What is Financial Aid?

Financial aid helps you bridge the gap between school costs and what you and your family can reasonably contribute out-of-pocket. There are two types of financial aid; financial aid that is free (grants and scholarships) and financial aid that will have to be repaid at some point (loans-federal or private).

DISCLAIMERS: The following information is for U.S. and permanent residents only. International students are not eligible for federal or state aid. Click for International student funding options. If you do not plan to take federal/state aid and want to receive educational allowance/subsidy, you will only need to complete Step 2.

EVERY YEAR

Step 1: Complete the FAFSA using the IRS Data Retrieval Tool.

Applications are made online at www.fafsa.ed.gov. Students and parents of dependent students will need to get an FSA-ID, which is a username and password combination that allows you to sign your FAFSA electronically. It generally takes 48 hours for Federal Student Aid Programs to process the FAFSA and send an electronic report to the schools you listed on the FAFSA. We will need that report before we can evaluate your aid request.

The FAFSA will ask you to supply school codes for every university to which you are applying.

The Andrews University code is 002238.

Your financial aid application requires IRS tax data. You can link directly to the IRS database using the FAFSA IRS Data Retrieval Tool. This tool will be available 2-3 weeks after you (and your parent(s) or spouse, if applicable) have filed an electronic federal income tax return. If you did not or could not use the Data Retrieval Tool, you will need to download your tax data to your FAFSA application at a later date. To do this, wait at least two weeks after filing your taxes, log back in to your FAFSA, click on "Make a Correction," use the IRS Data Retrieval Tool, and submit the record for processing. If you feel changes need to be made to the tax data uploaded to your FAFSA, please contact our office for further instructions.

DISCLAIMER: If you file a paper tax return, the wait to download your tax data to your FAFSA will be considerably longer (estimated 6-8 weeks). If, at the time you submitted your tax return, you had an amount owed that has not been paid in full, your tax data will not be available until the IRS processes your return by the end of June/July. E-filers in the same situation will not have their tax data available until the IRS processes your return by end of June or 3-4 weeks after the IRS receives the full/final payment.

Learn more: FAFSA

FSA-ID

IRS Data Retrieval Tool

Step 2: Submit Andrews University Financial Information Sheet.

► If you are requesting educational allowance only and you are NOT filing the FAFSA, pay special attention to Section 3A of the Financial Information Sheet.

► If you are requesting educational allowance and you ARE filing the FASA, pay special attention to Section 3B of the Financial Information Sheet.

► If your parent is an ordained minister AND you are filing a FAFSA, you must submit a copy of the prior year Worker's/W-2 Detail Report (see example here) or an official statement from Payroll/Treasury Department listing the amount of Parsonage Exclusion and Taxable Educational Allowance received for the entire household in the year prior to the start of classes.

Click here for the Andrews University Financial Information Sheet.

Step 3: Check for & satisfy award requirements.

After your FAFSA has been filed and your Financial Information Sheet is in, you should be able to login to your finVue account and check for any pre-award requirements within 2-3 business days. There will be a longer wait time if our office is processing a higher than normal volume of documents. Please note that July & August are our busiest months.

Some files may be selected for Verification. Verification is a process used to verify certain information on the FAFSA. Selection can be random or because of errors. If you are selected, you will have to submit additonal documentation. Please check finVue to satsify these requirements.

Once you have logged into your finVue account, simply click on your outstanding requirements and follow the link. Outstanding requirements are marked with a red while satisfied requirements are marked with a green .

Learn more: Verification

AWARDS WILL BE SENT TO YOUR ANDREWS UNIVERSITY EMAIL.

Step 4: Check for & satisfy award requirements.

Review your award notification for any post-award requirements. If you have been offered federal loans you will need to accept or decline them before your award can be considered complete. First-time borrowers will need to complete Entrance Counseling and electronically sign a Master Promissory Note with your FSA-ID. PLUS loan borrowers will also need to complete the Master Promissory Note. Perkins Loan recipients must complete a separate Entrance Counseling and Master Promissory Note also. There will be a longer wait time if our office is processing a higher than normal volume of documents. Please note that July & August are our busiest months.