“The cost of a Northeastern degree will remain the same.”

In the past week, this sentence has been spouted, spurred and spewed across campus. Tuition is going up, and the increase is an even one, but what will happen to financial aid?

At the budget presentation Monday, Senior Vice President of Finance and Administration Lawrence Mucciolo said that 28 percent of the incremental gross revenue for the university will fund financial aid. This value equals $5.8 million.

The catch to receiving aid, though, is going to see your financial advisor, Dean of Student Financial Services Seamus Harreys said.

Financial aid awards are highly time sensitive, and without informing your financial aid advisor of your plan, aid could dissolve. Aid may be tighter than in the past due to recent federal and state budget cuts. With semester conversion factored in, awarding aid for the upcoming year could be difficult, due not only to the economy, but to a student’s shift in academic enrollment, which could hurt eligibility.

“Their counselor is an important person to know, but they won’t know you until you come in,” Harreys said. “We can do more the earlier you come in.”

Harreys suggests that students meet with their academic advisors first in order to map out classes, co-op and vacations, so a financial aid package will mirror the individual, but time is literally money, and the federal regulated FAFSA form is due by March 1. By early April, the financial aid office will have received word from the federal government as to how much aid the university will receive. By June 1, students will receive notification of awards. By August, Harreys said, just weeks before semester conversion settles in, 95 percent of students will have received word on their financial aid package.

“We are proactive, not reactive,” Harreys said. “We are not here to enroll students, but to graduate them.”

The office of student financial aid has been working to educate students of the critical task at hand – advising. Postcards have been sent out, forums have been held and the “semest-o-meter” has been created.

The Excel-based program will allow parents and a student work with their advisor to estimate how tuition will look for that particular student in the upcoming academic year, assuming the student’s finances remain the same.

In two to three weeks, Harreys said parents and students will be able to map out their finances on the semest-o-meter online, off of the myneu Web site.

“We hope to evolve [semset-o-meter] into a financial aid planning tool,” he said.

Though Harreys admits there is a constant anxiety about tuition coupled with aid, he suggests that students must meet with their advisors to ensure smooth sailing into semester conversion.

“I have a staff that cares about the students, for us it is not about the money or the prestige,” he said. “We are the doorway to higher education. We want to make sure the student can participate in that, not to have Northeastern alienate them. We are just trying to make it as easy as possible.”