VIEWING THE PORTAL WILL ANSWER MOST OF YOUR QUESTIONS. HOW TO USE THE FINANCIAL AID PORTAL FINANCIAL AID PORTAL WHAT S ON THE FINANCIAL AID PORTAL?

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1 FINANCIAL AID PORTAL HOW TO USE THE FINANCIAL AID PORTAL WHAT S ON THE FINANCIAL AID PORTAL? The Financial Aid Portal is your real time view of your financial aid file. On the Portal you can view your missing/received documents, financial aid awards, refund disbursements, and see if you have any individualized messages from the Financial Aid Office! PLEASE NOTE: Messages will be posted under the Additional Information section. HOW DO I GET TO THE FINANCIAL AID PORTAL? Check out the Portal by going to the Cascadia website: 1. Click Student Toolbox, 2. Then Financial Aid 3. Then Financial Aid Portal 4. Click on Portal link to log in! VIEWING THE PORTAL WILL ANSWER MOST OF YOUR QUESTIONS.

2 TO LOG IN: Your username is your Social Security Number (SSN) or WASFA ID. Your password is your 6-digit date of birth (mmddyy). HOW TO READ/UNDERSTAND THE INFORMATION WE NEED FROM YOU SECTION: Near the bottom of your Portal there is a section titled Information we need from you. As you may guess this section outlines items that are needed from you to complete your file. Awards This section will display the word empty as long as no awards have been made. Once you have been AWARDED financial aid, this section of the portal will be populated (see below). Please note the status of the award. If awards are in Accepted then funds have been awarded and are active. If Pending, funds are waiting for approval. If Cancelled, funds are no longer available for that quarter. Information We Need From You: Lists all required documents Lists refunds that have disbursed to you Shows the date that your file was complete Shows the date in which we received submitted documents

3 For a more detailed description of the items listed in this section, see our Financial Aid Porta l Description of Information & Items Needed link on the Financial Aid Portal page. *See FAQ section below for more information Date Received field: When there is a date received by all items, you know we have received all required documents. A date received by Financial Aid File Complete is the day your file became complete. If additional items are requested after a date has been entered in this field, you will be alerted via . It is a good practice to regularly check the Portal. Financial Aid File Complete date is the date that we use for processing. This date is populated by the date of the last item received AFTER we have reviewed all submitted document. If this date is blank, your file is not complete yet. Once your file is complete, please allow 6-8 weeks for processing and 9-11 weeks (subject to change) during peak processing times (typically Summer and Fall quarters) when there is a high volume of students to award. When your file has been awarded, your financial aid awards will appear in the Awards section on the Portal. Your refund has been calculated field: Each quarter that your award exceeds the amount of tuition and fees due, you may qualify for a refund. Approximately a week prior to the start of the quarter, a Your refund has been calculated will populate in the Information we need from you section on the Portal. Pay attention to the dates. If you receive refunds for multiple quarters, the previous quarter s check calculation will remain visible. You will receive a refund for most current check calculation date.

4 FINANCIAL AID PORTAL FAQ S AND TROUBLESHOOTING How can I tell the status of my application by using the Portal? All required documents show on the Portal. When they all have the date received filled in, we don t need anything else at this time. Once all items have been submitted, and you see a date in the date received field next to file complete, your file is waiting to be reviewed and awarded. When will I know if I ve been awarded? The AWARDS section will be populated after your file is reviewed for award. You will be notified via .. If you re only eligible for loans, you will be ed information on how to request a loan. Loans do not display in Awards section unless you request them. When will I know if I m getting a refund? You will see Your refund has been calculated, a date, and a $$ amount (see Information We Need From You ). Why can t I log in? In order to log into the Portal, you will go to > Student Toolbox > Financial Aid > Financial Aid Portal, and follow the directions to log in. You will need to have your FAFSA submitted and received by Cascadia in order to gain access to the Portal. (You will not be able to log in until we ve received your FAFSA, it can take between 3-5 business days from when you submit your FAFSA before Cascadia receives it.) If you believe that we should have your FAFSA, and you are having trouble logging into the Portal, please contact our office at or finaid@cascadia.edu. I have submitted my FAFSA, yet my USERNAME and PIN seem to be invalid. What s wrong? Keep in mind that it can take between 3-5 business days for us to receive your submitted FAFSA. If it s been less time than that, please continue to try logging in. If it has been more than a week, and you are still unable to log in, here are some common errors: Your FAFSA was not submitted with our SCHOOL CODE; therefore we will not receive it. To check this, please log into the FAFSA website at and review your submitted FAFSA to check for to our school code, or contact FAFSA directly at FEDAID. Our SCHOOL CODE is: If you have submitted a FAFSA to Cascadia in a previous year AND your birth date leads with a zero, it is possible that you have a 5 digit PIN number, rather than a six digit PIN. Please try dropping the leading zero and logging in with your 5 digit birth date. (Please also contact us at or finaid@cascadia.edu if this is the case, so that we can correct the PIN to your 6 digit birth date.) If you have tried logging in more than once, and get the pink error: College Code is Required, you may just need to close your browser and try again, or try a different browser.

5 How and when are refunds sent to students? Cascadia has partnered with Bank Mobile to process financial aid refunds the Kody Card. Students using payment methods such as state/federal financial aid (including grants and loans), scholarships, Opportunity Grant, BFET and Worker Retraining will be required to create a profile online and select a method of refund in order to receive any refunds. You will have 3 options to receive your funds in excess of tuition: 1. Provide information so that the funds can be directly deposited into YOUR OWN PERSONAL BANK account. 2. Open a Bank Mobile Vibe account - The Bank Mobile Vibe account is a debit card, which at Cascadia is called the KodyCard, where your funds can be deposited and kept separate from your personal funds. 3. Have a paper check processed and mailed to you by Bank Mobile Disbursements. (Please note, this option can take up to 10 days to receive your refund once Bank Mobile receives the funds) I ve already submitted the requested forms. Why does my status still show Download Required e-forms next to the submitted documents? The Download Required e-forms will NOT disappear, even when you ve submitted the requested form. Please allow time for processing. Once your form is processed the date it was received will populate under the Date Received column. How can I tell if I have a tuition hold for the upcoming quarter? If you are granted a tuition hold, you will be able to view this on or before the tuition deadline for the upcoming quarter. It will show as APPROVED tuition deferment for [upcoming quarter]. Keep in mind; if your financial aid file is not complete on or before tuition deadline for the quarter you wish to receive aid, and/or you are not enrolled in classes, you will not be granted a hold. PLEASE NOTE: **Refunds for a particular quarter are not sent out to Bank Mobile Disbursements until the first day of that quarter, or the day following awarding, whichever is later (assuming student remains eligible for the funds). **All refunds are reviewed for eligibility and accuracy before being sent to Bank Mobile Disbursements** **If you see Your refund has been calculated but the amount is 0.00, you will know your refund did NOT go out, and either you don t have any additional funds coming to you OR there was an error that needs to be resolved.