An Overlooked Source of Financial Aid

By Kristen Poplaski Staff Writer

Photo by Visual Stories || Micheile on Unsplash

Financial aid and knowing its uses can help people start a new life.

In the ever-changing world of college life, students can easily be overwhelmed by the surplus of information available. One important topic that can often be overlooked is consortium agreements.

Through a consortium agreement, a part-time student at their home school who wants to take additional classes at another community college is allowed to transfer grant funds between schools given that they are approved classes for the student’s degree. Similarly, there is the option of cross-registration, which is when a student is full-time at their home school and the maximum financial aid allotted has been reached.

The class fees at the other school will be waived because tuition is already at the maximum for full-time students. In both cases, the home school recognizes the credit earned at the host school as long as the student abides by the guidelines of the agreement. All this information and more can be found at https://www.housatonic.edu/images/Departments/

Financial-Aid/Fillable_Forms/Consortium_Agreement.pdf or by contacting the financial aid department.

This agreement is primarily between 4 offices, the home/host financial aid offices, and the home/ host bursar’s offices, but it also could include offices such as the advising office or the registration office. Additionally, according to Omar Livingston, the Director of Financial Aid services, these agreements are compatible with recently established grants such as the PACT(Pledge to Advance CT) grant, which allows full-time students additional funding to cover the cost of classes.

Livingston remarked that “All community colleges participate, but it can be a little labor-intensive because each school has its own system.”

Conversely, Livingston also said, “Sometimes classes are only offered once a semester and these classes can be important to some student’s degree,” making these agreements a viable option for students to have because it allows students to take important classes that would otherwise be unavailable.

You can begin this process by contacting the Financial Aid department, who can supply you with information and forms detailing the rules and expectations for these agreements.