options available in the links located at the bottom of this webpage. You can review the information listed for the Federal Direct Parent PLUS Loan, the State’s NJCLASS Loan and private loans listed under the Alternative Student Loans or ELM Select links. Each one of the links will send you to the corresponding website with more information on how to apply. Due to federal regulations, we cannot recommend one loan over another. In addition, we suggest that when you apply, you apply for the entire academic year. When applying for the year, lenders send the first half of the loan in September to cover the Fall bill and the second half in February to cover the Spring bill. We recommend researching how student loans work by visiting our Financial Aid Tutorials page.

• Office Operations

  The Office of Student Financial Assistance continues its hybrid office operations for the academic year.

  We have alternating staff coverage in the office at all times. The Office is open Monday through Friday 8:30AM – 4:00PM. For information about campus COVID guidelines, please visit: https://covid19.tcnj.edu/.

  If you have any questions, please email us at osfa@tcnj.edu or call 609-771-2211.

  If you need to submit documents to our office, you may do so via one of the following methods:

  Email: Scan and send to osfa@tcnj.edu

  Fax: (609) 637-5154

  Regular mail at:

  The College of New Jersey/Office of Student Financial Assistance
  Green Hall, Room 101
  P. O. Box 7718
  Ewing, NJ 08628

  The Office is open for walk-in questions Monday through Friday from 8:30AM – 4:00PM. Students may also request an appointment by phone or virtual format as well, please email us at osfa@tcnj.edu with your request for an appointment.

  Thank you.

• Private Scholarship Awards

  Federal regulations require students to report yearly award amounts and descriptions of any grants and scholarships received from sources outside The College of New Jersey. Please click on the link below for more information:
  https://financialaid.tcnj.edu/about/scholarships/private-scholarship-awards/

• State Updates

  The State of New Jersey has updated their application deadlines, please refer to the following link for further information: https://www.hesaa.org/Pages/StateApplicationDeadlines.aspx

• Federal Student Aid FAFSA Completion Information:

  https://studentaid.gov/apply-for-aid/fafsa/filling-out

• Financial Aid Process Updates

  Income tax data can easily be transferred from the IRS to your FAFSA using the IRS Data Retrieval Tool: https://studentaid.gov/help/how-use-irs-drt IRS Tax Return Transcripts or a signed home copy of your tax forms will be required if you are selected for verification and you did not use the IRS Data Retrieval Tool

• NJ HESAA Electronic Document Collection for 2022-2023:

  https://www.hesaa.org/Pages/GrantsUploadDocuments.aspx