Special Circumstances

Budget and Award Revisions

Requests for a Revision to Parent Contribution will be considered if the request documents an unexpected and substantial decrease in family resources since the time of application.

Changes can be made to your budget and possibly your awards if your education-related expenses significantly exceed your estimated Cost of Attendance. The normal mandatory student fees are already included in your standard budget, but if you have education-related expenses such as additional lab/course fees, tuition overload fees, loan origination fees, or documented required book expenses that exceed the standard book allowance, these may be added to your budget and if available, additional aid awarded to fill the resulting financial need. Email revision request with appropriate documentation attached from your @cwu.edu email to FinancialAid@cwu.edu.

Students are eligible to request a one-time-only increase to their Cost of Attendance for the purchase of a computer for school-related work. Typically, these requests are limited to $2,000 unless adequately documented that your particular academic program requires specialized equipment that exceeds this amount.

Please be aware that we cannot exceed your maximum annual eligibility in any financial aid program, so while your budget may be increased to cover an additional cost, we may not have funds to fill the resulting additional budget amount. Typically budget increases are filled with loan funds, if eligible.

Consortium Agreement

If you are attending CWU and taking classes simultaneously at another institution with the intention of transferring those credits back to Central, you may be eligible for a consortium agreement.

Important considerations:

• Students must be receiving the Federal Pell Grant and/or the Washington College Grant at CWU to be eligible.
• Consortium agreement requests can only be considered from students pursuing a degree at CWU and enrolled in a minimum of six credits at Central each quarter an agreement is in effect.
• The Financial Aid Office requires the completed paperwork be submitted at least two weeks prior to the start of the quarter for which it will apply.
• A consortium agreement is limited to two quarters. They do not have to be consecutive. However, a new agreement form is required for each quarter.
• The student is responsible for paying all charges at the other school. CWU cannot make any payments on his/her behalf.

Contact the Office of Financial Aid and Scholarships for more information.

Involuntary Loss of Income

Priority due date: August 1st

If your family's financial situation has changed since last filing your FAFSA you may be eligible to file a special circumstances appeal. Your request will be given full consideration. However, an approval is not guaranteed, and we will only consider fully documented situations that fall within the parameters of Federal Guidelines. The decision of the CWU Financial Aid office is final.Please meet with a Financial Aid Counselor to determine if your situation meets eligible criteria. They can inform you of the process and help you determine what documents should be included in your request.

Special circumstances include:

• Death: The student has already applied for Federal Student Aid, but since that time, one of the student's parents has died. Provide a copy of death certificate.
• Substantial involuntary loss of income: at least a 25% reduction in income earned from work that has lasted for at least 10 weeks (i.e., business closure, reduction in force, etc.)
• Other: There is a change in income, but it does not fit one of the above reasons.

Examples that could be considered:

• Unemployment benefits were terminated
• Conversion of a regular IRA into a Roth IRA
• Change in family assets (savings) due to unexpected circumstances
• Retrieval of retirement savings for expenses beyond the family’s control

Examples that will not be considered:

• One time payments/inheritance
• Voluntarily leave your job
• Retrieval of retirement savings for expenses other than those beyond the family’s control
• Change in parent marital status after filing a FAFSA

Revision Requests

Revisions will be considered based upon the reason for the request and the supporting documentation provided. Dependent students will need to complete a Parent Contribution Revision Request and submit a signed copy of their parent's Federal Tax Transcript and W-2's. If the tax information is not yet available, please send the final pay stub or other supporting documentation with this revision request.

Please contact the Office of Financial Aid and Scholarships to discuss your situation with a financial aid counselor and learn the next steps for requesting a revision to your FAFSA application.

Married Students

Your FAFSA application is a ‘snapshot’ in time and it must be accurate on the day you apply. This is significant if you are a dependent student and plan to be married. You are still considered dependent unless you wait until after the marriage to apply.

CWU may exercise professional judgment to update your marital status if it is deemed necessary to address an inequity or to more accurately reflect your ability to pay.  Per CWU policy, the date of the marriage must be on/before December 31st of the current academic year.  Decisions to update marital status are made on a case-by-case basis and based on the documentation you provide. 

Please contact the Office of Financial Aid and Scholarships to discuss your specific situation with a counselor and learn more about the process for updating marital status.

Students With Children

A student with one or more dependents may request an increase to the Cost of Attendance (COA) to include an allowance based on the estimated or actual expenses incurred for dependent care if that care is necessary in order to allow the student to attend school.  A dependent may include persons other than children, such as elderly dependent parents.  The allowance is based on the typical costs for care in the student’s community.

Aside from the outright dependent care expenses, the dependent care allowance may also include the maintenance expenses of dependents when the family’s income meets the definition of insufficient to cover basic subsistence costs, such as costs for food and shelter.  (Income less than the Income Protection Allowance (IPA) in the FAFSA EFC formula is an indicator the family’s income is insufficient to cover basic subsistence costs.)