Understanding Your Award

How do I accept or decline my award?

All grants and scholarship funds will automatically be accepted on your behalf. If you have loans or work study in an offered status you will need to accept or decline the award through myBanner in order to receive them.

Instructions to respond to your award

Additional Loan Information: If you are accepting a Federal Direct Subsidized/Unsubsidized loan or a Perkins loan there are additional forms you need to complete. Please review Next Steps for more information.

Will the Financial Aid Office change my award?

Your financial aid award may change for a number of reasons.

  • Change in residency status
  • A change in your enrollment level (Freshman, Sophomore, etc.)
  • Declining one or more awards on your account
  • We have been notified that you have received other aid or had other resources of which we were unaware when the previous awards were made
  • Your data and/or your parent data was incorrect and the error has been corrected
  • Your summer financial aid has been processed
  • We have been notified that you are repeating a previously passed course for the 3rd time and are not eligible to count this course(s) in your enrollment for aid
  • We have been notified by another institution that you are receiving aid at both GVSU and the other school during the same period

Keep in mind:

Your initial financial aid awards are based on full-time enrollment. Federal regulations require the Office of Financial Aid and Scholarships to evaluate your "actual" enrollment status for financial aid purposes and adjust your financial aid accordingly at that time. Additional courses registered for after the add/drop date cannot be taken into consideration with regard to your financial aid eligibility, regardless of whether an exception was made by the Registrar's Office to allow late registration.  Please review how enrollment impacts your award to see how your award may change. The most common reasons for adjustments to your award are listed below:

How can I make changes to my award?

Once you have accepted your aid online, you cannot make changes to the information online. If you need to adjust the amount of loans or work study, please contact our office by calling (616) 331-3234 or toll free at 800-748-0246. Award adjustment requests can also be made by emailing us at [email protected] or stopping by our office in-person.



Page last modified June 24, 2021