News at OSFA

Federal Tax Benefits

NASFAA's Parent and Student Guide to Federal Tax Benefits for Tuition and Fees provides students, parents, counselors, and others with general guidance to federal education-related tax benefits. Read more...

File your taxes on line

You may be able to electronically file your taxes for free. Read more...

Current rules for the HOPE and Zell Miller Scholarships

It is particuarly important that you are aware of the regulatory criteria you must meet in order to keep your HOPE or Zell Miller Scholarship. See "Georgia's HOPE Program" provided by the Georgia Student Finance Commission (GSFC) for information regarding the HOPE Scholarship or the Zell Miller Scholarship while seeking a degree at UGA.

Be sure to regularly check your UGA e-mail account

You need to regularly check your UGA e-mail account for messages concerning your inbox reaching its maximum quota. If your mailbox fills up, subsequent messages will not reach you. OSFA uses your UGA e-mail account to notify you of important aid information and changes to financial aid awards. Click here for more information about e-mails.

Financial Aid Fraud Alert

Someone claiming to be a representative of the U.S. Department of Education (ED) is calling students, offering them grants, and asking for their bank account numbers so a processing fee can be charged. Click here for more about this fraud alert.

Check Your Graduation Date on OASIS

Upperclass students should check their graduation date on OASIS to confirm it is accurate as aid cannot be awarded beyond a student's graduation date. If you do correct your graduation date you should then contact OSFA to request aid for any additional semesters in the award year. Click here for more information about OASIS.

On-line Access to Your Financial Aid Award Application Status and Award

Save the trees! Student Financial Aid Awards are not printed and mailed but are available on-line via our system called Application Status (FASTrack).

Watch Out for Financial Aid and Scholarship Scams and for Deceptive Student Loan Offers!

It is important for students and parents to understand it is never necessary to pay anyone to process or complete a financial aid application. Students often receive offers from scholarship search companies or letters from other official appearing sources asking for a $48, $95 or more payment to either help with the financial aid process or with "guaranteed results" for free money sources, etc. Do NOT Pay anyone to complete any financial aid or scholarship process for you. Check out the Federal Trade Commission's Web information site for details on these scams.

When completing the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA), be sure you use the official U. S. Department of Education FAFSA on the Web site and not one of the many very similar named commercial Web sites which charge for "assisting" you with the FAFSA completion. Please refer to our Financial Aid Application Process for additional information on how to apply for aid.

Check out the Federal Trade Commissions Web information for details on Deceptive Student Loan Offers.

Loan Consolidation

If you have federal student loans from previous years, either at the University or from other schools, you may wish to consider consolidating your loans into one loan. Please click here for more information.

UGA E-mail Policy for Students

In accordance with University of Georgia policy, every student is required to have an e-mail address to which official University communications can be sent. In the best interest of effective communications management it has been determined that this address must reside on the University-maintained UGA e-mail system. Students are informed and reminded of this requirement through OASIS.

Whenever a student creates a MyID, a UGA e-mail account is automatically created. Some students may elect to forward their e-mail to an address different from their official UGA account. Any student who elects to forward UGA e-mail to a different e-mail address assumes full responsibility for reading e-mail at the forwarded location.

Students who have not created a MyID will not be allowed to register for classes until their MyID and associated UGA e-mail account have been created.

OSFA routinely uses e-mail to provide students their financial aid information. You can access the UGA E-Mail Policy by clicking here.

Access to Information for Visually-Impaired and Hearing-Impaired Students

The U.S. Department of Education wants you to know about the efforts they are making to ensure that visually-impaired and hearing-impaired individuals have full access to information about federal student loan, grant, and work-study programs.

For visually-impaired students:

• The Student Aid Audio Guide is available on CD. It contains 45 minutes of information on federal student aid programs, application procedures, eligibility criteria, loan repayment options, deferment and cancellation provisions, and non-federal resources as well. To order your free copy call 1-800-433-3243.
• The toll-free Federal Student Aid Information Center at 1-800-433-3243 is open from 8:00am until midnight (Eastern Time) seven days a week. The Center's information specialists will answer any question a caller may have about federal student aid in general, or about his or her specific application.
• The Department of Education Web sites are designed for text-only access, which makes them accessible for individuals with screen readers. Please visit http://studentaid.ed.gov and http://students.gov, an interagency Web site developed under the leadership of the Department of Education.
• Students and parents can also request Braille copies of student aid information publications by calling the Federal Student Aid Information Center at 1-800-433-3243.

For hearing-impaired students:

• All of Student Financial Aid's major call centers have TTYs. TTY access is available during the 'operator service' hours of operation. Hearing-impaired students may contact the Federal Student Aid Information Center at 1-800-730-8913 or e-mail them at sfamail@ncs.ed.gov.
• Students may also contact the Department by mail at:

  Student Financial Assistance
  U.S. Department of Education
  P.O. Box 84
  Washington, D.C. 20044-0084

All students who have access to the Internet should electronically apply for student aid.  Please click here to review the Financial Aid Application Process.

Peer Financial Counseling Program Benefits Students

UGA students (supported by the Office of Student Financial Aid, Housing and Consumer Economics and the Georgia Student Finance Commission) developed a Peer Financial Counseling Program. Peer counselors who are student volunteers offer sessions to campus groups, clubs, and organizations on budgeting, credit cards and credit reports, student loan debt, and investing for the first time.

New Brochure Helps Prospective Graduate Students

Information for graduate students who are applying for financial aid click here