Frequently Asked Questions

Once awarded, students will receive notification of their financial aid awards via myUMBC email.

Two easy ways to navigate to awards when logged into myUMBC:

1. Click “Profile” at the top of the page to access multiple student ‘cards’. Financial aid offers can then be accessed by selecting the ‘Financial Aid’ card.
2. Click “Guide” to access the “Billing and Personal Finances” option on the left, then select “View Financial Aid Inquiry”.  *Note, this navigation is only available if you have already upgraded your myUMBC account.

Grants and scholarships are automatically applied. You can find further instructions on accepting Federal Direct loan eligibility here.

Your eligibility for financial aid is evaluated separately each year. Your awards may vary from year to year depending on your eligibility as determined by your SAI (Student Aid Index) from the FAFSA and your COA (Cost of Attendance) with the university. Your SAI is calculated using many factors, including parent and student income, the number of people in your parents’ household, number in college, etc. Your COA represents the maximum aid you can be awarded at UMBC based upon your residency, housing and enrollment. If your housing or enrollment statuses have changed, please update our office by submitting the appropriate update forms to our office.

If your family has experienced a change in their financial circumstances since the tax year included on the FAFSA, you may consider a Change in Circumstances Appeal.

The FAFSA application uses prior-prior year tax data to determine your financial aid eligibility. If this information no longer accurately represents your family’s financial circumstances, you may be interested in pursuing a Change in Circumstances Appeal. Students considering pursuing the Change in Circumstances Appeal are highly encouraged to schedule a meeting with their Financial Aid Counselor.

Satisfactory Academic Progress (SAP) is calculated at the conclusion of each semester once grades are finalized. If you are not meeting SAP, you can complete an appeal to be considered for continued financial aid eligibility. You can find more information about SAP, including the appeal documents and deadlines, on our SAP page.

If you do not choose to pursue an appeal, or if your appeal is not approved, Alternative loans can still be available to you. UMBC offers a loan search tool to assist students in finding loans options that best fit their circumstances. If you are not meeting SAP, be sure to filter the loan options to those not requiring SAP.

If you have not enrolled for a semester, your Federal Pell Grant for that term will be projected based on full time enrollment (12+ credits). Once you enroll for the semester, award amounts are updated weekly based on actual enrollment. If your enrollment for any term adjusts prior to the add/drop date for that semester, your award will update automatically to match your current eligibility.

Awards from the State of Maryland are offered through MHEC, the Maryland Higher Education Commission. When students are awarded through their office, they receive notification to accept the award through the MDCAPS portal. Our office receives rosters and adds accepted awards to student UMBC financial aid records weekly.  For more information regarding MHEC awards and eligibility, please visit their website.

Students receiving the EA or GA Grant are required to meet Credit Completion Requirements for renewal grants. You can read more about these requirements on our MHEC page. MHEC makes requests for UMBC to report credits for specific students. Credits are reported after semester grades are final and transcripts have been updated by the Registrar’s Office.

Students can accept their loans at any time once they are offered. It is recommended that aid is accepted a minimum of two weeks prior to the billing due date to ensure that it is able to disburse by that time.
The Cost Calculator can be used to estimate out-of-pocket costs and help to determine what portion of the offered loan eligibility students may want to accept. If loans are declined or cancelled due to lack of response, they can be reinstated at a later date through a Loan Increase/Reinstate Request. Fall only loans are available through early December and Fall/Spring and Spring only loans are available through early May.

You can request adjustments to Federal Direct loans prior to and within 14 days of the funds disbursing to your account. Requests can be made via the Loan Increase/Reinstatement or Loan Decrease/Cancellation forms located on our forms page.

Students must be enrolled at least 6 credits for the semester of the federal student loan request. This pertains to subsidized, unsubsidized, Parent PLUS and GradPLUS loans.

Effective with the summer 2026 semester, subsidized, unsubsidized and GradPLUS loan amounts are based on student enrollment status; students less than full time (12 credits undergraduate or 9 credits graduate) are subject to the federal schedule of reduction. Learn more about the impact of One Big Beautiful Bill.

Students enrolled full time (12+ credits for undergraduates and 9+ credits for graduates) with a complete financial aid record may be eligible to have their aid applied to their bill as early as 10 days before the start of the semester.  Part time students are evaluated based on enrollment and aid is disbursed to billing records upon part time recalculation.

You can view our full disbursement schedule via the calendar on our home page. We also recommend checking your alerts to ensure that there are no outstanding requests from our office that may be holding your aid from disbursement.

Alternative Loans are education loans available to graduate and undergraduate students through private lenders.  We offer a loan search tool to assist in comparing options prior to making an application.

Additionally, undergraduate students may have the option of a Parent PLUS Loan. This is a credit-based loan that requires a separate parent application through the Department of Education.

The alert indicates that all or part of the bill remains unpaid; past due balances are subject to late fees. For more information regarding this alert, and bill related questions please contact Student Business Services (SBS).

UMBC also offers financial literacy resources to allow you to learn more about how to manage you student financial account.

If financial aid exceeds the balance due, Student Business Services (SBS) will process a refund.  Refunds are generally delivered to students electronically and additional information on this process can be found here. For questions or concerns regarding refunds, contact SBS directly.

Residency is determined with a students application to UMBC. Maryland resident students classified as an out-of-state should complete the appropriate Residency form with the Registrar’s Office.

If residency classification is updated with the university, our office will be automatically notified and make any necessary adjustments to the financial aid offer.

Students who need assistance paying for books can apply for a book loan to use towards the purchase of books at the UMBC Bookstore. The book loan serves as an advance on any anticipated financial aid refund. In order to be eligible, students must have submitted all requested documents to our office, must not have an outstanding balance with the university and must have aid in excess of their bill for the upcoming semester. Book loan applications must be completed each semester for consideration. Additional information is available on the Book Loan page.

All students are automatically considered for merit scholarships upon admission to the university. We encourage students who are looking for additional scholarship opportunities to utilize the Scholarship Retriever to submit a general application for consideration for donor-supported, departmental and other institutional scholarships.

Scholarship funds can be sent to Student Business Services (SBS) at the following address:

UMBC
Attn: Student Business Services
1000 Hilltop Circle
Baltimore, MD 21250

The students name, campus ID and the semester(s) the funds are to be applied to should also be included. In addition to this, you should also complete a Private Scholarship Notification Form.

Student Business Services (SBS) is responsible for 1098-T processing. Questions regarding 1098-T forms may be directed to  SBS.

Initial financial aid offers are awarded for the full academic year and are based on the assumption of full time enrollment.  Housing plans are based on information available at the time of the offer.  If housing plans are misreported in the financial aid offer, the Housing Update Form is available on our forms page.

Dependent students who have indicate that they will be living on campus, but have not incurred university housing charges, will see their costs updated to a housing status of “living with relatives.” Independent students who indicated that they will be living on campus, but have not incurred university housing charges, will see their costs updated to a housing status of “living off campus.”  Costs associated with various housing statuses on our Cost of Attendance page.

The Cost Calculator is an interactive tool to provide an estimate of costs.

Changing enrollment during the schedule adjustment period may require a recalculation of grants, loans and/or scholarships.  Dropping credits could result in the cancellation or reduction of aid, even if already applied to the bill.

Withdrawing from all courses: Students who withdraw from all courses before completing at least 60 percent of a semester are subject to a federal recalculation of aid and may become ineligible for a substantial portion of financial aid for that semester.

Withdrawing from one or more (not all) of courses: Generally, financial aid will be final based on enrollment as of the end of the schedule adjustment period. Withdraws after the schedule adjustment period may impact current or future semester loan eligibility.

Withdrawing from courses may also impact your future eligibility for Maryland State Scholarships, UMBC Merit Scholarships and awards from private donors. It may also impact your ability to meet Satisfactory Academic Progress (SAP).
For more information on how withdrawals may impact your financial aid, please view this website.

Students planning to graduate at the end of the fall semester can complete a December Graduation Form which allows our office to proactively prorate grant and loan eligibility based on enrollment.

Unfortunately, grants and scholarships generally cannot be moved from spring to further assist with fall costs.

Pell-eligible students who enrolled in fewer than 12 credits in the fall may be eligible for additional Pell Grant funding based on their combined fall and winter enrollment. These students are identified and awarded automatically – no additional application is required.

Federal Direct loans are only available to students who enrolled in fewer than six credits in the fall, and will have a combined fall/winter enrollment that exceeds six credits. This combined enrollment provides half time enrollment and they become eligibible to borrow federal subsidized or unsubsidized loans. Due to the unique circumstances, students should contact their Financial Aid Counselor directly if you feel that you fall into this category.

The Office of Summer, Winter and Special Programs may offer full or partial scholarship for winter.

Each time you click on a DocuSign form from your alerts or our forms page, it opens a new copy of the form. This can create multiple drafts of the form. If you have already submitted the document, you can log into your DocuSign account and delete the duplicate copies. We have provided a step-by-step guide on how to delete duplicate DocuSign forms for your reference.

We also encourage you to check the ‘Completed’ section of your DocuSign account to ensure that you have fully submitted your e-form. Some forms require other signatures and may be missing information. If that is the case, they will appear under ‘Waiting for Others’ or ‘Action Required’ on your DocuSign account.

If you’re completing a form for an outstanding alert on your account, the alert will be removed within 2 business days of our office receiving your form.

Outside organizations such as a scholarship provider, employer, or sibling’s institution may require information about student financial aid. Forms may be submit this directly to a financial aid counselor via the Contact Staff form. Forms are generally completed within 2 business days and returned via email.

Verification of enrollment requests should be submitted to the Registrar’s Office.

We do not recommend sending any sensitive information such as social security numbers via our contact form. 

Financial Aid Counselors are assigned by student last name. Counselor contact and appointment links can be found on our contact page. Students can also view and contact their counselor from within their Financial Aid Inquiry in myUMBC.

FERPA (Federal Educational Rights and Privacy Act) limits educational and financial information we can share with individuals other than the student. We are only able to disclose student information to authorized persons. A student may authorize access to their account information via Profile Sharing on myUMBC. To grant authorization for individuals to speak with our staff over the phone, through email, or in person, the student should select “offline access” during setup.