Graduate Students Applying for Aid

General Information
Several of the University's graduate schools have separate Financial Aid Offices. Students at the Law School or Medicine/School of Public Health should contact the financial aid offices listed below.

Students interested in scholarships, assistantships or other aid offered by the graduate divisions should contact the appropriate graduate division. The graduate divisions award their own scholarship funds. The Financial Aid Office then calculates a student's eligibility for additional federal aid to supplement the award made by the Graduate Division.

Graduate students must complete the 2007-2008 Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) to be considered for federal financial aid.

Students can obtain a paper application of the FAFSA from their college counseling office, their university Financial Aid Office or by calling the Federal Student Aid Information Center at (800) 433-3243. Students can also complete the FAFSA online at www.fafsa.ed.gov . Students who choose to complete their FAFSA online will need to register with the Department of Education for a PIN. Students who complete the FAFSA online MUST electronically sign their application OR print out, sign, and mail the "Signature Page" to the Central Processor; the application will not be processed until one form of signature is received. Tulane's school code for the FAFSA is 002029. For more information regarding financial aid for graduate students, please consult with the Graduate Financial Aid Sourcebook 2007-2008 .

Application Deadlines
Application deadlines for each graduate division are as follows:

Once the FAFSA data is received by Tulane, it goes through several processing steps in both the graduate/professional school and the Financial Aid Office. The graduate/professional school decides what aid, if any, it will offer. Then, the Financial Aid Office determines need and makes its decision on the Federal Perkins Loan and/or Federal Work Study employment certification and/or Federal Stafford Loan eligibility. All federal aid decisions for Law students are made at the Law Financial Aid Office. All federal aid decisions for Medical and Public Health students are made at the TUHSC Financial Aid Office.

Status of FAFSA Application
Students can verify that their online application was received immediately after it is submitted by returning to the FAFSA main page and selecting "Check my submitted FAFSA". The online status allows students to check the status of their application from initial submission to processed Student Aid Report (SAR). Students with a PIN can also access their processed EFC. Students can also call FAFSA on the Web Customer Service at (800) 801-0576 and perform an automatic status check over the phone.

Students can verify that their paper application was received by contacting the Department of Education at (800) 433-3243. This automated system allows students to check the status of their application or corrections and even allows students to request duplicate copies of the Student Aid Report (SAR). Students must call from a touch-tone phone to utilize this service and press #1 to select this feature.

Verification Requirements
Some applicants are selected by the federal processor for verification of information submitted on the FAFSA. Students selected will be notified by mail. In most cases, the prior year's federal tax return (2006 income tax return for the 2007-2008 academic year) is used to verify the information. If the applicant did not keep copies of their tax returns, they can contact the Internal Revenue Service for a copy. The IRS has established a site that provides online copies of tax forms as well as answers to frequently asked questions.

Students who did not earn enough in 2006 to file a federal tax return can complete the 2007-2008 Student Non-Filer Certification form.

Additional documents may be requested depending on the information to be verified. Some applicants may need to provide verification of Social Security benefits received by their family. Others may need to provide verification of their Social Security number. Still others may need to provide documentation of the type and amount of their Veteran's education benefits.

Last updated February 18, 2008