Renewal of Aid
Merit Scholarships
Bentley merit scholarships for undergraduate students will be renewed each year, provided that students earn the required cumulative grade point average (GPA) specified on the letter they receive from the Office of Undergraduate Admission. Students must also remain enrolled full time (12 credits per semester) and scholarships cannot be used for summer terms or winter session. Students can receive merit scholarships for up to eight semesters total. Student grade point averages will be checked at the end of each academic year, after spring semester grades have been recorded. An appeal process exists for those who fail to earn the required GPA. If you are concerned about your academic performance and have a scholarship, please contact your financial aid counselor. Bentley merit scholarships are not available to continuing students who were not awarded a scholarship upon admission.
Need-Based Aid
Bentley financial aid decisions are made on an academic year basis. You must apply each spring and meet the application deadlines to receive aid for the following year. We do all we can to offer you a consistent award, but your financial aid may be higher or lower in future years if your family's circumstances change. Significant changes in need-based financial aid eligibility can be due to changes in income, assets, family size, and the number of siblings enrolled in undergraduate degree programs. In addition, your financial need will be affected if costs change due to a change in enrollment or housing status. Federal aid can change based on funding levels determined by Congress. Late applications will be awarded based on the availability of remaining institutional funds.
Satisfactory Academic Progress
In order to remain eligible for financial aid, you must meet standards of satisfactory academic progress (SAP) established according to federal regulations. We must evaluate your academic progress annually. This evaluation generally occurs in May after spring semester grades are posted, as part of our determination of aid eligibility for the next academic year.
There are two components to achieving SAP. You must have a 2.0 cumulative grade point average (GPA) in order to be awarded Bentley need-based grant funds or federal financial aid (including the Federal PLUS loan). In addition to a 2.0 minimum cumulative GPA, you must demonstrate progress by successfully completing (finishing with a passing grade) at least 67 percent of all attempted courses. An attempted course is one in which you are enrolled after the second week of classes. Failure, withdrawal after the second week, or an incomplete (I) in a class constitutes an attempted course that is not successfully completed. Although aid is sometimes not available for repeat course work, repeated courses will be counted in measuring this standard. In addition, aid applicants may not attempt more than 150 percent of the number of credits required for their degrees. For example, if your degree requires 122 credit hours, you may not attempt more than 183 credit hours to achieve this degree. The complete policy, including information regarding the appeal process, can be found here.
Eligibility For Aid
Financial Need
Eligibility for need-based financial aid is determined by an evaluation of your family's ability to contribute to educational expenses. Bentley's philosophy for awarding financial aid is based on the premise that you and your family have the primary responsibility for paying for your university education to the extent that you are able.
Two formulas are used to determine your estimated contribution from family resources (called the estimated family contribution, or EFC). Federal Methodology is used to determine your eligibility for federal aid and most state aid programs. We use the data you and your family provided on the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) to determine your Federal EFC.
Because the government does not include some financial information for consideration in the need analysis formula, Bentley uses a second formula based on data provided on the CSS Profile Form, called Institutional Methodology, to determine your eligibility for Bentley-based funding. Institutional Methodology helps us target limited resources to students with the greatest need. Students must complete both a FAFSA and CSS PROFILE and meet eligibility requirements for federal aid programs to be considered for institutional need-based funding. International students are not eligible for need-based funding from Bentley.
The difference between the established cost of attendance and your family's ability to contribute toward paying that cost is your financial need. Financial aid may contribute toward your need through a combination of loans, eligibility for on-campus employment, and possibly scholarships or grants from a variety of federal, state, and institutional aid programs.
Factors That May Affect Eligibility
Your financial need will change when your estimated cost changes and/or your family's resources change. Following are some factors that may result in a change to your financial aid award this year or in future years. If an award adjustment becomes necessary, we will notify you.
Enrollment and Housing Status
Any change in enrollment status (if you register less than full-time) or housing status (if you change from a resident to an off-campus resident or a commuter, or vice versa) will have an impact on your costs and therefore your aid eligibility. The costs for a resident student are estimated to be more than those for a student living in an off-campus apartment. Students commuting from a parent or relative's home are expected to have lower costs than on-campus and off-campus residents. We ask students living in off-campus apartments to verify that they are not commuting from the home of a relative. This verification usually takes place after the start of the academic year.
Bentley grants and scholarships are only available for full-time enrollment (12 credits or more) during the fall and spring semesters. If you reduce your course load to below full time, you may lose your Bentley grants and scholarships for that semester. If you drop below half-time enrollment (fewer than six credits per semester) you will lose eligibility for most types of financial assistance. Unless you inform us that you plan to enroll as a part-time student, we will assume that you will enroll full time until the registration period at the start of each semester has concluded. We will then check your enrollment status and adjust your aid if necessary.
RETURN OF TITLE IV FUNDS POLICY
Federal regulations specify how colleges and universities must determine the amount of federal financial aid (including PLUS loans) you have earned if you withdraw from the university before 60 percent of an enrollment period (usually a semester) has elapsed. The amount of federal assistance that you have earned is determined by the percentage of the semester completed. If you have received more assistance than you have earned, the excess funds must be returned to the government. If the removal of returned funds from your account creates a balance due, you will be responsible for paying this balance. For more information about withdrawing or taking a leave of absence from the university, please see the Student Handbook.
Number in College
Families with more than one child in college often have increased family expenses and therefore will see an increase in their eligibility for financial assistance. If the number of children in your family attending undergraduate college decreased from two to one, this change can nearly double the expected family contribution, thereby significantly reducing financial need. Because enrollment plans sometimes change, we will ask for verification of your sibling's enrollment in college if you included them as a family member in college on the CSS Profile form. We do not include parents, siblings in military service academies, siblings taking college courses before graduating from high school, or graduate students in the number of family members enrolled in college for purposes of determining eligibility for Bentley-based funding. If you are unable to verify that your sibling is enrolled at least half-time in an undergraduate degree program, we may reduce your aid at any point during the academic year.
Because having a sibling in college often has a significant impact on your aid eligibility, we may make adjustments to your award if your sibling attends a very low-cost institution, such as a community college, or is receiving substantial financial aid in the form of grants and/or scholarships. If your sibling takes longer than eight semesters to graduate from an undergraduate program, we may choose to discontinue the treatment of that student as a sibling in college when determining your institutional financial aid eligibility.
Federal Aid Eligibility and Drug Violations
A federal or state drug conviction can disqualify a student for federal student aid funding. For more information, click here.
Financial Aid For Students Who Are Eligible For Tuition Remission
Children of Bentley employees who are receiving full tuition remission are not eligible to receive any non-need-based scholarships/awards, even if awarded through the admission process. Tuition remission supersedes all non-need-based awards. In the event that a student is no longer eligible for tuition remission benefits (parent leaves Bentley or student pursues a study abroad semester), the non-need-based funds originally awarded will be reinstated.
Children of Bentley employees who are eligible for partial tuition remission may receive non-need-based scholarships/awards in combination with tuition remission, but the award will be capped if the combination of the award plus tuition remission exceeds the tuition being charged to the student.
Example #1: A dependent child is eligible to receive 75% tuition remission, which is $41,182 for 2021-2022 (based on full undergraduate tuition of $54,910). Through the admission process, the student is awarded a $20,000 academic scholarship. The tuition remission and scholarship exceed tuition by $6,272 so the scholarship is capped at $13,728.
Example #2: A dependent child is eligible to receive 50% tuition remission, which is $27,455 for 2021-2022 (based on full undergraduate tuition of $54,910). Through the admission process, the student is awarded a $15,000 academic scholarship. The tuition remission in combination with the scholarship does not exceed the full tuition amount and no adjustment to the scholarship is needed.
Dependent students who apply for need-based financial aid and demonstrate eligibility may receive need-based grants in excess of their tuition remission benefit regardless of the level of the benefit (50%, 75%, or 100%).