<p>Hello,
My son received the American Competitive Grant in his Freshman Year at a SUNY College. He received the American Competitive Grant (ACG) for the Fall 2010 Term, but not Spring 2011 Term. I call the Financial Aid at the School and they said he had too many credits to qualify. They said he would be declared a Junior even though he wouldn't attain a Junior Status of 54 credits until the end of his Sophomore year. It doesn't make sense that the school could look back and declare him a Junior at the beginning of Spring 2010 term, even though he hadn't attained the 54 credits yet. Is this how they administer the ACG Grant. The Federal Student Aid said I had to talk to the School. Thank you. He only takes the normal 15 or 16 credits per college semester.</p>
<p>ACG is the Academic Competitiveness Grant. The rule is that as soon as a student is classified as a junior, he is no longer eligible for the ACG. If your son was classified as a junior due to number of credits (including ALL credits earned, such as AP, CLEP, or dual enrollment) after the end of fall term, he cannot receive an ACG for spring term. In addition, if he has already received a full 100% of his second year ACG, he cannot receive any more. The rules changed this year for how grade level is determined. In the past, students may have received a year 2 ACG award even though they were technically freshmen (because the rules on how to determine year 1 and year 2 were strange). If your son received a $650 award last spring and a $650 award this past fall, he has used 100% of his year 2 award.</p>
<p>Thank you Kelsmom,
He didn’t have AP, CLEP or Dual Enrollment. But when I figured out that Freshman, Sophomore, Junior etc. were figured out by credits I started to look further. He attained 30 credits as of the end of his Freshman Year. He is enrolled for 15 or 16 credits for the first half of his Sophomore Year. That adds up to around 45 or 46 credits at the end of his Fall Sophomore year. The amount of credits for determining if you are a Junior is 54 credits at his school. I have called the financial aid so many times, I am hesitant to call again. My son is going in to talk to them today. They could have confused him with another person with his same name as they did when he was an entering freshman. This other person had a lot of AP courses. Thank you so much for helping me with this. I will know more this afternoon. clbmom</p>
<p>Absolutely have your son check with the aid office. He should also check his college transcript. Most students can check this (an unofficial transcript) online. Your son should check to see if the courses listed are accurate. </p>
<p>In fact, ALL students should do this at the start of each new term. DD just looked at hers and discovered that a required course for her major…which she HAD taken…was not listed. It was an error that was quickly corrected but if not discovered would have put a significant snafu on receiving her diploma.</p>
<p>Thank you Thumper1,
My son did go into financial aid yesterday. Now they are saying that they have to wait until mid-year to see if he secures the required GPA. That is not what any of the definitions of the ACG Grant state. They say that you have to receive the required GPA at the beginning of the Sophomore Year. They have given so many different reasons for not giving him the second half of the ACG grant, none of which are listed in the definition of the ACG Grant on the Federal web site that administers the grant, that I quess we’ll just give up. I could see if it was their money, but it comes from the federal government. </p>
<p>I will definately check his DARS report. There seems to be some problems there. I am glad that you and your daughter checked the DARS report and found the error that would have made it so she would have had a significant problem receiving her diploma. I quess that should be checked each semester also. I’ll have to learn how to read one. Thank you so much for writing. clbmom</p>
<p>clbmom, it really sounds like your son is having trouble reaching someone in financial aid who actually understands the ACG program. I have been responsible for this program, and I am very well versed in the regulations that govern ACG. If your son became a sophomore after his grades posted for last semester, the cumulative GPA he NOW has is the one the school must use to evaluate him for ACG Year 2. The cumulative GPA at the end of the freshman year (which is the beginning of sophomore year) is the GPA that is used. That is the way it has to be … the school doesn’t get to make up its own rules.</p>
<p>It is possible that the school has a policy of not awarding any fall ACG until all summer grades have been posted. If that is the case for your son’s school, they may wait to evaluate ALL students until after all summer term grades are posted. In that case, your son will have to wait … and maybe that is what they meant when they said he has to wait.</p>
<p>Don’t give up on the award, but do give the school some time. I would not get worried until part way through fall term. ACG requires a lot of manual checks to make sure students are qualified, so sometimes it takes time to get the award posted. But DO make sure that if he is qualified, he gets the award!</p>
<p>Hi Kelsmom,
Thank you so much for helping me with the ACG Grant. It is especially great since you have much experience in dealing with the ACG specifically. The Financial Aid Award as listed on son’s financial aid page is $650.00 for Fall 2010 and $0 for Spring 2011, and total $650.00 for the year. </p>
<p>I think that you said that the college, under the rules governing the ACG Grant, award the Sophomore Year ACG Grant based on the Freshman Year GPA exclusively and can not make up their own rules. So they can not split the year in half and award the spring acg based on the fall term grades. </p>
<p>I feel like I can’t call Financial Aid again, as first they said my son would be a Junior and not qualify for Spring 2011 ACG, not true, and now they are saying they award the Spring 2011 Term ACG based on the Fall 2010 term GPA. </p>
<p>He has 30 credits going into his Sophomore year. Thank you.</p>
<p>If he will still be a sophomore when he begins the spring term, and if he has never received an ACG Year 2 (sophomore) award prior to the fall term, then he will be eligible for the second half of his ACG Year 2 award in spring. His GPA is ONLY checked prior to the first disbursement of the ACG Year 2; it is not checked after that. The SMART grant is checked prior to each term, but ACG is only checked before awarding the first disbursement of the Year 2 award (if it’s less than 3.0 at the end of freshman year, the student will never get a Year 2 award).</p>
<p>If your son has at least a 3.0 cumulative GPA, he will receive the Year 2 award of $650 for fall. He should receive the remaining 50% during spring term, regardless of his fall gpa.</p>
<p>Some schools may not award the second half of the ACG Year 2 in advance. They may want to wait to make sure that the student is still a sophomore at the start of the spring term.</p>
<p>Hi Kelsmom,
Thank you so much for writing. </p>
<p>I was losing confidence in dealing with the college, as they seemed so confident.</p>
<p>My son has over a 3.0 GPA at the end of his Freshman Year.<br>
He has 30 credits going into his Sophomore Year. He will be taking 15 credits for his Fall 2011 Semester, and a student is designated a Junior when he reaches 54 credits at the college he attends.</p>
<p>Thanks to you and the other smart and very generous people on this site, I believe my son is going to get the remaining $650.00 for the Spring 2011 Semester. </p>
<p>Something sk8r’s mom said yesterday made me contact the Suny System. They gave me the e-mail of the financial director. He wrote me back today and said something is remiss and my son should be getting the Spring half of the ACG. I just felt I couldn’t call the Financial Aid at his college one more time as they all seemed so sure of what they said. </p>
<p>I can’t thank you enough. I will keep you posted. clbmom</p>
<p>Great news - I am glad we gave you the confidence to pursue this further. There was a young lady who was denied her ACG at the start of this past year & we helped her to know what to say when she spoke to financial aid to get the grant. It worked for her, too. We are here to help! :)</p>
<p>Thank you. I just received a second e-mail from the financial director at SUNY. I had to give him my son’s name, so I hope my son’s college is o.k. with that.<br>
I should hear back from the SUNY financial director soon. He is very prompt with e-mails. I’ll keep you posted on the final results. clbmom</p>