Special Circumstances

The 2024-2025 FAFSA is based on your 2022 taxes. If you or your family has experienced a significant reduction of income since the base tax year of your FAFSA, the Financial Aid Office, under limited circumstances, may be able to re-evaluate your eligibility for financial aid for the school year. This re-evaluation will be based upon the documentation that you provide with the Special Circumstances Request Form (this process, formerly referred to as Special Consideration, has been renamed to align with federal regulatory language).

Please note that this process is applicable to undergraduate students only. Graduate/Professional students are not eligible for need-based grants and this process would not result in an increase of aid.

In some instances, a student or family can demonstrate a financial loss from one year to the next, however, the financial loss may not be significant enough to gain more financial aid eligibility. It is important for you to know that not all changes in circumstances will result in an increase to a student's financial aid award. Special Circumstances and Verification Forms are aid-year specific and are not interchangeable. It is imperative that you submit forms for the correct year. If you are unsure which forms you need, please contact the financial aid office for assistance.

IMPORTANT NOTICE:

Students who are requesting Special Circumstances must first complete the FAFSA for the appropriate aid year. If you have not already done so, please click here to file a FAFSA.
Before we are allowed to consider changes to your FAFSA, we are required to verify that your original FAFSA was filed correctly via a process called "verification". Instructions for completing the Verification Process are included with the Special Circumstances Request forms at the bottom of this page. If you have already completed the verification process for the academic year under consideration, you may omit this step. If information that you previously reported on your FAFSA was inaccurate, the verification process may result in the loss of aid that has already been awarded and/or paid to the student.

Circumstances that will be considered

Reduced wages due to job loss or layoff, decreased work hours for at least 90 days;
Receipt of Unemployment Benefits in lieu of wages or expiration of unemployment benefits;
Inflated Adjusted Gross Income on tax return due to a pension withdrawal or rollover that was used to pay off debt.
High out of pocket medical, dental, vision or prescription expenses that you have paid;
Loss or reduction in child support or spousal support payments;
Marital divorce or separation;
Death of a parent or spouse;
Other similar financial changes as appropriate

Special Circumstances Policy

Review and Notification

NOTE: Please allow 10 business days from completion of verification and submission of all requested documentation for a response. Notification of decision will be sent via email.