HEERF III Student Emergency Fund Information

The American Rescue Plan (ARP) was passed by Congress and signed into law March 11, 2021. The ARP is the third round of funding under the Higher Education Emergency Relief Fund (HEERF) during the coronavirus pandemic. The funding package provides aid to higher education students to cover components of attendance costs and emergency costs associated with the coronavirus pandemic. The total award made to Georgian Court University is $5,017,499.

The total award amount includes $2,516,127 for student awards, and GCU estimates that approximately 1,653 students are eligible for emergency grants. Eligibility has been expanded under HEERF III to include all students enrolled since the start of the pandemic (March 13, 2020). HEERF III eligibility also includes international, undocumented, and DACA students. Students are not required to be Title IV eligible to receive this funding. Students are not required to have a completed a FAFSA to apply, however, to be considered an “exceptional need” award recipient, a completed FAFSA must be on file because students’ expected family contribution (EFC) is used to determine “exceptional need.” Exceptional need is defined as undergraduate or graduate students with a total family expected contribution under 5850. GCU utilized a sliding scale formula to award all other non-Pell income-eligible students.