Special Circumstances on the FAFSA

By: Sarah Gill, Financial Aid

After receiving your initial financial aid award, you may be wondering if it would be helpful for you to call the Financial Aid Office to explain some of the numbers you put on the FAFSA. Whether the FAFSA does not accurately reflect your current financial situation, or your financial circumstances have changed since the 2014 tax year, we would be happy to speak with you about your situation. However, when it comes to altering financial aid packages, we are only able to consider the following special circumstances:

• Loss of wages or benefit of a parent or spouse.
• Divorce or separation.
• Significant medical/dental expenses not covered by insurance and have been paid by the family.
• Loss of child support.
• Parent attending college and enrolled in an approved degree-seeking
  program of study.
• National or natural disaster.
• Death of a parent or spouse.
• K-12 private school tuition costs.
• Support paid to extended family members.

If your family is experiencing one or more of the situations listed, you may submit a Special Conditions Appeal to determine your aid eligibility. The appeal form is available on the Financial Aid website here. If you have questions about the appeal form or process, please contact the office at (800) 793-1716 or finaid@gonzaga.edu.