Need-Based Financial Assistance
For most families, no matter how long you've planned and how much you've scrimped and saved, there is a gap between the cost of a quality education and your ability to pay for it. The Luther financial aid staff understands this and works very closely with you and your family to coordinate funding from federal, state and college resources to help close that gap.
You do not have to do this alone. More than 98% of Luther students receive some form of financial assistance. In fact, for the nearly 70% who qualify for need-based aid, the average award is more than $23,920. At that rate, the cost of attending Luther may very well be less than attending a state-supported institution.
Need-based awards typically include a combination of grant, work-study and low-interest student loan and range from partial assistance to the full cost of attendance.
- Grants, such as the federally-funded Pell Grant, the Iowa Tuition Grant and the Luther Grant, are gifts that do not need to be repaid.
- Our work-study program provides students with the opportunity to work up to 10 hours a week on campus to earn money toward tuition, books or other expenses. With a wide variety of positions available—everything from chemistry tutor to athletic training assistant —students gain valuable work experience. And studies consistently show that students who work a reasonable number of hours do better academically than those who don't work at all.
- Student loans provide the final piece of the financial aid package. Students are encouraged to borrow only what they need, seek outside scholarships and save summer earnings in order to reduce overall indebtedness. The Financial Aid Office works closely with students to achieve this goal. According to the Iowa College Student Aid Commission, the average Luther student graduates with a debt load equal to or less than the average graduate of any of the state universities in Iowa. Students who qualify for subsidized federal loan programs will make no payments and have no interest accrue while enrolled at Luther at least half-time. Repayment usually begins six months after the completion of your education—including graduate study. We work hard to ensure that our students will be able to repay their loans upon graduation. Luther's Stafford Loan default rate of less than 1 percent is evidence of our success. Better yet, there are many loan forgiveness options available to graduates who pursue certain careers, such as social work, education, medicine and nursing, and who choose to serve in under-serviced areas of the country. Some volunteer service opportunities, such as Americorps, also have loan forgiveness programs.
Award Letter Revisions
The financial assistance detailed in your award letter was developed to provide you with financial resources to assist in meeting the cost of attending Luther College for the academic year. The information you supplied in your financial aid application materials (including anticipated enrollment, housing plans and any additional financial aid you expect to receive from outside sources) influences the amount as well as the type of assistance reflected on your award letter.
Any changes to that information will initiate a reassessment of your eligibility for financial assistance and may result in your being issued a revised award letter. In addition, you must notify the Financial Aid Office, in writing, of changes to information reported on any of your original aid application materials.
Award letter revisions are often required to incorporate new sources of financial assistance. Such coordination is performed by the Financial Aid Office to satisfy federal, state, and college requirements. Federal regulations prohibit students from receiving need-based financial aid that exceeds the federally calculated need. Even programs such as tuition benefits, academic-based scholarships, and outside agency awards must be considered as resources toward meeting demonstrated need.
Although the Financial Aid Office will attempt to coordinate aid without making any adjustment, if regulations require an adjustment, we will first reduce the amount of need-based loans and work-study, if possible, when incorporating new awards into the financial aid award. Each situation must be reviewed in the context of fund availability, state and federal regulations and Luther's financial aid policies.
Any revisions to the initial offer are communicated to you through a revised award letter. If a revision results in the reduction of aid already credited to your account, you should review the account adjustments and balance due with Financial Services (Student Accounts). If a monthly payment plan was established based on an earlier offer, you will want to ask for a review and adjustment to your payment plan.