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The Bulldog - For the SWOSU Family

Special Circumstances

While the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) provides valuable information for determining financial need, it may not fully capture every family's situation. In certain cases, students may request a review of their financial aid eligibility due to significant changes not reflected on the FAFSA.

Income Decreases

A reduction in household income can place an unexpected strain on families. Federal guidelines allow institutions to re-evaluate financial aid eligibility when a substantial change has occurred. We may review and recalculate your aid eligibility if your family’s adjusted gross income has decreased by at least 20% from the previous year.

To request consideration, you must submit the following:

  1. Completed Special Circumstances Appeal Form, detailing the financial changes and circumstances.
  2. Completed FAFSA for the applicable aid year.
  3. Copy of IRS Tax return transcripts and all W2s.
  4. Additional documentation may be requested if needed.

Aid eligibility is normally calculated using income from the prior-prior year, as reported on the FAFSA. However, if your special circumstance request is approved, we may recalculate your aid eligibility using income from the most recent tax year or projected current-year income, depending on your situation and the documentation you provide. This allows us to base your aid on more accurate and up-to-date financial information.

Special Circumstances are reviewed case by case Starting May 1st through March 31st

 

Medical / Dental Expenses

Similar to income decreases, having high medical or dental expenses paid can be factored into a review. The federal government assumes that 11% of your family adjusted gross income will go towards medical and dental expenses each year. If your amount paid (not billed) exceeds 11%, we may make some adjustments related to the excess amount. To do so we need:

  1. A letter written by the student requesting consideration of the medical or dental expenses in the aid calculation.
  2. Documentation of the paid costs. The best verification is usually a copy of Schedule A from your federal tax return. It shows clearly the amount claimed to the IRS as expenses. Copies of bills unfortunately do not help unless they show the paid amounts since we can only consider the actual costs paid out of pocket for adjustment.

Childcare Expenses

We are able to increase your estimated cost of attendance for childcare expenses you have to pay for attendance in school. The standard adjustment is adjusted yearly and is available in the Financial Aid Office. The adjustment is designed to help with childcare expenses and might not always fully cover costs.

For this increase we need a letter requesting the adjustment and a copy of the agreement made with the caregiver.

Transportation

In our basic cost of attendance calculation, we assume students to be typically driving to campus from within a 25-mile radius; so this cost is already factored in, even for students living on campus to accommodate occasional drives back home. Since it is a radius measurement, depending on the route chosen to get to campus it is possible some students may be driving more than 25 miles each way, but still not be eligible for an adjustment.

But students who travel from outside the standard radius can have an adjustment to their estimated cost of attendance to accommodate this expense. We annually update the standard adjustments available according to two zones of distance away from campus.

To have such an adjustment considered, submit a request letter indicating the town you are commuting from and the number of days per week (maximum of 5) that you have classes here.