Federal Financial Aid

Federal Pell Grant

Federal Pell Grants are free money awarded to undergraduate students who demonstrate exceptional financial need determined by the FAFSA. Pell Grants do not have to be repaid. See Pell Grant Policies.

Direct Subsidized Loan

Direct Subsidized Loans are awarded to students who demonstrate financial need. Students must be enrolled in at least 6 program applicable credits to receive these funds. Interest does not accrue and repayment does not begin while students are enrolled in at least 6 program applicable credits and for six months after a student graduates or drops below 6 program applicable credit enrollment. See loan policies for more information, including eligibility limits.

Direct Unsubsidized Loan

Direct Unsubsidized Loans start accruing interest as soon as the funds are disbursed to the student. However, repayment does not begin for six months after a student graduates or drops below 6 program applicable credit enrollment. Students must be enrolled in at least 6 program applicable credits to receive these funds. See loan policies for more information, including eligibility limits.

Direct Parent PLUS Loan

Direct Parent PLUS Loans are available for eligible parents to borrow on behalf of their dependent student. The student is required to complete the FAFSA and the parent must complete a Direct PLUS Loan application. A credit check will be conducted for the parent.

General Requirements

Basic eligibility requirements can be found on studentaid.gov. These requirements include the following:

• Be a U.S. citizen or eligible noncitizen
• Have a valid social security number (and make sure it is linked to your BYU-Idaho student account!)
• Have completed a high school diploma or its equivalent (completion of the Pathway Connect program is not sufficient)
• Maintain Satisfactory Academic Progress (SAP)

View Requirements

Complete Verification (if selected)

Verification is a process that confirms the information reported on your FAFSA is accurate. BYU-Idaho typically receives your FAFSA within 3-5 business days after it is submitted. If verification is required, additional documentation is requested on your financial aid portal. Students must submit all needed verification documents before federal aid awards can be determined.  

Enroll in Program Classes

BYU-Idaho provides the Program Applicability Tool (PAT) to help you confirm you are registered in program applicable courses and are likely eligible to receive federal financial aid. Only courses directly related to your declared program/major will count toward the credit level in which aid is awarded.

Learn About Program Applicability

Enroll by the Financial Aid Determination Date (FADD)

The FADD is the 23th day of the semester or when it is determined the student has a valid FAFSA, whichever is later. Students must be enrolled in program applicable credits by the FADD in order to receive aid for that semester. Each semester’s FADD can be found on the Dates and Deadlines web page.

Learn About FADD

Repeated Coursework

You may only receive aid for a program applicable class one time after you have already received a passing grade (D- or higher) in the class.

Learn About Repeated Courses

Remedial Coursework

Federal financial aid may be awarded for four remedial courses offered by the university:

• ENG 106
• ENG 109
• MATH 100B
• MATH 101

Remedial Coursework Details

Federal and University aid typically disburse within the first week of the semester. Financial aid funds will automatically be applied to tuition charges and may be authorized to pay for other school charges on the student’s account. Students are encouraged to sign up for eRefund to receive any excess financial aid.

Time Frame

Due to the ongoing issues the Department of Education is experiencing with the FAFSA application, we do not yet have a timeframe for when we will be able to process 2024-2025 federal aid awards. We do know awarding and funding from the 2024-2025 FAFSA will not be ready for the start of Spring 2024 semester. We will update this page when there is additional information available.

Major Changes

Due to recent legislation, major changes are here for the 2024-2025 FAFSA form. These changes are designed to simplify the FAFSA application process.

Here are some changes you can expect for the 2024-2025 FAFSA:

• A Simplified FAFSA Form means fewer questions for you to answer. Total number of questions have been reduced from 108 to 46. The dynamic form may not present you with all 46 questions.
• All contributors (you, your spouse, your parents, or your stepparent) to your FAFSA must give consent for Direct Data Retrieval to automatically transfer tax information from the IRS.
• Changes to asset reporting for small business owners, family farms, and child support.
• Students and families will measure their ability to pay for college using the Student Aid Index (SAI) instead of the Expected Family Contribution (EFC).
• The number of household members in college will continue to be asked but will not be factored into calculating the SAI.
• Unborn children can no longer be included in household size.

Pell Grants

A new formula will be used to determine Pell Grant awards and students may see changes in their Pell Grant eligibility from previous years. Pell Grants will link more directly to the Adjusted Gross Income (AGI) on the taxes, as well as family size and the federal poverty level.

Pell Grant eligibility was previously calculated based on whether your EFC fell within a certain range. Now, Pell Grant eligibility will be determined in three ways:

1. Maximum Pell: If your SAI is between -1500 and 0, you may qualify for the Maximum Pell Grant (which has not yet been determined by the government). Eligibility is based on your family's AGI, tax filing status, and annual U.S. poverty guidelines for family size and state of residency.
2. Minimum Pell: You may qualify for a Minimum Pell Grant if your SAI is greater than the maximum Pell Grant award for the academic year. Eligibility is based on your AGI, tax filing status, and the annual U.S. poverty guidelines for family size and state of residence.
3. SAI Calculated Pell: If you do not qualify for a Maximum Pell Grant, or Minimum Pell Grant you may still qualify if your SAI is less than the maximum Pell Grant award allowed for the academic year. Your full-time Pell amount would be equal to the maximum Pell Grant amount minus your SAI.

Note: If your Calculated Pell is greater than the Maximum Pell or lower than the Minimum Pell, you would not qualify for a Pell Grant. Also, if your FAFSA is not flagged by the government as eligible for a Pell Grant, you would not qualify for the award.

You can use the Federal Student Aid Estimator to estimate your possible SAI and Pell Grant eligibility.

Pell Grant Enrollment Intensity

Previously, students were awarded Pell Grants based on enrollment levels (Full time, ¾ time, ½ time, and less than half-time). Starting in 2024-2025 Pell Grants will be awarded based on actual enrollment in Program Applicable credits from 1 – 12 credits.

Known Application Issues

Some students are still experiencing issues as they try to complete the application:

The Department of Education has identified a list of known issues and is working to resolve them. Check the list for your issue and a possible workaround.

Some FAFSA applications have experienced processing or data errors and will need to be reprocessed before aid can be awarded.

Corrections

• Some students are receiving notifications that they have errors that need to be corrected on their FAFSA, but they are unable to make any corrections.
• The Department of Education is now allowing student to correct errors on their FAFSA application. If you need to make corrections, you can log in to your FAFSA and submit them. For instructions on correcting your FAFSA go to studentaid.gov.
  
  • Common Corrections: adding schools, providing a signature, and allowing for IRS data to be shared.

Apply for a Direct Unsubsidized Loan Question for Dependent Students

This question on the FAFSA can be confusing for Dependent students.

• By marking “yes” a student is indicating that their parents refuse to provide their information on the FAFSA. Without parent information, a student is only eligible for a Direct Unsubsidized loan. Marking “yes” on this question will bypass all other questions about your parents and provide eligibility only for an unsubsidized loan.
• Be sure to mark “No” and provide your parent's information if you want to be considered for Pell Grant and Federal Direct Subsidized Loans.

Provisionally Independent Status

If you mark on the FAFSA that you are unaccompanied and homeless, self-supporting and at risk of being homeless, or unable to provide parent information on the FAFSA, you will receive a “provisionally independent status” and an SAI.

Then you will need to provide supporting documentation of your circumstance to the financial aid office. See our petitions website for more information on these petitions.

If your documentation is not sufficient to show that you should be considered independent, you will be considered a dependent student and will need to return to the FAFSA and submit your parent information.

More information on FAFSA Simplification can be found at studentaid.gov.