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ED: See Department of Education, U.S.

Educational Benefits: Funds, primarily federal, awarded to certain categories of students (veterans, children of deceased veterans or other deceased wage earners, and students with physical disabilities) to help finance their postsecondary education regardless of their ability to demonstrate need in the traditional sense.

Educational Expenses: See Cost of Attendance.

EFC: See Expected Family Contribution.

Eligibility Criteria: The specific conditions that a student must meet to qualify for financial assistance. In addition to demonstrating need for most programs, general eligibility criteria for federal student aid include, among other things, citizenship status and selective service registration. Individual programs may carry other specific eligibility requirements in addition to the general eligibility criteria. Many eligibility criteria, such as citizenship, are checked via automated matches of FAFSA information and that contained on other federal databases.

Eligible Institution: An institution of higher education, vocational school, postsecondary vocational institution, or proprietary institution of higher education that meets all criteria for participation in the federal student aid programs.

Eligible Non-Citizen: Person who, although not a U.S. citizen, qualifies for federal student aid in one of the following eligible categories: 1) U.S. Permanent resident who has an Alien Registration Receipt Card (Form I-151, I-551, usually referred to as green cards) or other evidence of admission for permanent residence; 2) Conditional permanent resident (I-151C); 3) Person designated as lawfully present in U.S. for other than a temporary purpose who has an Arrival-Departure Record (Form I-94) from INS stamped as refugee, granted asylum, indefinite parolee and/or humanitarian parolee, or Cuban-Haitian entrant; 5) Permanent residents of the Republic of Palau or citizens of the Republic of the Marshall Islands and the Federated States of Micronesia. Non-citizens who are not eligible for federal student aid include holders of Student Visas, Exchange Visitors Visas, G-Series Visas, or those who have only a Notice of Approval to Apply for Permanent Residence.

Eligible Program: A program of education or training that leads to a degree or a certificate at a school participating in one or more federal student aid programs. A student must be enrolled in an eligible program at an eligible school to receive federal student assistance.

Employment: With reference to financial aid, the opportunity for students to earn money to help pay for their education. Federal Work-Study is one program by which needy students can work to defray their educational expenses. In addition to Federal Work/Study, most colleges provide other on-campus forms of employment and maintain listings of off-campus employment opportunities as well.

Endowment: Funds obtained and owned by the postsecondary institution that are invested so that the income from the investment can be used for various purposes such as construction, research, and financial aid.

Enrolled: The completion of registration requirements (other than the payment of tuition and fees) at the institution the student is or will be attending; a correspondence school student must be accepted for admission and complete and submit one lesson to be considered enrolled.

Enrollment Status: At those institutions using semesters, trimesters, quarters, or other academic terms and measuring progress by credit hours, enrollment status equals a students credit hour workload categorized as either full-time, three-quarter-time, half-time, or less-than-half-time.

Entitlement Program: Program that is funded sufficiently to ensure that all eligible applicants are guaranteed to receive maximum authorized awards. As long as the student applicant meets all the eligibility requirements and is enrolled in an eligible program at an eligible institution, he or she will receive the award for which eligibility has been established.

Expected Family Contribution (EFC): The amount a student and his or her family are expected to pay toward the students cost of attendance as calculated from information on the FAFSA by a Congressionally mandated formula known as Federal Methodology. The EFC is subtracted from the Cost of Attendance (COA) to determine need. Need is used to determine a students eligibility for the student financial assistance programs.