Financial Aid

YES! Federal Financial Aid for James Rumsey Technical Institutes’ post-secondary students is administered through the Office of Student Services. Potential students who wish to apply should complete the Free Application for Federal Student Aid at https://studentaid.gov/. It is not necessary to pay for this process, although some agencies will encourage you to pay them to do it for you. We have included “How to Videos” to help you understand the financial aid process. These videos were created by the department of education.

YES! We participate in the federal Pell grant program, which is need-based federal aid that does not require repayment provided the program is completed satisfactorily. This grant is for full-year programs, which includes all current JRTI programs except Truck Driving and night classes (students in those programs should ask about the HEAPS grant). Students who are eligible for Pell will need to meet with the Coordinator of Student Services to complete the necessary paperwork in order to claim their grant.

Students must understand that they may only receive federal aid through one institution in any given semester. You will be asked to sign an agreement stating that you will repay the money if your grades or attendance do not meet satisfactory standards. Students who receive Pell awards will have one half of the total award credited to their JRTI account at the beginning of first semester and the remaining half at the beginning of second semester. The amount disbursed will be applied toward your tuition first. If it does not cover the entire amount, you will be expected to pay the remainder before the first day of classes. If it covers the tuition and there is money left over, you will have the opportunity to request that it be used for books, tools, uniforms, etc. Any student who still has money in their account after all of these expenditures will receive a check for the balance after he/she successfully completes 60% of the semester.

Unfortunately, no. James Rumsey is a small facility and which provides certificate rather than degree programs. Therefore we are not authorized to administer federal student loans or state financial aid programs (such as PROMISE scholarships or the WVHEG grant).

Students who are interested in pursuing loans will need to meet directly with a private lender. We do not recommend any loan companies, but encourage you to check some of the local lenders (hometown banks or credit unions) as well as the larger ones. While exploring options, it is in the students’ best interest to make it clear to the loan representative that they are seeking only loans that can be directly between the student and the lender, and not administered by the school. This will save the frustration that occurs from beginning the paperwork process on government loans, only to find out that James Rumsey is not on the approved list for them.

It is best to complete the FAFSA before March 1 because of WV deadlines for state aid.  Ideally, it should be done about two weeks after you complete your income tax return.  You will be given the opportunity to use the IRS Data Retrieval Tool to import your tax data directly into the correct blanks.  This avoids errors and automatically verifies that your entries match what you submitted to the IRS.  If taxes are not completed in time to do this before March 1, go ahead and submit the FAFSA before the deadline and use estimates for your income.  You will be given the opportunity to update the information later.  You will need to enter the JRTI school code of 008-355 so that your information will be sent to the school.

See our Scholarships page. Several of the scholarships listed can be applied for with our scholarship application form.