Federal regulations stipulate that your total annual financial aid, including loans and work study, not exceed a student's annual cost of attendance. However, if your education-related expenses exceed your current Cost of Attendance and you find yourself in need of additional funds, you can request a Cost of Attendance Appeal. This appeal is intended to increase your overall Cost of Attendance (i.e., budget) so that you may obtain additional loan funds to meet these education-related expenses. This appeal does not result in non-loan funding. The purpose of the appeal is to permit you to borrow additional loan funds to meet your higher-than budgeted expenses. Examples of these expenses are increased childcare expenses, unexpected housing costs, etc. Please note that submitting an appeal is not a guarantee that it will be approved.

The SFS Dashboard is primarily accessible to students who have filed the FAFSA. We encourage all eligible students to file, but if you are unable to file a FAFSA, please contact [click-for-email] with the subject line "COA Appeal - No FAFSA." A representative will reach out to you to discuss your next steps.

Housing Costs

If you reported 'Off-campus' or 'On-campus' for your housing choice, your Cost of Attendance includes a budget for housing and food. This budget is based on a 9-month enrollment period, which is the length of the Fall and Spring semesters combined. You can appeal this budget if your off-campus housing expenses for this 9-month period exceeds what is budgeted. Please see our Cost of Attendance page for this year's housing budget. We cannot include summer housing costs in the Fall/Spring budget, as Summer is a separate term. We also can only consider your costs for the terms in which you are actively enrolled. 

If you are living on-campus and your residence hall is more expensive then what we budgeted, we encourage you to submit this appeal. You can submit a copy of your student account statement displaying your residence hall charge as your supporting documentation.

Appeal Submission Deadlines

Please review the dates below for the latest dates that we can approve an appeal and adjust aid for the Fall and Spring terms. Appeals are accepted during the Summer sessions, however, due to condensed time frames, we cannot guarantee a timely review during the summer enrollment terms. Appeals requested during the summer sessions are reviewed on a case-by-case basis as quickly as we can, but you should submit before the add/drop deadline of your term to provide sufficient time of review. Please see the Academic Calendar for those dates.