University of Michigan - Flint

To apply for financial aid visit the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) website at Link URL: www.fafsa.ed.gov. Students must reapply each year. In addition, prior to filing the FAFSA on line students and a parent (if required) must have a PIN assigned by the U.S. Department of Education. These PINs act as an electronic signature and are therefore mandatory when filing on line. A PIN can be obtained at www.pin.ed.gov FAFSAs submitted without proper PINs will be rejected and awards cannot be made until all proper signatures are received by the federal processor. The date required to file to be considered for financial aid through the State of Michigan is March 1.

For more detailed step-by-step instructions please visit the How to Apply section of our web site.

Yes, students must file the FAFSA each year as soon after January 2nd as possible.

The US Department of Education and the Office of Financial Aid recommend that you apply on-line using the FAFSA website (www.fafsa.ed.gov). The process is much faster than filing on paper and it makes corrections easier. Concerns regarding security can be examined at Link URL: http://www.microsoft.com/athome/security/privacy/fafsa_security.mspx.

A student applies for financial aid by filing the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA). Valid FAFSA results must be on file with the Office of Financial Aid (OFA) prior to a student's last date of attendance for the academic year for which the aid is intended. However, the FAFSA form does expire on June 30th of each year. This means the Federal Processor will not process any FAFSA forms after that date. For example the expiration date of the 2007-08 FAFSA is June 30th of 2008. Students are encouraged to apply early. Due to the nature and funding levels of some aid programs it is important that a student apply early.

• The website by which students apply for most UMF scholarships is available early December through mid-February of each year. Students access the website and complete the application on line for the following academic year. Most scholarships are not automatically renewed and must be applied for each year.
• Students who submit their Admission application prior to the posted deadline of November 1st are automatically considered for Admission's merit based scholarships.
• Students should watch their U of M-Flint (UMF) Outlook account for scholarship announcements. Also, the bulletin board located across from the Office of Financial Aid has recent scholarship postings.

Due to changes made by the Higher Education Reconciliation Act, prepaid tuition plans are treated as an asset of the owner, as long as the owner is NOT a dependent student.  For dependent students, a qualified education benefit would be reported on the FAFSA as an asset of the parent, if the parent (including a step-parent) is the owner of the account or plan.

The UM-Flint offers a variety of grants. Undergraduate students with the highest demonstrated need based on their FAFSA results may qualify for the Federal Pell Grant and Federal Supplemental Opportunity Grant. Many needy students will qualify for our University Grant in addition. For more information on all grants offered please see the Undergraduate or Graduate Aid sections of our web site.

Students apply for a majority of University scholarships on line between December and mid-February. This process is for UMF scholarships made possible by our many donors. UMF offers almost 200 of these scholarships. Following the February deadline scholarship applications are prepared for a variety of committees begins work on selecting the recipient(s) for each scholarship. When committee decisions are returned to the OFA letters are sent to the applicants letting them know if they were selected or not. Students who receive scholarships from agencies or companies outside of the UMF need to report all scholarships to the OFA. Private scholarship checks are typically sent directly to the UMF OFA and are often made co-payable to the student and University.

Scholarships are applied to a student's account after they fulfill all the requirements for a particular award. The most common requirement is a thank you letter for the donor of a scholarship. Students can apply for scholarships for the following academic year starting in December through mid-February.

Yes. Students are highly encouraged to apply each year as each year students gain new experiences as a university student, thus making your qualifications for any given scholarship different from the year before.

The deadline for making application for UMF scholarships is mid-February. Please watch for email notifications on Outlook for posted official deadlines as well as multiple posting campus wide.

• Loans are financial aid that must be paid back. Federal Subsidized Loans and Perkins Loans do not accrue interest until a student graduates unlike Unsubsidized Loans and PLUS which have interest added to a loan's principal balance while a student is in school.
• Grants are gift aid based on financial need that does not have to be repaid.

The award letter that a student receives will list what type of financial aid including loan(s) that he or she has been awarded, the amount of aid per semester and instructions on how to accept/decline/reduce the awards. Students will also be instructed to read about their rights and responsibilities as well as any additional steps that must be completed in order to have the loan(s) pay to their student account.

• A dependent students' parent(s) may apply for a PLUS loan by completing the PLUS loan application available in the OFA. The application is then processed by the OFA and a credit check is performed by the Department of Education. Parent(s) approved for a PLUS loan are then asked to complete the Electronic Master Promissory Note (EMPN) on line. Once all of these requirements are met, the PLUS loan is automatically accepted. With written permission of the parent, funds are applied directly to their student's account. Otherwise, PLUS loan funds are mailed directly to the parent.
• A graduate student may follow a similar process in order to take out additional loan funds after their subsidized and unsubsidized limits have been reached for the academic aid year.

Around mid-March of each year the OFA begins to process new awards for the upcoming academic year. Students who are admitted to the UMF and who have requested that their FAFSA results be sent to code 002327 (UMF) prior to mid-March can expect to receive their award letter mid-late March. FAFSA results received after that time are processed on a weekly basis. Some award letters may list estimated awards only. Students receiving an estimated award letter need to respond to the requested items immediately to avoid further delay.

Students who applied for UMF scholarships during the open application period will receive letters as to the committees' decisions beginning in the spring of each year (approximately early May).

The UMF Student Information System (SIS) can be accessed at www.umflint.edu/sis to view all financial aid awards. These awards can be accepted by going into the Award Information Section and selecting Accept Award Offer by Aid Year.

Financial aid awards are paid no earlier than 10 days before the start of a semester. The OFA then continues to disburse awards to student accounts on a daily basis. Students should check the UMF SIS system to see if their funds have been paid to their student account. Financial aid awards will not pay if a student has outstanding requirements, a Satisfactory Academic Progress (SAP) hold (see SAP policy), or who is not properly registered for the amount of credit hours on which the aid was based for that semester.

• Tuition costs for each year must be approved by the University of Michigan Board of Regents and are typically approved for all three campuses over the summer months.
• Students receive a tuition E-Bill (electronic message sent to their UMF Outlook email account approximately two weeks before a semester begins. Billing is handled by the Student Accounts Office.

The University of Michigan - Flint does not have a waiver in place to allow students to give their parent or spouse outright access to their University records.

We do have a system called Web4U.  Web4U is an option that allows a student to grant access to another person to view their student information/ records at the University of Michigan-Flint.

Students can fill out a Request for Re-evaluation Form notifying the OFA about a change to their financial situation. A written explanation and documentation showing the reason for the change will be required from the student and/or parent(s) or spouse if applicable.