MHEC FAFSA Award Update
May 31, 2024The Maryland Higher Education Commission (MHEC) continues to move forward providing financial aid awards to students and families. MHEC is continuing to make awards, even though there were initial technical concerns. Progress is being made! MHEC will continue to make financial assistance awards until all funding is exhausted for this fiscal year. Currently, MHEC has awarded over 6,301 students a Howard P. Rawlings Educational Excellence Award for the upcoming 2024 - 2025 academic year for a total of $67,737,000.00. In the upcoming week, 1,395 “initial” students will be awarded the Guaranteed Access Grant for a total of $30,829,500.
The H. P. Rawlings Educational Assistance award update for fiscal year 2025 is as follows:
Current Status
Program |
Number of Students |
Award Amount | Educational Assistance Grant (Renewal) | 3,501 | $10,052,900.00 | Guaranteed Access Grant (Initial) | 1,608 | $35,109,850.00 | Guaranteed Access Grant (Renewal) | 1,061 | $19,860,950.00 | Next Generation Scholars (GA) - Initial | 95 | $1,938,800.00 | Next Generation Scholars (GA) - Renewal | 36 | $774,500.00 | Total | 6,301 | $67,737,000.00 |
Troubleshooting and Progress Recently, MHEC identified an error in the Maryland College Aid Processing System due to the layout of the new 2024-2025 Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA). The 2024-2025 now allows there to be a “null” value for "Total Income" for students and families that identified that they were not required to file taxes and did not have income. The null value caused an error in MDCAPS in which applicants who fell into the “null” value category were not included in the selection and review process when evaluating applicants' eligibility for the Guaranteed Access Grant. MHEC has been working with its system team to make the null value equivalent to $0 income, in order for those students to be included in the selection and review process to determine eligibility. This issue is in the process of being resolved and will be updated by next week. All applicants that were included in this category will be reprocessed to be evaluated and awarded based on eligibility in the upcoming week. MHEC is completing the award process on a weekly basis to award as many students as possible in an efficient manner. Eligible applicants who completed the FAFSA by
May 15(i.e. priority deadline date) will be guaranteed to be awarded. The Maryland Higher Education Commission aims to award all eligible applicants who have completed the FAFSA by the priority deadline as swiftly as possible. MHEC strongly encourages students who have not created an online account through the MHEC One-App (i.e. MSFAA applications) to utilize the online tool in order to enable award processing and track notifications:
MHEC encourages Local Education Agencies to print this update and distribute it at high school graduations to inform students. The importance of completing the FAFSA is critical in accessing college and community college financial aid.
High School Graduates! The Time to Act is Now!
Complete the FAFSA for financial aid.MHEC continues to encourage students and families to complete the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA). If there are questions regarding the FAFSA application, please see the links below provided by the United States Department of Education. To support your efforts, we are sharing the following new resources for students and parents:
Scholarship and Grant Deadlines are found here: MHEC.Maryland.gov
If you need money for college or a career, please visit: MHEC.Maryland.gov
College and Career Counselors, for more information, please visit: MHEC.Maryland.gov
Students and Families, for more information, please visit: MHEC.Maryland.gov |
