Financial Aid

Posted 05/21/12
NOTICE REGARDING 2012 SPRING & SUMMER AID FOR ALL CONTINUING STUDENTS

At this time, the Tulane University Financial Aid Office is finishing awards for incoming students and 2012 summer semester aid applicants.  In June we will start the review and award process for returning student populations.  We expect that award notifications for full-time continuing undergraduates will commence by the end of June and be completed by mid-July.

Posted 04/13/12
Notice April 13, 2012 Regarding 2012-2013 Financial Aid Processing

We wish to welcome all who are applying to Tulane for the upcoming 2012-2013 academic year.

Incoming Full-Time Undergraduates:  For incoming full-time undergraduate applicants, our recommended deadline of February 15th for completing your financial aid applications (specifically, both the Free Application for Federal Student Aid and CSS Profile form) has passed; however, we will continue to accept late applications, and awards will be made on a funds-available basis.

To date we have reviewed and awarded incoming full-time freshmen who have been offered admission and who completed: 1) both the 2012-2013 FAFSA and the 2012-2013 CSS Profile applications; 2) only the 2012-2013 CSS Profile (note: ultimately the 2012-2013 FAFSA must be completed); and 3) only the 2012-2013 FAFSA (other than previously awarded Tulane merit scholarship, these awards solely represent a student's eligibility for federal student aid).

All Other Incoming Students:  At this time 2012-2013 financial aid applications for all other incoming student populations has commenced and 2012-2013 award notifications have started and will continue throughout the remainder of April.

Reminder for All:  You may securely access the status of your 2012-2013 financial aid application via Tulane's Gibson Online Portal. If you do not know your logon credentials, be sure to click on the "Forgot your username or password?" link, and Tulane will e-mail (to your e-mail address of record) your necessary log-in credentials. Note: The sign-on process and credentials for Gibson is separate from the undergraduate admission office's on-line log-in process.

Two important items:

1.)      To accurately and efficiently receive your financial aid application data (such as your 2012-2013 FAFSA data), Tulane needs to be in receipt of your Social Security Number (SSN). When you log onto Gibson, you will be immediately prompted to safely and securely report to us this critical piece of information if Tulane's records reflect that this information is not currently known. If prompted, we encourage you to accurately respond to this query in order to avoid any possible delays in our receipt and identification of your aid application data.

2.)      As you navigate through Gibson, you are able to review "outstanding requirements" which we are requesting. If you've received notification of an award, then any remaining requirements are not immediately but will ultimately be required for review by our staff before we can authorize the disbursement of aid later when the enrollment period begins. Please note that for all Tulane need-based scholarship recipients, we will ultimately request IRS 2011 tax return transcripts (this is a print-out from the IRS) be provided to our office in order to verify all reported income data. Students and families are welcome to provide us with copies of their actual 2011 federal tax returns, and we will review this data in determining aid eligibility, however, we will ultimately need copies of actual IRS tax return transcripts to complete the financial aid process and confirm all need-based scholarship awards. Tulane will often make initial award offers without receipt of any tax information documentation, but all awards are contingent on our final review of the aforementioned IRS tax return transcripts.

Posted 03/20/12
Student Loan Terms Changing for 2012-2013
Acts of Congress have changed terms for student loans in four major ways beginning in 2012-2013.
1. Graduate level students will no longer be eligible for Federal Subsidized Stafford Loans for periods of enrollment beginning on or after July 1, 2012. (Budget Control Act)
2. Federal Stafford and PLUS Loan fees remain 1% and 4%, respectively, but rebates will no longer be available for loans first disbursed on or after July 1, 2012. (Budget Control Act)
3. The interest rate for all Federal Stafford Loans is set to 6.8% effective for loans disbursed on or after July 1, 2012: undergraduate subsidized loans will no longer be set at the lower rates. (College Cost Reduction and Access Act)
4. Federal Subsidized Stafford Loans will no longer be subsidized during the grace period, which is the six months following graduation or otherwise stopping at least half-time enrollment, for loans disbursed on or after July 1, 2012. (Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2012)

Posted 04/26/12
Student Pell Grant Terms Changing for 2012-2013

LIFETIME LIMITS PLACED ON FEDERAL PELL GRANT

• President Bush signed into law August 14, 2008 Public Law 11-315 Higher Education Opportunity Act, which capped the amount of time a student can receive a Pell Grant to nine years (18 semesters), prorated for attendance status, and the cap applied to all students who received their first Pell Grant after July 1, 2008 (Section 401(c)).
• However, President Obama signed into law December 23, 2011 the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2012 (HR 2055), which capped the maximum lifetime eligibility for Pell Grants from nine years (18 semesters) to six years (12 semesters), prorated for attendance, effective for all students July 1, 2012, beginning with the 2012-13 award year.
• For information on how the U.S. Department of Education calculates the "equivalent of six years" click on the following link: www.studentaid.ed.gov/pell-limit.
• For an example of an email from the U.S. Department of Education to a Tulane student regarding the limitation, click here.

Alternative Financing Options
Alternative financing options to assist undergraduate students and their parents with educational expenses not covered by other forms of financial aid are described here. These options include monthly payment plans through Tuition Management Systems (TMS), Federal PLUS Loans and Private/Alternative Education Loans.

News Archive
To view archived news items (for billing items, see below) from Tulane University Financial Aid, click here.

Billing News Archive
To view archived billing news items (for other archived news item topics, see above) from Tulane University Financial Aid, click here.

Page last modified on May 21, 2012