How Long Does It Take to Get My Financial Aid Award Letter? - Scholarships360 (2024)

FAQs

How long does it take to receive a financial aid award letter? ›

After you submit your application for financial aid, you will receive a financial aid award letter from the college(s) to which you applied, typically in early to mid-April.

After you have submitted the FAFSA and then submitting the requested documents to the Financial Aid Office: 2-3 weeks.

To see your aid, log in to your StudentAid.gov account using your account username and password (FSA ID).

If you submitted your Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA^®) form, you can expect the U.S. Department of Education (ED) to process your form based on the method of submission: Forms submitted electronically are processed within one to three days. Paper forms are processed within 7–10 days.

What is a Social Security Award Letter? If your eligibility to receive social security income has been confirmed, you will generally receive your benefit verification letter one to three months after a decision is made by the social security office. But according to the SSA itself, a decision takes 3-5 months.

Some may pay out even more frequently—twice per academic period, for instance. Aid funds are typically awarded shortly before the start of the academic period. Most schools distribute aid at least 10 days before the beginning of the quarter or semester.

The most common reasons for delays include the following: Not registering for enough credits: With most grants and student loans, you must be enrolled at least half time. If you're below the required credit amount, your financial aid won't be issued.

Why is the 2024-2025 FAFSA delayed? The latest delay for the 2024-2025 FAFSA is the result of errors in updating the indexing formula for the Student Aid Index (SAI), a figure used to determine how much aid students qualify for.

The delays are a result of overhauls made to the aid application system that were mandated by laws passed by Congress in 2019 and 2020. The overhauls were intended to make the FAFSA simpler, easier to use, and to make more lower-income students eligible for more aid.

Track your student aid through your Dashboard.

When you log in to StudentAid.gov, you'll be taken to your Dashboard. Your Dashboard tracks info about your federal student aid, including how much you've borrowed and what kinds of aid you've received.

How to check how much FAFSA gave you? ›

Your financial aid award letter will include information about how much your college is offering you in grants, scholarships, work-study, and student loans. The letter may also include the estimated cost of one year of attendance (COA) at the college. This money is not going to be given to you.

You can check the status of your FAFSA any time after submitting it online. Once logged in , your FAFSA status displays on the “My FAFSA” page. If you submitted a paper FAFSA, your application will be processed within 7–10 days, at which time you can check your status.

Overall, FAFSA takes about 3 days to 3 weeks to process depending on if you filled out your form online or by hand. From there, the schools will use the data received to prepare your financial aid package.

Your file will be reviewed once ALL required documents have been received. The verification review process may take 3-5 weeks especially if corrections have to be made to your application. Additional time may be necessary for processing during peak periods.

If you're a first-year student applying to two-year colleges, you can expect your financial aid offers later in the spring or early summer. If you're a continuing college student or transfer student, you should expect your financial aid offers later in the spring and even into the summer.

If you have an account username and password and your FAFSA information has been processed, you can log in at fafsa.gov to view SAR information regardless of the method (online or on a FAFSA PDF) you used to file a FAFSA form or whether you provided an email address or not.

Verification processing time is generally two to three weeks during peak season (June-October), and one to two weeks during non-peak season (November-May). Therefore, students should start the process as soon as possible.