Financial Assistance

Financial Aid Guide

The Education Center has created a Guide to Academic and Financial Aid Information for Families that lists valuable information for researching colleges, financial aid and scholarships information, Military Spouse Career Advancement Account (MYCAA), and websites to help you find discounted text books. Please stop by the Education Center to pick up a guide or click on the above link.

Financial Aid Information
Financial aid is money from an external source to fund your college education.
It is important that you understand the different types of financial aid that are available. Listed below are some common terms that will help in deciding which type of financial aid to search and apply for:

• GRANT/SCHOLARSHIPS - financial aid that students do not have to pay back. Grants are awarded on the basis of need while scholarships are awarded on the basis of criteria and/or achievement.

• WORK-STUDY - lets the student work and earn money to help pay for school.

• LOANS - are borrowed money that students must repay with interest.

• FEDERAL PELL GRANT - is an award to help undergraduates pay for their education. Eligibility is determined by a standard formula, which produces an Expected Family Contribution (EFC). How much the student will get depends on the EFC, the cost of the education, and whether the student is full or part-time.

• FEDERAL STAFFORD LOAN - a low interest loan made to students. Funds come directly to the student from the U.S. Government.

• FEDERAL WORK STUDY - provides jobs for undergraduate and graduate students who need financial aid. It gives the student a chance to earn money to pay for educational expenses. The program encourages community service work and work related to the student's course of study.

• FEDERAL PERKINS LOAN - low interest loan to help undergraduate or graduate students with exceptional financial need, as determined by the school. Your school is the lender and the loan is made with government funds. You must repay this loan to your school.

Military Spouse Career Advancement Accounts
The Department of Defense remains strongly committed to helping military spouses find employment in high demand, high growth Portable Career fields. For those who are interested in pursuing such careers, DoD is expanding the Military Spouse Career Advancement Accounts (MyCAA) program. Why? Because it is a proven fact that the more training and education job seekers have, the more likely they will be hired into better jobs at higher salaries.

Eligible military spouses are now able to receive up to $4,000, with a cap of $2,000 per fiscal year, of MyCAA Financial Assistance (FA) that can help them pursue education, training, licenses, certificates and degrees leading to employment in Portable Career fields. MyCAA is available for spouses of active duty service members in pay grades E1-E5, W1-W2, and 01-O2. The program requires spouses to finish their program of study within three years of the start date of their first course. The program is limited to associate degrees, certifications, and licensures.
Spouses who currently have an active account will be allowed to request financial assistance until Thursday, October 21, 2010. Beginning September 1, 2010, spouses may request financial assistance for classes that have a start date up to January 15, 2011. To ensure adequate time to plan for courses, no career plans will be accepted after August 31, 2010. All currently approved financial assistance documents will be honored.
Additionally, the review revealed that National Guard and Reserve members must be on active duty for their spouses to receive the MyCAA benefit. Spouses may no longer use the MyCAA benefit when the service member is in an alert or demobilization period. The new eligibility rule takes effect immediately.
The program will be closed from Friday, October 22 to Monday, October 25, 2010, so that we may ensure the infrastructure is in place to implement the new program.
Interested Spouses can get started by establishing a MyCAA Account at https://aiportal.acc.af.mil/mycaa. Once the spouse’s profile information is provided, DoD will verify MyCAA eligibility through DEERS. The spouse will be notified of his/her eligibility status through the MyCAA messaging system.