Nichol Westendorf
Director of Financial Aid
Bethany College- 4 yr Private Non-Profit
Federal Student Aid Handbook Vol. 8 Chapter 3
pg. 8-17 to 8-21.
NASFAA Knowledge Base
Borrower Based Schools Policies & Procedures
Why It Matters?
It’s important to define the period of
enrollment or loan period at the outset,
because the length of the loan period will
determine the timing and amount of
disbursements.
Scheduled Academic Year
• Scheduled AY is a fixed
period of time that
doesn’t change, and
generally begins and ends
at the same time each
year.
• Only term based credit
hour programs can use
standard AY’s.
• For most schools, consists
of Fall/Spring/Summer
Borrower Based Acad. Year
• BBAY not a set period of
time, follow the
borrower.
• A term based credit hour
program can elect to use
BBAY’s if the program’s
academic year provides at
least 30 weeks of
instruction.
• You can use it for all of
your students, or just
those enrolled in certain
programs.
Scheduled- Semester
Fall
Spring
Summer
Borrower Based- Trimester
Term A
Term C
Term B
Term A
Term C
Term B
Term A
Term C
Term B
In-depth
Borrower Based Aid Year depends on the
student’s enrollment and progress.
Schools must use BBAY for clock hour and non-term
credit hour programs
Clock hr programs and non-term programs often
allow students to begin when they want and
progress at their own pace.
The BBAY must contain at least 24 credit hours, 36
quarter credit hours, or 900 clock hours.
The BBAY does not end until the student has
completed the number of weeks or the number of
credit hours in the AY. A self paced student may
then front load or back load their credits.
Trimester Based
Monthly Starts
Burgundy & Gold Tracks