When to Expect Your Financial Aid Award Letter

Students hoping to get help paying for college should expect to receive their financial aid award letter after submitting the Free Application for Federal Student Aid, or FAFSA, and meeting any other institutional requirements. This typically occurs around the time applicants receive college admissions decisions, but could be as early as October to as late as April, experts say.

Financial aid award letters are created by each individual institution to provide information on the cost of attendance at the college for an academic year and to detail any grants, scholarships, work-study opportunities and loans the student is eligible to receive. The exact timing of when the letters are sent -- and whether by mail, email or both -- can vary widely across institutions.

However, many colleges are moving up their entire financial aid timeline to match a recent federal change that allows families to access and submit the FAFSA three months earlier than in prior years. This could potentially allow students to receive their financial aid packages sooner.

[Read: Why Your College Financial Aid Letter May Be Misleading.]

As of the 2017-2018 school year, the FAFSA is available on Oct. 1 each year rather than Jan. 1 for families applying for federal financial aid. While the full impact of this shift is still unknown, some schools have been adapting accordingly, says Marty Somero, director of financial aid at the University of Northern Colorado.

"We're headed into the third or fourth cycle of what we call the early FAFSA, and I think the first year you saw schools scrambling and sticking to older timelines. But by and large I think at most public universities and definitely the vast, vast majority of privates, the timeline has moved up," he says. "In fact, I think you are now in a time frame not only for award letters but you'll start seeing orientations and registrations moved up earlier also to go hand in hand with that."

But the change has not prevented some process delays, says Mindy Schaffer, director of student financial assistance at the Catholic University of America in the District of Columbia, and the timeline still depends heavily on the institution a student is considering.

"Some schools are better than others with regards to getting the award out," Schaffer wrote in an email. "The Early FAFSA is great, but many institutions struggle since (the Department of Education) and their system vendor don't get the new regulation releases out until December through February." Each year the U.S. Department of Education announces any changes to the process for the coming cycle that affect how financial aid offices award aid to students.

After submitting the FAFSA, students should receive an email within a few days from the Department of Education, called the Student Aid Report, providing their expected family contribution, or EFC, a number that measures their ability to pay for college. This email summarizes the entries made by a family, and Somero says it may also indicate whether a student is likely to be eligible for the federal Pell Grant, which is awarded to undergraduates who demonstrate exceptional financial need. If an email address was not provided on the FAFSA, the Student Aid Report will come by mail and can take longer to arrive.

[Read: How Expected Family Contribution for College is Calculated.]

But the Student Aid Report doesn't tell families how much financial aid they will receive, so some have to wait months for award letters from individual institutions to get a full picture. Colleges may allow students to access an online portal to see the status of their financial aid package in some cases. There, students can check to see what additional documents need to be submitted, if any, and to see their award letter when it is ready.

The timing of a financial aid award letter can depend on a number of factors, including the school a student selects and when he or she submits the FAFSA. Experts say students should submit the FAFSA as early as possible and take note of priority deadlines set by individual institutions to ensure they get the most aid possible and to hopefully receive their awards sooner.

Some institutions provide financial aid packages on a rolling basis, while others just use a rolling basis to send award letters to those students who have missed the FAFSA priority deadline set by the school. Private colleges tend to send award letters sooner than public colleges, Somero says.

"From private schools, they have a little more flexibility and they are generally using their own funds, so you can expect to see some turnaround as soon as the end of October or early November," he says. "Public schools where they are trying to be aggressive, typically you're looking at more likely between Thanksgiving and early in the new year."

Students who apply to a private school via early action admissions may be more likely to get preliminary award information and scholarship offers sooner, but at public institutions, they aren't likely to get offers any sooner than those who apply regular decision, Somero says.

The timelines for financial aid at community colleges are often later than other institutions, he says, because students may be applying for aid and enrolling later in the year than undergraduates at four-year institutions.

It would be rare for students to get their financial aid package before receiving an admissions decision, says Susan Romano, director of financial aid at SUNY--Geneseo. And a few things can delay a student's financial aid award letter. Some of the most common reasons for delays include failing to list the college on the FAFSA as one of the student's 10 selected institutions and not providing parent and student signatures on the form, Romano says.

[See: 10 Common Mistakes Made on the FAFSA.]

A financial aid award letter can also be delayed if a student's FAFSA is selected for verification. This is a federal process equivalent to an IRS audit in which about one third of applicants are selected to provide additional documentation to prove the validity of the information on their form. Experts advise students to respond quickly if they are asked for additional documents or to participate in verification to minimize the delay.

In the meantime, a student may still receive an estimated financial aid award letter that is subject to change.

"Some schools will wait if a family is selected for verification before they will send out the awards," Romano says. "They want to make sure they are sending out awards based on accurate info. Some schools will just go out with the original award letter based on the FAFSA they have and then collect verification documents, then make changes as needed."

Not only can the timing of financial aid award letters vary widely, but so can the way information is presented within a letter. For these reasons, Romano says students shouldn't hesitate to call their target school's financial aid office with questions about what may be causing a delay or about the contents of a letter.

"Contact the financial aid office that sent the information," she says. "We get these calls every day and we understand that it is a confusing process and one that families may have never been exposed to."

Trying to fund your education? Get tips and more in the U.S. News Paying for College center.

Emma Kerr is the paying for college reporter at U.S. News & World Report. Prior to joining U.S. News, she covered education in Maryland for the Frederick News-Post and made stops at the Chronicle of Higher Education and the Daily Beast, among others. She graduated from the University of Michigan--Ann Arbor, where she studied English and international studies and began her career as a news reporter at its student newspaper, The Michigan Daily. You can connect with her on Twitter at @EmmaRKerr.