HPA Financial Aid 2012-2013

This information is for families who are interested in applying for financial aid for the 2012-2013 academic year.  Please read carefully and follow the instructions to ensure a complete and correct application.

• Step one: Please download this brochure about HPA’s financial aid program.  The brochure provides an overview of the financial aid process, application pieces, and deadlines:
  
• Step two: If you intend to apply for HPA financial aid (both new and returning HPA families), please complete the short form on the right to receive important email updates throughout the year. 

All families who supply their e-mail contact information will receive updates from the HPA Financial Aid Committee regarding scholarship opportunities and other pertinent information.  As the financial aid process progresses, we also will post all announcements here as an archive for your reference.

E-mail Updates Sent:

Update sent: February 16, 2012

Announcement 1

SSS is experiencing technical difficulties, but HPA has been working with SSS to fix the problems as quickly as possible. The problems have been identified and it is fully operational. Families now should be able to start uploading their required documents.

We ask that all families log in to their account, verify that the required documents have been uploaded, or upload the required documents now.

To clarify, the following documents are required to complete your financial aid application:

• 2011 1040s with all schedules

You do NOT need to complete the Business/Farm Statement any longer, and we will remove that requirement from the HPA Financial Aid Brochure. Also, you do NOT need to submit your W2s or 1099s. HPA will extend the priority deadline for all families because of the technical problems on the SSS website. The new financial aid priority deadline is Friday, February 24.

Announcement 2

During this busy time of the admission and financial aid season, there are times when we are unable to promptly respond to your e-mails. Please know that we will respond to your e-mail as quickly as possible.

Any delay in our response will not impact your financial aid application. Therefore, if you e-mailed the committee at financialaid@hpa.edu with a question or issue, and we wereunable to respond in time for you to make the financial aid priority deadline, we will grant an extension for you to be considered in the first round of financial aid decisions.

Update sent: February 13, 2012

School and Student Services (SSS), the organization that processes financial aid applications, is experiencing a backlog. They are receiving thousands of applications daily and to manage the workload, they are delaying when families can upload their 1040s. Families who submitted a PFS on Friday February 10, were informed they would not be able to upload their 1040s for four business days and it would take another four business days before the school would have access to the documents. The delay might increase as we get closer to the priority deadline.

The HPA Financial Aid Committee recommends that families submit their PFS as early as possible so the delay in uploading their documents will be minimized. However, the committee is willing to accommodate families since this delay is due to the SSS situation. HPA is contacting SSS on February 20 to determine when the school will have access to the documents after the PFS submittal. The HPA Financial Aid Committee will wait the same number of days and then consider in the first round all applications with 1040s uploaded. As long as families have submitted their PFS on February 20, and subsequently uploaded their documents on the same day the “Manage My Documents” tab is accessible, then they still will be in the first consideration round.

Update sent: January 31, 2012

Some families have asked about uploading their 2011 1040s on the SSS website. After you create your account and submit your PFS, there is a link titled “Manage My Documents.” Click on that link and it will walk you through the process to upload your 1040s. If you checked that page earlier, it might not have shown the required documents. The system has been updated and a current list of required documents is now available. If you see nothing required when you go to that page, please e-mail financialaid@hpa.edu. Thank you.

Update sent: January 10, 2012

Please note there was an error on page one of the financial aid brochure. The brochure stated that the 2010 1040 tax returns are required, when in fact we require the 2011 1040 tax returns. We apologize for the error and the updated brochure is now on our website. Please download the correct information and note that we do need your 2011 1040s to complete your financial aid application. Please contact financialaid@hpa.edu if you have any questions.