Welcome

ANNOUNCEMENTS

• Official 2023/2024 Financial Aid Awards:

  On July 13, 2023, the first email notifications were sent to all financial aid recipients informing them that official awards are available for viewing in PAWS (Primary Academic Web Services).

  All notifications are sent to the student’s TCNJ email address. Only complete records receive a notification. Students should monitor their PAWS “To Do” list for any outstanding items.

  The notification process occurs weekly, and is continuous throughout the year as new FAFSAs are received and/or aid records become complete.

  Sample Award Notification Email

  Any updates to a student’s aid record will result in an email notification as well. Traditionally, these “revised award updates” are processed on Thursdays. Updates to an aid record may be due to a new loan application, a new scholarship/award or a revision to an award based on information received by the office.

• All Students:

  It is not too late to file the 2023-2024 FAFSA at www.studentaid.gov. Remember you will need a completed FAFSA on file at TCNJ even if you are only borrowing student loans.

• TCNJ Authorized Users (Auxiliary Access):

  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/

• Incomplete Files/Missing Documents:

  We highly recommend students monitor their “To Do” list in PAWS on a weekly basis for any missing documentation. When submitting documents to the office please make sure that they are legible, accurate, signed (if required) and that all requested pages are submitted. Incomplete documentation will result in delays processing your aid. Any/all requested documents will have instructions for submission.

• Cost of Attendance Budgets:

  Our current Cost of Attendance budgets can be viewed here: https://financialaid.tcnj.edu/about/cost-of-attendance/. Please note that the final Cost of Attendance budgets for the 2023/2024 academic year will not be available until prior to the billing date in July. The College’s budget is contingent on the NJ State budget, which is signed after July 1.

• General Information:

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

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

  For account/log-in questions please contact the TCNJ Helpdesk:
  https://tcnj.teamdynamix.com/TDClient/1798/Portal/Home/

  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/lender 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.

• Semester Disbursement and Refunds:

  Fall 2023 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 Fall semester schedules are finalized before we can disburse aid. We anticipate this process will take place on or around September 13, 2023.

  After the aid has disbursed to the student’s account, and the 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/

• The Garden State Guarantee program:

  For more information please visit: https://financialaid.tcnj.edu/garden-state-guarantee/

• Office Operations

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

  We have staff coverage in the office at all times. The Office is open Monday through Friday 8:30AM – 4:00PM during the academic year. The office is closed on Fridays during the summer.

  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