1. Funding your College Education Financial Steps to begin your journey at Concordia University Nebraska….

2. Overview of what we’ll cover today… Filing the FAFSA (Free Application for Federal Student Aid) Accepting your Electronic Award Letter Outside Scholarships Understanding your Student Schedule/Bill Payment Options and CASHNet Review of Loan Options Understanding Banner Self-Service and your student email Important Dates! 2

3. Filing your FAFSA online at www.fafsa.gov is the most efficient method and you can add several schools to receive your results. www.fafsa.gov Your results, known as your Expected Family Contribution (EFC ), are what determine what federal aid you may qualify for: – Federal Grants (money you don’t pay back) – Federal Loans (borrowed money that is paid back-there are student and parent loans) – State Grants Filing the FAFSA also helps us determine if you might qualify for need- based money from Concordia in the form of a Concordia Grant. 3 FAFSA and what it does for you…

4. FAFSA Verification/IRS DRT… Verification is a process that requires institutions to collect additional information to ensure accuracy and check for errors before finalizing federal and need-based aid. If selected, you will receive verification paperwork by mail, addressed to the student, sent to the student’s home address. Read materials carefully and complete ASAP. At the minimum, you may receive notification that you are required to utilize the IRS Data Retrieval Tool (IRS DRT) within the FAFSA, or provide a Tax Return Transcript, requested at www.irs.gov. www.irs.gov Accounts with incomplete requirements by the due date are subject to an academic hold and a $300 late fee. We cannot disburse your financial aid if verification is incomplete or if you’ve received request to utilize the IRS DRT (or provide tax return transcripts) and have not completed. 4

5. If your FAFSA is in the process of verification, complete verification as soon as possible as need-based aid is subject to change if your FAFSA results change. To accept, go to http://connectcune.cune.edu and sign in (your user name and password are the same as your cune.org email).http://connectcune.cune.edu – Click on the ‘Academic Life’ or ‘New Student’ tab, then on Banner Self- Service. – Click on the following sub folders: Student > Financial Aid > Award > Award for Aid Year – then click on the drop box to select the 2016-17 school year. Proceed as instructed through all four tabs. 5 Accepting Your Electronic Award Letter Aid cannot be disbursed if you have not submitted your award letter!

6. If you’ve filed your FAFSA and you’ve chosen to accept your Federal Stafford Loans on your award letter, you will need to complete the following TWO items: – Federal Stafford Loan Entrance Counseling – Federal Stafford Loan Master Promissory Note BOTH items are completed at www.studentloans.gov. You will sign in with your student FSA ID and password and select ‘Complete MPN’ and ‘Complete Counseling’ and proceed as instructed. www.studentloans.gov Review ‘ Unsatisfied Disbursement Requirements ’ within your award letter on the ‘Accept Award Offer’ tab to determine if there are other missing requirements. 6 Additional Award Letter Requirements

7. If you are receiving outside scholarships, please provide documentation in order to account for them on your award letter. – Go to www.cune.edu/sfs and click on Donors: Outside Scholarship Awardswww.cune.edu/sfs Once you’ve provided documentation from the source, please allow up to a week before seeing it reflected on your award letter. We receive many outside scholarships for many students and it takes time to enter them. If you are eligible to receive a CCUNE scholarship, you must complete the application found at www.cune.edu/sfs. www.cune.edu/sfs 7 Outside Scholarships

8. When is the due date? – The due date is always the following Monday after school starts and reflected at the bottom of the bill. What do the asterisks mean? – These are aid items that have missing requirements, or we have not received the scholarship check yet. What if I don’t see one of my outside scholarships listed? – We may not have received documentation yet, or we may not have it entered yet. Please review your account in banner self-service regularly. Will I receive a revised bill if something changes? – You will only receive a revised bill if CHARGES change. For changes to your financial aid, review banner self-service. How much do I owe? – To calculate your balance due, start with the ‘Total Amount Due’ listed at the bottom and subtract off items WITH asterisks. Items without asterisks have already been subtracted from the charges. 8 Understanding your Student Bill

9. Payments made directly to your student account : – Payments by cash, check, and money orders are accepted in the Student Financial Services Office in JCC 204, in person, or by mail. Please allow time for mail to reach us by the due date! – Payments online: You can pay via electronic checking/savings or credit/debit card thru our payment gateway, CASH Net. Visit www.cune.edu/sfs for more information. www.cune.edu/sfs Semester Monthly Payment Plan : You can take advantage of a 5 month plan through CASH Net. Visit www.cune.edu/sfs for more information. www.cune.edu/sfs – The fall plan starts August 5 th and ends December 5th and you may sign up now. – The spring plan starts January 5 th and ends May 5 th. Student Employment: If you secure an on-campus job, employed by Concordia, you can designate a percentage or all of your paycheck to go towards your balance. 9 Payment Options

10. STUDENTS : To make a payment, log into the portal, click on the ‘Academic Life’ tab, then on ‘Banner Self-Service’. From there, the following folders: STUDENT > STUDENT ACCOUNT > ACCOUNT DETAIL FOR TERM Once you review your account balance, you will be able to click the ‘Pay Now’ button to be redirected to CASH Net to select your payment option. AUTHORIZED USERS: Once a parent or individual is set up as an authorized user, that individual will receive separate log-in information via email to sign in directly to CASH Net. CASH Net

11. After Federal Stafford (student) Loans, other loan options include : Federal Direct (Parent) PLUS Loan : This loan is available to parents of dependent, undergraduate students. The interest rate is fixed at 6.31%. To be eligible, the borrowing parent must have satisfactory credit. – To complete a pre-approval, the parent borrower should sign into www.studentloans.gov and click on ‘ Apply for a PLUS Loan ’. www.studentloans.gov – If approved, there are two requirements to complete in order to process a Federal Direct Plus Loan: A PLUS Loan Confirmation Statement ( www.cune.edu/plusloan ) must be completed and returned to the Student Financial Services Office. Please add 4.3% onto the needed amount in order to cover government origination fees. www.cune.edu/plusloan A Master Promissory Note (MPN) must be completed at www.studentloans.gov. www.studentloans.gov 11 Loan Options

12. Private Student Loan : This loan is credit-based and should only be considered after reviewing all other financial aid options. Please visit www.cune.edu/loantypes for more information on selecting a lender that best fits your needs. www.cune.edu/loantypes Combine now and save later : In order to reduce overall costs, we encourage you to consider combining a Monthly Payment Plan and a Direct PLUS Loan or private loan. Borrowing less and paying cash on a Monthly Payment Plan will reduce accrued interest over time. 12 Loan Options Continued…

13. Utilizing Concordia’s online services: Signing into the connectCUNE portal and using Banner Self-Service; signing into your cune.org email account

14. Signing into the connect CUNE portal 14 User Name : FirstName. LastName -Example: John. Smith Password : You created when you applied. http://connectcune.cune.edu

15. 15 Signing into the connect CUNE portal continued… I don’t know my password 1. Click ‘CUNE Accounts website’ 2.Click ‘I don’t have a password. What’s next?’ 3.If you have your secure access code, you may enter it, or click ‘I don’t have a secure access code, either’. 4. Enter your information and click ‘Lookup’ and follow the prompts. ( Note : there is no separate parent access-students would need to provide their login information for parents to sign in) 1.1. 2.2. 3.3. 4.4.

16. I’ve now signed into the connect CUNE portal, where can I find Banner Self-Service and why is it important? Banner Self-Service houses all of your student information and can be found inside of the connectCUNE portal. Why is Banner Self-Service important? You can do the following: View and accept your award letter View your student account Access CASHNet to make payments View your Holds View your Grades/Unofficial Transcripts Register for Classes Update personal information 16

17. Banner Self-Service continued… Once you click the folder ‘Banner Self-Service’, you can click on the various subfolders… A Banner Self-Service User Guide can be found at www.cune.edu/sfswww.cune.edu/sfs 17

18. Go directly to www.gmail.comwww.gmail.com When signing in to access your Concordia email account, your user name is firstname.lastname@cune.org. Eg: John.Smith@cune.orgfirstname.lastname@cune.orgJohn.Smith@cune.org Your password is the same for your email and logging into the connect CUNE portal page. For more information regarding Concordia’s online systems, please visit www.cune.org.www.cune.org 18 Accessing your Concordia Email Account C hecking your email on a regular basis is very important!

19. connectCUNE portal webpage : http://connectcune.cune.edu http://connectcune.cune.edu Award Letter Instructions: www.cune.edu/awardletterwww.cune.edu/awardletter FAFSA Verification Information: www.cune.edu/verificationwww.cune.edu/verification Student Financial Services webpage : www.cune.edu/sfs www.cune.edu/sfs Student technology information webpage: www.cune.orgwww.cune.org19 Additional Links and Resources

20. SALT Text To Register Concordia University - Nebraska 20 SALT : A nonprofit (FREE) organization that CUNE has partnered with that provides tools and information for you to manage your money and manage your student loans. To sign up online visit http://saltmoney.org/CUNE http://saltmoney.org/CUNE OR-Text to Register!

21. Contact 402-643-7270 or finaid@cune.edu for questions relating to: finaid@cune.edu – FAFSA – Verification – Scholarships and/or Loans Contact 402-643-7355 or studentaccounts@cune.edu for questions relating to: studentaccounts@cune.edu – Your student bill and account balance – CASH Net – Monthly Payment Plans 21 Contact Information… Student Financial Services is located in Janzow (JCC) 204

22. 22 Just a Reminder… Fall Semester Due Date: AUGUST 29 TH To avoid a late fee, please make sure to have ALL items done for financial aid and arrangements for your balance made no later than the due date. (If you will be signing up for a fall semester monthly payment plan, the plan begins August 5 th )

23. You can find this presentation, Funding your College Education, at www.cune.edu/sfswww.cune.edu/sfs