Financial Aid

Watch any or all of these short videos by Rocky Christensen, our director of financial aid. He is great at making this complicated topic seem simple, and helping you discover how affordable a Johnson education can be.

Johnson University institutional scholarships are available to most full-time degree-seeking students. Part-time students in their final term are eligible to receive institutional scholarships on a prorated basis.

Some institutional aid is automatically awarded upon receiving both the FAFSA and the Johnson Financial Aid Check In. Other institutional aid requires an application. A minimum of a 2.0 GPA is required to receive any Johnson aid. Certain awards may require a higher GPA, and total institutional aid may not exceed annual tuition. Visit our Scholarships page to learn more and apply!

• To access financial aid, first complete a Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA), which could open the door for multiple grants and scholarship opportunities. To receive the maximum amount of aid, this step should be completed by April 15. Johnson University Tennessee’s FAFSA code is 003495 for both Tennessee and Florida campuses.
• If selected for verification, you will receive an email from the Financial Aid Office with instructions on how to complete the necessary steps.
• Complete the Financial Aid Check-In on My.JohnsonU.edu.
• Review the Johnson scholarships that are available on your campus.
• Consider work-study options to earn extra money on campus.

The Financial Aid Office (FAO) disburses financial assistance directly to the student’s Johnson account. Disbursements are scheduled two weeks after the add/drop date of the term/session to allow time for processing. If a student requests a refund, the Student Accounts Office has 14 days to issue a refund once the financial assistance has been posted to the student’s Johnson account. Refunds will be issued to the student in the form of a check.

In order to reduce overpayment to students who do not begin attendance, refunds will not be issued until after the term starts. Loans are not disbursed until sometime after the term starts. Exceptions may be made to this rule on a case-by-case basis for students who need to use financial aid funds to purchase books before the beginning of the semester. In these cases, the student is required to submit an appeal to the Financial Aid Office for either approval or denial by the director. If approved, the funds will not be disbursed any earlier than 10 days before the term start date. The Financial Aid Office collaborates with other offices to track whether or not the student actually began attending class. Students may also charge books to their student accounts through the online bookstore and use financial aid funds to cover that purchase.

Since a student’s aid cannot exceed the Cost of Attendance, over-awards must be eliminated. Over-awards are taken care of according to the circumstance of the over-award. Specifically, the cause of the over-award determines whether the student or school is liable for resolution of the overpayment. In general, unless the school is liable, a student is liable for any overpayment made to him or her. In these instances, the Financial Aid Office will notify the student about their repayment obligation and report the overpayment in the National Student Loan Data System. The student is ineligible for FSA funds until he/she makes repayment arrangements with the Department of Education.

The Financial Aid process starts with submitting the FAFSA application at FAFSA.gov. All students who are interested in receiving financial aid must submit the FAFSA to Johnson University and include our school on their application. Our school code is 003495 for both TN and FL campuses.

Once the Financial Aid Office receives the submitted FAFSA into our system, the designated financial aid counselor reviews the application to determine if the student was selected for further verification. If so, the counselor emails the student requesting additional documentation in order to verify the FAFSA information. Required documentation is often a verification worksheet, parent and/or student IRS Tax Return Transcript, Non-Filers verification, or the V4 & V5 verification worksheet. If the counselor determines that more information is needed for review, they will reach out to the student and request the documentation.

After verification has been performed or the FAFSA application has been determined as ready, the financial aid counselor will package and award financial aid according to need, merit, and eligibility. Once the packaging process is complete, the student will receive an email notification of the awards they are receiving. The award letter provides detail on the awards, amounts, and status of the financial aid package. The student must then log into their financial aid portal to accept or decline their awards. Further documentation may be required depending on the awards accepted (for example, the Christian Ministry Application, student loan documents, or parent PLUS documents).

Once the awards have been accepted, they will appear on the student’s account. If further financial arrangements need to be made, the student may set up a payment plan through the Tuition Management System in their student account portal. The deadline to make a payment for the fall semester is August 15. If the account is not in good standing before the start of each semester the student may face classes being dropped or being unable to register.

For Post 9/11 GI Bill® (Ch 33) students and VA Vocational Rehabilitation and Employment (Ch 31) students, our tuition policy complies with 38 USC 3679(e) which means Post 9/11 and Vocational Rehabilitation and Employment students will not be charged or otherwise penalized due to a delay in VA tuition and fee payments. For eligibility consideration, a Post 9/11 GI Bill student must submit a VA Certificate of Eligibility (COE) and a Vocational Rehabilitation Student must provide a VAF 28-1905 form and DD214 (if applicable).  Additional forms for certification will be sent from the School Certifying Official.

GI Bill® is a registered trademark of the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA). More information about education benefits offered by VA is available at the official U.S. government website at www.benefits.va.gov/gibill.