Changes to Your Award Letter

Student Financial Services (SFS) awards financial aid to students based on the information available at the time you were awarded and on certain assumptions regarding your enrollment. In some instances, it may be necessary for SFS to process a revision to your initial award due to a change in your information or the assumptions made when the initial award offer was processed.

The following scenarios, individually or in part, may require SFS to process a revision to your financial aid award:

Enrollment

• You are not enrolled as a full-time student (12 credits for undergraduate, 9 credits for graduate) for one or more semester resulting in a change to your Cost of Attendance and total aid eligibility
• You are not enrolled as a full-time student (12 credits for undergraduate, 9 credits for graduate) for one or more semester resulting in a change to your eligibility for certain grants, institutional funds, and/or loans
• Your academic record indicates you plan to graduate after the Fall semester and your aid eligibility is affected
• You completed a Summer Financial Aid Application and your Cost of Attendance/Financial Aid eligibility has been revised
• You withdrew from all of your classes during a semester or were classified as an unofficial withdrawal. For more information, see ‘Before You Drop’

FAFSA Information and Student Eligibility

• You and/or your parent changed information on your Student Aid Report (SAR) that resulted in a change to your award eligibility
• Columbia College Chicago made changes to your SAR as part of verification or professional judgment that resulted in a change to your award eligibility
• Another institution or agency reported a change on your SAR that resulted in a change to your award eligibility
• Another agency reported a change to your Financial Aid History (i.e. reported a default on a federal loan, reported a change to your aggregate loan borrowing history, etc.) that affects your financial aid eligibility
• Your eligibility for financial aid has changed due to your academic standing (see Satisfactory Academic Progress)

Additional Funding Awarded/Secured

• You (graduate students) or your parent (dependent students) have/has secured a PLUS Loan and SFS is notifying you that an official loan amount has been added to your financial aid award
• You have secured a private education loan and SFS is notifying you this loan amount has been added to your financial aid award
• You have been awarded additional funds from a federal, state, institution, or private entity and SFS is notifying you of the changes made to your award as a result of this funding

In addition, students may request a change to their Cost of Attendance by submitting a Cost of Attendance Change Request. Students and parent borrowers may also request a change to their federal or private loans by submitting either a Student Loan Adjustment Request or a Parent Loan Adjustment Request.

• If SFS is able to process the request, the student will be notified via a revised award notice.
• If SFS is unable to process the request, the student will be sent an email stating the request could not be completed. For more information regarding why the request could not be processed, please contact us.

If you have questions about why you received a revised award notice, the first place you should check is your Financial Aid Award, accessible through your Student OASIS Portal. If you still have questions please contact  us at (866)705-0200.