Student Requirements

Satisfying financial aid requirements

If you have student requirement(s) listed on the Check Financial Aid Status page on your Charger Portal account, please reference the information below on how to satisfy the specific requirement(s) listed on your Charger Portal account:

Please note that you should only reference the below information if one or more of these requirement(s) are listed on your Charger Portal account on the Check Financial Aid Status page under Student Requirements.

CITIZENSHIP

Below is a list of acceptable documentation to prove citizenship:

An original and certified U.S. Birth Certificate showing the student was born in the U.S. or a U.S. territory bearing an official seal (clear and complete copies of original and certified US birth certificates).
A U.S. Certificate of Naturalization (USCIS form N-550 or N-570).
A U.S. Certificate of Citizenship (USCIS form N-560 or N-561).
A U.S Certificate of Birth Abroad issued by the Department of State (DS-1350) or a Consular Report of Birth Abroad (FS-240)/
A current U.S. Passport
Permanent Resident Card (USCIS form I-151 or I-551)

CANNOT CONFIRM STATUS

Military status cannot be confirmed. Please submit a copy of your DD-214 to the Office of Financial Aid. You can bring it to your nearest campus or you can mail it to our Floyd Campus to the Attention of the Office of Financial Aid.

Campus Locations

(reference campus locations at the bottom of this page)

FAFSA REJECTED

If your FAFSA is rejected, it is usually because you left information off of it such as:

Parent or student signature
Parent or student personal or tax information

You should do one of the following:

-Check SAR (Student Aid Report) at studentaid.gov to see why your FAFSA is rejected and make the necessary corrections.

-Email finaid@highlands.edu for assistance in finding out why it is rejected.

PELL LIMIT

A Pell limit requirement means you may have reached (or are getting close to) your Pell LEU (Lifetime Eligibility Usage) of 600%.

Within one to two weeks of registering for classes, the Processor for the GHC Office of Scholarships and Financial Aid will review your account to determine how much (if any) Pell Grant funding you have left and it will be applied to your account. Then the Pell requirement will be satisfied by the Processor.

Click here to learn more about the Pell LEU.

SELECTIVE SERVICE

According to federal guidelines, the Selective Service requirement is no longer required in regards to receiving federal financial aid.

Exception: Per Georgia Student Finance Commission guidelines, the Selective Service requirement cannot be waived for students who want to receive funding from State Scholarships and Programs such as the HOPE or Zell Miller Scholarship.

Click here to find out more information about Selective Service or to register for Selective Service.

LOAN DEFAULT (Verify Default Status)

This requirement means that one or more of your loans are in a default status. You will need to contact your Lender to get a currently-dated letter stating that you’re no longer in default status on your federal loan(s). Then you will need to submit that letter to the GHC Office of Financial Aid. If you are not yet out of default, you would need to make arrangements with your lender so that you can get your loans out of default. Until that occurs (this sometimes requires a certain number of monthly “on-time” payments to the lender), GHC could not offer you any Federal or State financial aid.

Find your Lender

UG CLOSE TO LOAN LIMIT

This requirement is because you have reached (or are close to) your lifetime federal loan aggregate borrowing limit.

Within one to two weeks of registering for classes, the Processor for the GHC Office of Scholarships and Financial Aid will review your account to determine how much (if any) federal loan funding you are eligible for and it will be applied to your account. Then the UG Close to Loan Limit requirement will be satisfied by the Processor.

Click here to learn more about federal loan aggregate limits.

UNUSUAL ENROLLMENT

This requirement is present when a student receives federal student financial aid at multiple
institutions in recent years.

Within one to two weeks of registering for classes, the Processor for the GHC Office of Scholarships and Financial Aid will review your account to determine your enrollment history. Certain enrollment history reviews require that an Unusual Enrollment form be completed. This will be emailed to your GHC student email account by the Processor. Then the UG Close to Loan Limit requirement will be satisfied by the Processor.

VERIFICATION

If you have a Verification requirement on your Charger Portal, go to the verification information page for current information on verification (processing timeframe up to two weeks once all final documents and information are received).

To get started on Verification, click HERE.

DON’T SEE YOUR REQUIREMENT LISTED HERE?

Email finaid@highlands.edu for assistance.