Understanding Your Offer

Your offer is based on full-time enrollment (6 units) each semester. You must be enrolled in at least half-time (3 units) each term to receive federal student loans.

To receive financial aid, you must maintain Satisfactory Academic Progress (SAP) toward completing your degree. If you fail to maintain SAP, you may be in jeopardy of not receiving financial aid. The three main components of SAP are:

• Maintaining a minimum cumulative grade point average (GPA) of 3.0 or higher,
• Completing at least 67% of all attempted units,
• and not exceeding 186 attempted units overall.

It is essential that all students receiving financial aid at Cal Lutheran are aware of the student’s rights and responsibilities. Read your rights and responsibilities.

Please be advised that our method of communicating with students is through the Cal Lutheran/PLTS email address assigned to you after admission. Make sure to frequently check this email address or forward it to another email account in order to receive important information in a timely manner, including any changes made to your Financial Aid Offer.

This Financial Aid Offer is an estimate. All offers are contingent on the accuracy of the information you provided to the University. CLU reserves the right to change/cancel your offer in situations such as:

     a) Failure to maintain Satisfactory Academic Progress (SAP)
     b) Failure to submit required documents
     c) Change in the Student Aid Index (SAI) from the FAFSA
     d) Change in enrollment or housing assignment
     e) Incorrect information
     f) Receipt of additional financial resources

The Financial Aid Offer is based on the cost of attendance associated with the general eligibility determined by your FAFSA. We base your original offer on your assumed housing type based on the address provided on your FAFSA and Cal Lutheran admisions application.  If you change your housing arrangements you should notify the Office of Financial Aid.

If there is a change to either your enrollment status or housing assignment/meal plan, your aid offer may require a revision.

Note: Recipients of the Cal Lutheran Housing Grant MUST reside in CLU residential housing facilities. Failure to maintain official residence in on-campus housing will result in immediate cancellation of the Cal Lutheran Housing Grant.  

When a student completes the FAFSA they may get selected for Verification. The Office of Financial Aid will “verify” the information provided on the FAFSA matches the student’s (and spouse’s, if applicable) and/or parents’ actual data found on their tax returns and other documents. Students who are selected for Verification will be notified on their FAFSA and will receive an email from Cal Lutheran. Federal regulation requires submission of the requested documents to the Office of Financial Aid before your financial aid can be disbursed.

Through the financial aid section in Self-Service, students can check for outstanding missing documents. If there are differences between your FAFSA and your financial documents, corrections may need to be submitted to the Department of Education and your award may change.

All financial aid recipients must review and adhere to Cal Lutheran’s policies regarding:

• Satisfactory Academic Progress (SAP)
• Withdrawal and Returning Aid
• Repeated Coursework Policy
• Appeals Policy
• Falsification of Financial Information
• Terms and Conditions
• Code of Conduct
• Student Rights and Responsibilities

You can view your financial aid award by following these steps:

1. Sign in to Self-Service.
2. From the Checklist select "Review and accept your Financial Aid Offer Package".
3. For each offer listed as Estimated, you must "Accept" or "Decline" from the drop down link.  Accepted loans require additional steps, please see instructions on the Loan Process.
4. Choose 'Offer Letter' to view and print your accepted Financial Aid Offer package.

If you choose to accept your federal student loans, you will be required to complete Loan Entrance Counseling (LEC) and a Master Promissory Note (MPN) in order for your loans to be processed. Please note that failure to complete these tasks could result in a delay of loan processing. 

Loan Application Deadline

The Priority Deadline to complete all steps to borrow loans is July 1. All loans require processing time before the funds will be ready to disburse. Students may receive loan funds for a term only if they are enrolled at least half-time in that term, and funds disburse prior to end of that term. If completion of required steps occurs after 10 business days prior to the end of the term, the Office of Financial Aid cannot guarantee that loan(s) will be processed/disbursed before the end of the eligible timeframe.

Financial aid is applied directly to your student account each term and will first be used to pay any outstanding charges to Cal Lutheran/PLTS. In order for financial aid to be applied to your account all necessary applications and forms must be complete. Should the account not be paid in full after financial aid is applied and you are not making payments through the Monthly Payment Plan (MPP), the outstanding balance will accrue interest on a monthly basis. Outstanding balance statements will be delivered to your Cal Lutheran/PLTS email account.

If a student’s financial aid exceeds costs owed to Cal Lutheran/PLTS, the student account will show a credit balance. A credit balance resulting from loans will be automatically refunded after all charges are assessed. If the credit comes from other financial aid sources, the student may request, in writing, a refund or permission to leave the funds on the student account for the following term within the academic year. The refund check will be sent via mail or directly deposited into an account if the student signs up for direct deposit. Any charges assessed after the refund is issued are the student’s responsibility.