Most Common Reasons for Adjustments
Additional Aid: Internal or external scholarships, stipends, assistantships or other payments toward educational expenses not listed on your award letter must be reported to The Solution Center.
Federal regulations require the coordination of internal and external awards with other financial aid awards. In situations when financial need has been met with financial aid funds, it is the university’s policy to reduce aid in the following sequence: student loans, student employment, and finally, grant aid.
Enrollment: Initial financial aid awards are based as follows:
- undergraduate = 12 day credits
- graduate = 9 day credits
- online & professional studies = 6 evening/online credits
Any change in enrollment may result in an adjustment to your awards (including failure to attend some or all of your courses). Day school students taking Graduate, Online & Professional Studies (GPS) courses may see a reduction in their grants, scholarships, and / or loans, please contact the Solution Center for an individualized review.
Residency: Changes in residency (e.g.. out of state to in state) may require an adjustment to your financial aid. Visit the residency website for more information.
Housing: For new students, initial awards are based on the housing choice reported through admissions. For returning students, initial awards are based on housing status in the previous academic year. Changes in housing status (e.g. dorm to commuter) may require an adjustment to your financial aid.
Grade Level: Changes in grade level, due to transfer credits evaluated after the initial financial aid package has been processed, may require an adjustment to your financial aid.
Verification: Changes after the verification process may result in changes to your financial aid package. Get detailed information on verification.
Special and Unusual Circumstances: You or your family may submit an appeal to review your aid eligibility due to a reduction of income from job loss, death, divorce/separation, or unusually high expenses paid from medical and/or dental care, child care, and/or private/secondary school tuition expenses. For more information on appeals visit the special circumstances webpage or email the Solution Center at: thesolutioncenter@uml.edu.
Yellow Ribbon: The Yellow Ribbon Program is a provision of the Post-9/11 Veterans Educational Assistance Act of 2008. This program allows institutions to voluntarily enter into an agreement with the VA to fund tuition expenses that exceed the in-state tuition and fees for a public institution. The institution can contribute up to 50% of those expenses, and the VA will match the same amount as the institution. UMass Lowell is a proud participant in the Yellow Ribbon program.
Once a student is determined eligible by Veteran Services, the Financial Aid Office is notified of the institutional match amount. When awarding the Yellow Ribbon UML Matching funds, UMass Lowell will use currently awarded institutional grant or scholarship funds to meet the required match amount thus reducing the amount of the existing institutional aid and replacing with the Yellow Ribbon Matching fund. If the student has no other current institutional grant or scholarship funds, a Yellow Ribbon matching fund will be added to the account.