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Your Financial Aid Award Letter

After we receive the results from your Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA), we will send you an award letter listing your financial aid awards. This offer of financial aid is based on the information you provided on the FAFSA, and it may change if you have to correct any of that information or if you receive financial aid from other sources.

Important Facts about your Award Letter

  • Newly admitted freshmen and transfer student award letters are sent out beginning in mid- to late-March (new students for the spring semster will receive award letters beginning in mid-November).
  • The award letter asks you to accept or decline your aid offer, and to sign and return a copy of the letter to our office. THIS IN NO WAY COMMITS YOU TO ATTENDING SUNY GENESEO - it does allow us to reserve those funds should you eventually decide to attend here.
  • Returning students are notified via email about their awards via Knightweb, beginning in late spring.
  • Students must meet all the general eligibility requirements for federal, state, and institutional aid to qualify for aid.
  • For more information on your award letter, please refer to "Understanding Your Financial Aid Award Letter." 

Your Awards May Change

Award letters are the initial determination of your eligibility for financial aid. Your awards may change for many reasons, including:

1. Pell Grant - The amount of Pell Grant funding you receive is directly related to your Expected Family Contribution (EFC).

If after applying you submit changes to your FAFSA, or if the school submits changes based on verification of your data, your EFC and, therefore, your Pell Grant may change. In general, your eligibility for Pell funding will be consistent regardless of what college you attend.

2. SEOG - The Supplemental Educational Opportunity Grant is offered to Pell-eligible students with exceptional financial need. Each college sets its own policies on which students will receive SEOG funding, and how much the award will be. Typically, the only reason an SEOG award would be cancelled is if a student lost eligibility for a Pell Grant.

3. TAP - Your New York State Tuition Assistance Program (TAP) Award is the most likely to change or to vary in the initial financial aid award letters that prospective students receive from different colleges. The reasons for this are:

  • Each college must estimate your award based on the data you provide on the FAFSA. Since colleges may use different methods for estimating your award, their estimates may vary significantly.

  • While your college will estimate your award, the New York State Higher Education Service Corporation makes the final determination of your actual TAP award. Your TAP award may vary from school to school since it is based on tuition charges.

4. Other Financial Aid - You may be offered federal student loans, work-study, or other grants or scholarships. If, after we send you an award letter, you receive additional or revised awards (for example, a Geneseo scholarship or an outside scholarship, or a higher or lower TAP or Pell Grant), we may need to adjust your other financial aid awards

In general, your grant or scholarship aid would not be changed in these cases. Typically, your loans or your work-study award will be adjusted to reflect the changes in your other awards.