Maximizing Your Gift Aid at ACC

To maximize your gift aid at ACC, we recommend that you:

1. Apply early before our priority dates. The forms to apply for aid are generally available as early as October 1 of the year before the school year begins. (Example: The 2026-27 FAFSA is made available online on October 1,  2025.) The earlier you apply, the more likely you are to receive limited sources of financial aid.
2. Keep track of your financial aid application. Be sure that you monitor your ACC email and monitor ACC Self Service for messages from Financial Aid.
3. Apply for ACC scholarships. Scholarships funded by the ACC Foundation have a separate application and process from government-funded aid programs. So apply for both.
4. Search and apply for external scholarships. There are many private sources of scholarship funding that you can find on scholarship search engines. Just beware of scams, and be sure to let us know as soon as possible if you’ve been chosen to receive scholarship funds from outside of ACC.
5. Inform us if you or your family has experienced a loss of income or changes in your family size. A family’s income is the most heavily weighted factor in the formula that determines your family’s ability to pay for college. If your family’s income has dropped significantly since the base year (due to job loss, divorce, etc.), then we may be able to adjust your aid. 
6. Enroll full-time (12 credit hours). The most common forms of government-funded gift aid are based on your hours of enrollment every semester. The more credit hours you take, the more funding you will receive (up to the limit of 12 credit hours for full-time).

To ensure that your gift aid does not get reduced or displaced at ACC, we recommend that you:

1. Avoid dropping courses before your census date. Your census date every semester is specific to your class schedule. Ask us if you need help understanding how this works.
2. Don’t withdraw from the semester, and do pass your classes. Otherwise, you may be asked to repay some of your gift aid. 
3. If you’re expecting external scholarship awards or any other type of help paying for college apart from what’s offered to you by ACC’s Financial Aid Office, email us and tell us about those awards as soon as possible. The earlier we know about these external aid sources, the better. We will do our best to ensure that your government-funded aid is not affected by those outside sources of aid, but be aware that in some cases your aid will have to be reduced because of government rules.