2012-2013 Academic Year (Comprised of Fall 2012, January Term 2013, Spring 2013, and Summer 2013)
How To Apply
Please note that in order to be considered for certain types of aid (including institutional grants, Perkins loan funds, and Federal Work Study) all required application materials must be received by our office by April 30, 2012. Students who do not supply all these documents by April 30, 2012, should not expect to receive any institutional aid as part of their official financial aid award. For more information about the April 30th deadline, click here.
Required application materials are:
- the 2012-2013 FAFSA
- the 2012-2013 CSS/PROFILE
- a signed copy of the parent 2011 federal tax return including all schedules* (If the parent did not file a 2011 federal tax return, the parent must complete the Parent Non-Tax Filer form, found here.)
- parent 2011 W-2 form(s)
- a signed copy of the student 2011 federal tax return including all schedules* (If the student did not file a 2011 federal tax return, the student must complete the Student Non-Tax Filer form, found here.)
- the Parent and Student Signature page, which is found here
Federal regulations prevent us from accepting digital or electronic signatures as valid. Only "wet" signatures will be accepted by Student Financial Services.
Students should NOT complete any additional documentation unless they are specifically asked to do so by Student Financial Services. Submitting unrequested documentation will delay your receipt of your financial aid award. Any additional documentation will be requested through your To Do List in your Student Center in the Student Information System.
Applicants and Parents, please note: Federal and University requirements are subject to change, which may impact the documents we will require of each applicant for financial aid. We discourage printing this page as a document of record prior to the start of the 2012-2013 school year and instead encourage you to check back regularly throughout the application season to ensure you have completed all requirements.
Entering and transfer students who wish to have a preliminary financial aid award prior to the May deadline to accept the offer of admission should submit all documentation by March 1. Students who do not meet this deadline will still be considered for state and institutional need-based financial aid, provided they supply all documentation by the April 30th deadline.
*If you filed a foreign tax return, we will need a signed copy of those returns, translated into English and with foreign currency noted. We do NOT need your state income tax returns.
Student Financial Services recognizes that need-based financial aid eligibility will have an impact on your college choice. Therefore, we strongly encourage you to submit your application early so that we can provide you with an estimate of your eligibility for the upcoming academic year. Please be aware that our estimate will be based on the information that you and your parents provide on the PROFILE application and the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA). The more accurate the information is that you provide, the better our estimate will be. Even if you are applying after the priority filing date of March 1st, please follow the instructions below.
NOTE: Complete the PROFILE only if you are an entering undergraduate or transfer undergraduate student for Fall 2012. Returning students should complete only the FAFSA and should not complete the PROFILE.
To submit your Financial Aid application:
Between October 1st, 2011, and March 1st, 2012:
- Submit your PROFILE application for 2012-2013 by March 1, 2012, in order to receive a preliminary financial aid award prior to the Admission deposit deadline of May 1, 2012. Please note that your preliminary award is NOT your official financial aid award and that additional documentation may be required later to verify your financial aid eligibility. After verification, you will receive your official financial aid award, typically in July.
The University of Virginia's CSS code is 5820.
Complete the PROFILE, available here. You must use estimated tax information when completing your application if you complete the PROFILE prior to submitting your 2011 tax returns. Please note: even if you submit your PROFILE and FAFSA with estimated tax information, you may be required to submit your tax information after your return has been filed. Completing the PROFILE and the FAFSA with estimates may delay your official financial aid award and may result in substantial differences between your preliminary and official financial aid awards, depending on the quality of information you used in your estimates.
The PROFILE can be completed any time after October 1, 2011. There is a $9 charge to complete an online PROFILE, and there is a cost of $16 per school to have that completed PROFILE sent. Applicants who submit the PROFILE only to U.Va. would therefor pay $25 total.
Fee waivers are available for certain students who qualify. The method for determining who is eligible for a waiver is built in to the application for first-time students. You will know you are eligible for a waiver when you get to the end of the application and see that there is no payment due. The fee waiver will allow you to submit the information to a maximum of 6 schools free of charge.
Between January 1st, 2012, and March 1st, 2012:
- Apply for a U.S. Department of Education personal identification number (PIN). Your PIN will allow you to electronically "sign" financial aid applications and federal loan promissory notes. Parents of dependent students need their own PIN. Apply for a PIN online at pin.ed.gov.
- Complete the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) by March 1, 2012 in order to receive a preliminary financial aid award prior to the Admission deposit deadline of May 1, 2012.
For the quickest and most accurate processing, students are encouraged to complete the FAFSA online. If you complete the FAFSA using estimated parent and/or student tax information, you will need to use the IRS Data Retrieval Tool to update your FAFSA information once the tax documents have been filed with the IRS. For more information about how to use this tool, log in to the FAFSA website.
The University of Virginia's school code for the FAFSA is 003745.
Once you have completed your 2011 Tax Returns:
Submit SIGNED copies of your and your parents’ (or spouse’s if you are married) 2011 tax documents as soon as possible. The required forms are:
- Form 1040, 1040A, or 1040EZ for parents, including all schedules
- Form 1040, 1040A, or 1040EZ for students, if student is a filer, including all schedules
- W-2 forms for parents
- W-2 form for student
The forms should be faxed to our secure electronic server at (434) 924-7636. Please note: You must ensure that your outgoing fax number is not "masked". If our server cannot "see" the number from which you are faxing, we will not accept your inbound submission, and you will not receive notification that the fax has not been successfully transmitted. Masked numbers are most common at workplaces, not from home fax machines or from retail establishments, such as Kinko's. If you are faxing documents from a workplace, please ensure masking is disabled before you fax your documents.
If you or your parents filed IRS form 1065 (Partnership Tax Return) or either IRS form 1120 (U.S. Corporate Tax Return) or 1120S (U.S. S Corporation Tax Return), please submit a signed copy of these forms to our office.
If you or your parents filed a foreign tax return, we require a signed copy of the tax return, translated into English. Please state the non-U.S. currency indicated on the foreign tax return.
If you filed your U.S. tax return electronically, print out the entire return, sign and date the signature page, and fax a copy of the compete form, making sure to include the student's name and SIS id number. The University does not participate in the Institutional Documentation Service (IDOC) and so does not have ready access to tax forms that were filed electronically.
Dependent students are required to submit both their parents' and their own income tax documents. Independent students are required to submit both their and their spouse's (if applicable) income tax documents.
If you or your parents or spouse will not file an income tax return please indicate that on your PROFILE and FAFSA applications.
In some cases, you may be required to submit an IRS tax return transcript and/or IRS tax account transcript. If you receive such a request from our office, there are three ways you can request this document. Most of these methods do not require the payment of a fee.
- Online Go to www.irs.gov. A paper transcript will be mailed to the requestor within 5 to 10 days. Please sign the transcript and submit it to our office by mail or fax.
- Telephone Call (800) 908-9946. A paper transcript will be mailed to the requestor within 5 to 10 days. Please sign the transcript and submit it to our office by mail or fax.
- IRS Form 4506T-EZ. A paper transcript will be mailed to the requestor within 5 to 10 days. Please sign the transcript and submit it to our office by mail or fax.
Can I Still Apply After March 1, 2012?
Applications received after March 1, 2012 will still be reviewed and a financial aid award made. However, for students whose application is received after the March 1 priority filing date, there may not be a preliminary financial aid award available by the time the applicant must make a decision on their offer of admission.
If an application for financial aid is received after April 30, 2012, the student should not expect to receive institutional aid from the University. In order for a student to be considered for institutional aid, our office must have on file before April 30, 2012,
- the 2012-2013 FAFSA
- the 2012-2013 CSS/PROFILE
- a signed copy of the parent 2011 tax returns including all schedules
- parent 2011 W-2 form(s)
- a signed copy of the student 2011 tax return including all schedules
- the Parent Signature page, which is found here
What Happens Next?
We will review your application information, and if necessary, request additional documentation to verify what you have provided. Once we receive and review all of your information, a preliminary award showing the student’s estimated financial aid eligibility will be created. You should also receive an email at the time your award is made available. This information will be made available to the student online in the Student Information System after Admissions notifies the student of their admission decision, usually around April 1st. Make sure that you continue to check your Student Center for additional information and for required items needed that have been added to your To Do List.
Please realize that your initial Financial Aid award notification will be a preliminary award, based on the unverified information you provided. If you are offered Admission and accept the offer, we will verify your need-based financial aid eligibility and make adjustments if necessary. After this review, an Official Financial Aid Award will be posted to the Student Information System. This process occurs throughout the spring and summer. Official awards are typically available by the end of June. Please note that an Official award may still change at a later date based upon additional information our office may receive (for example, in the event a non-University award is received by the student).
While the PROFILE offers a field to enter special circumstances that you believe merit consideration, please know that the University of Virginia has a separate process for appealing financial aid awards. We do not, therefore, review any of the special circumstances that are described in the PROFILE. Instead, if you believe your situation requires extraordinary review, please go here and complete the Appeal for Reconsideration form for the 2012-2013 academic year, which will be available after February 15, 2012.
Appeals will not be reviewed sooner than September, 2012, so your decision whether or not to attend the University of Virginia must be based upon your official award notification.
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