Dream Act - Aid Process

When you have completed the California Dream Application and have been admitted to SSU, we will determine your eligibility for state-funded financial aid.

In some cases, additional documentation must be reviewed before your eligibility for financial aid can be determined. If so, you will receive a To Do List Notification email and you will see the required documentation in MySSU in your To Do List.

Once all documentation has been reviewed, if you are eligible for financial aid we will send you an Award Offer Notification email. If you are not eligible, we will send you an email explaining the reason(s).

Timeline

This is an overview of the major steps in applying for and receiving financial aid funds.

SSU Receives Your California Dream Application

The California Dream Application should be completed between January 1 and March 2 prior to the Fall semester when you intend to begin attendance at SSU. If you begin attendance in the Spring semester, the Dream application period is in the prior calendar year. We will email your personal email address or SSU email address when we receive the application results. SSU email accounts are generally created after you’ve been admitted, paid your Enrollment Reservation Deposit (ERD), and been granted full student access to registration. Once your SSU email account is created, all your future notifications will be sent there. If you have not yet been admitted to SSU when we receive your Dream Application results, you will get an acknowledgment email. Once you are admitted, we will review your application and determine if you have to give us any documentation. If so, we will assign To-Do List items as explained below. We only use your personal email address until you have been given access to your SSU email account. Once you have an SSU email account, we will only send messages to that account.

SSU Assigns To-Do List Items to Complete the Financial Aid File

For students admitted to SSU for the Fall semester, we begin assigning To-Do List items in February. For students admitted to SSU for the Spring semester, we begin assigning To-Do List items in October. In some cases, no To-Do List items are required. You can learn more about To-Do List items in the Help Book at our To-Do List Notifications webpage.

SSU Notifies Admitted and Continuing Students of the Financial Aid Award

For students admitted to SSU for the Fall semester, we begin financial aid award notifications in late March or early April. For students admitted to SSU for the Spring semester, we begin financial aid award notifications in late October or early November. For continuing students, we begin financial aid notifications after Spring grades are posted in June. Once you’ve received an award offer from SSU, you can learn more about viewing your financial aid awards in the Help Book on our Your Financial Aid Offer page.

Using the Financial Aid Help Book

The Financial Aid Office Help Book contains important information that applies to recipients of state-funded financial aid. It also describes the federally-funded programs that are not yet available to Dream students.

These sections of the Help Book are extremely important to you as a recipient of state-funded financial aid, and you must read and understand them:

Important To-Do List Items for Dream Act

This section explains the most important To-Do List items for students applying for financial aid under the California Dream Act.

Dream Act Residency: The AB540 Affidavit

Assembly Bills 540 and 2000 created exemptions from the requirement to pay non-resident tuition for students who meet certain requirements. You can view the full requirements on the AB540 and AB2000 California Nonresident Tuition Exemption Request. To qualify for state-funded financial aid under the California Dream Act, you must also qualify for the waiver of non-resident tuition and have your affidavit on file with the SSU Office of Admissions.

Income and Household Size Verification

There is a chance your Dream Act Application will be randomly selected for verification. If you are selected for verification, this means you must submit certain kinds of documentation to our office.

Most often, the documentation verifies your previous year's income and your household size. Please refer to your To-Do List in MySSU for your specific income documentation requirements.

More detailed information about certain items we may request is found on our To-Do List Notifications page.

We will compare the information on your income documentation and other forms to the information you reported on your Dream Act Application, and make corrections if necessary. These corrections could result in a change to your Expected Family Contribution (EFC), which could result in changes to your award. If you have previously been notified of your award offer, we will send a modified award offer notification to you by email or letter explaining the changes.