Financial Aid FAQs

The FAFSA uses income tax information from two years prior.  For example, for the 2023-2024 FAFSA, you will enter your and your parent's 2021 federal tax information.  However, if you or your parent have not yet filed your 2021 taxes, you may fill out your FAFSA using estimated tax information. You’ll have the opportunity to correct this information when you receive the processed Student Aid Report (SAR). It’s better to use estimated tax information than risk missing the financial-aid deadline.

Send a letter detailing those circumstances, along with appropriate documentation, to the Saint Anselm College Office of Financial Aid. Examples of special circumstances could be loss of employment, unusually high medical expenses, or reduced income. Upon receipt of your letter and documentation, your eligibility will be re-evaluated.

We believe financing your education is a family responsibility to the extent your family is able to help. Undergraduates who have living parents generally are required to file as dependent students. You may not file as an independent student unless you have highly unusual circumstances. Talk to a member of the financial aid staff if you think your circumstances warrant filing as an independent student.

• Admitted Students:

In addition to a mailed copy of your financial aid offer, an online copy of your financial aid offer is sent to the email address you used on your Common Application.  You can also view the details of your financial aid offer on your Anselmian Aid portal.  

• Current Students:

The details of your financial aid offer is available to view on your Anselmian Aid portal accessed via your MyAnselm portal - click on My Finances, then My Financial Aid, and then Anselmian Aid).

Anselmian Aid is a web-based secure financial aid portal for Saint Anselm College students (both prospective and enrolled) to view various components of their financial aid application. It includes: the financial aid offered, all required documents and their status, as well as important messages.

Prospective students sign into the Anselmian Aid portal with their Saint Anselm ID as their userid and date of birth MMDDYY as their password.

Current students access the Anselmian Aid portal via their MyAnselm portal.  Click on My Finances, then My Financial Aid, then click on the link for Anselmian Aid.

If you do not plan to apply for need-based financial aid, we ask you to send us an email indicating you wish us to close your financial aid file.

When you receive an award from an outside source, we will first fill any unmet need and then, if necessary, reduce your self-help resources (loan and/or work study), and gift aid. We do this to encourage you to seek outside sources of aid. In recognition of the effort you made to obtain the award, we do not first seek to reduce your grant aid.  However, any scholarships awarded over the amount of unmet need and self-help may result in a reduction of Saint Anselm College grant and/or scholarship aid.

Students must notify the Office of Financial Aid of any outside scholarship(s) received due to the federal government's mandates. We must include all outside scholarships as part of your financial aid funding.

Saint Anselm automatically considers all qualified applicants. We base selection on rigor of your high-school curriculum, secondary school grade-point average, rank in class, standardized test scores, overall superior academic performance, and extracurricular involvement.

Yes. Families with two or more children in college at the same time, for example, often demonstrate financial need even though they might be considered in the upper-middle income category. Students who believe they need financial assistance to meet the cost of attending Saint Anselm College should apply for financial aid.

If you plan to take a leave of absence or withdraw from Saint Anselm College, you should schedule an appointment with Student Financial Services (financialservices@anselm.edu) to discuss the financial implications of that decision. Withdrawing from Saint Anselm College during the semester may entitle you to a partial refund depending upon the date of departure. The total amount of your refund will be determined according to Saint Anselm College and federal refund policies. We must return all unused money to the federal government.  Please note that if you withdraw, you could owe money to Saint Anselm. 

Housing refunds are calculated on a monthly basis and resident meal plans are prorated on a per diem basis.

Send a letter detailing those circumstances, along with appropriate documentation, to the Saint Anselm College Office of Financial Aid. Examples of special circumstances could be loss of employment, unusually high medical expenses, or reduced income. Upon receipt of your letter and documentation, your eligibility will be re-evaluated.

To determine your financial need, the Office of Financial Aid analyzes the FAFSA and other documents as requested to arrive at an “Expected Family Contribution” – the figure that your family is expected to contribute in the upcoming year. Financial need is the difference between the total cost of attending Saint Anselm and Expected Family Contribution.

A number of factors are considered, such as annual income, number of children, number of children in college, unusual expenses (such as medical costs), savings, and other assets.

We prepare a financial-aid package consisting, in most cases, of a grant and/or scholarship, loan, and work-study. The package is designed to help cover the difference between the total cost of a Saint Anselm education and Expected Family Contribution.

Grants and scholarships are gift aid funded by Saint Anselm College, the federal government, or individual state governments. You do not need to repay a grant or scholarship. Be sure to apply for your state’s scholarship.

After you have been offered admission to the College, and shortly after all financial aid forms are received and analyzed, the Office of Financial Aid sends you notification of your financial aid offer status. Please refer to Dates and Deadlines and choose the appropriate checklist for which the student is applying. Returning students will be notified beginning in Spring 2023 if they have a complete financial aid application on file. (NOTE: Students are notified of merit awards when offered admission to Saint Anselm.)

Your need-based and non-need based financial aid may be affected by a change in residency status. Please contact the Office of Financial Aid as soon as possible if you are considering a move from on- to off-campus or vice versa. We will create a workup for you which details the difference in your financial aid and affect on your bill for on- vs off-campus.

For subsidized loans, the government pays the interest on the loan while you are going to school.  Interest begins accruing on subsidized loans 6 months after you graduate or cease attending at least half-time.

For unsubsidized loans, interest begins accruing on the loan from the date the loan posts to your student account.   It is strongly recommended that you make regular payments for at least the minimum monthly accrued interest.  At the time of loan repayment (6 months after you graduate or cease attending at least half-time), any unpaid accrued interest will be added onto the principal of the loan ("capitalized") and you will then pay interest on your interest.  Please contact your loan servicer to determine what you may owe in accrued interest.

The Federal Direct Loan(s) included with your financial aid offer are automatically accepted on your behalf.  However, in order for us to disburse your loans to your student account, you must complete two requirements:

• Direct Loan Entrance Counseling
• Direct Loan Master Promissory Note

Both of these must be completed at Federal Student Aid (log in with your (student's) Federal Student Aid ID and password (same ID as used to complete your FAFSA).

The Federal Direct Loan(s) included with your financial aid offer are automatically accepted on your behalf.  If you choose to reduce or decline your direct loan(s), you must contact the Office of Financial Aid at financial_aid@anselm.edu or (603) 641-7110.  If the direct loan has already disbursed to your account, you have 120 days from the date of disbursement to decline or reduce the loan and we will return the loan (or portion of loan) for you.  If the request is after the 120 days, then you would need to make the payment directly to the loan servicer.

Soon after your first federal direct loan posts to your student account, your loan servicer will send you an email (to the email address you used when you created your Federal Student Aid ID) encouraging you to create an online account to monitor your federal direct loans.

You can also find your loan servicer by logging into NSLDS (the National Student Loan Data System) with your Federal Student Aid ID and password (the same ID and password as used for completing the FAFSA).  From your loan history, click on loan details to find contact information for your loan servicer.

Federal Student Aid provides detailed information on the different loan repayment options. 

We have also teamed up with Solutions at ECMC.  This vendor is a great resource for one-on-one loan counseling while you are a student here and anytime after you graduate.  In addition to tools like loan repayment calculators, Solutions at ECMC has many financial literacy short videos on topics including budgeting, credit, debt management, etc. Check them out online and follow them on Facebook and Twitter!

And, of course, you can make an appointment with the Office of Financial Aid to review loan repayment options as well.