No. You can file a FAFSA starting October 1 of the year you are submitting your college applications. The financial aid staff will keep your application on file until we receive notice that you have been accepted. The FAFSA for the 2025-2026 year will be available on December 1, 2024.
Filing the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) each year you attend college is strongly recommended. The FAFSA not only helps you access federal and state financial aid; it is also used for determining eligibility for various types of institutional aid.
Financial need is determined by the following formula:
Cost of Attendance (COA) - Student Aid Index (SAI) = Financial Need
Once your financial need is determined, the Office of Financial Aid will work to meet it with various types of aid, including grants, scholarships, work study, and need-based loans. Given that some funding is limited, we may not be able to fully meet your financial need. You can cover any remaining amount through outside scholarships, other loan options, or other sources of funding.
Typically, your institutional financial aid remains consistent from year to year. However, federal and state grants are determined by the results of your annual FAFSA, which may vary.
Scholarships, grants, and work study are automatically accepted for you. If you do not want to use this aid, contact the Office of Financial Aid to decline them.
When you have access to PilotsUP, you can accept or decline your loans in Self Serve.
Declining a loan or work study does not mean you will be reconsidered for additional institutional grant or scholarship aid, but it may make room in your cost of attendance for outside scholarships, or to increase a Parent PLUS loan, or to increase a private loan.
To view the Terms and Conditions of your financial aid package, please follow these instructions:
Yes, you can borrow money for your college living expenses! Loans can cover more than just tuition; they can also be used for books, housing, meals, transportation, and other personal expenses.
You can determine the specific amount allocated for living expenses in your Cost of Attendance by visiting Self Serve and viewing the "Offer" tab. Housing payments will only be billed through the Office of Student Accounts if you reside in a UP residence hall or a UP rental house.
Most off-campus students reside in privately owned rentals where each tenant pays their portion of rent directly to the landlord on a monthly basis. Students using loans to cover rent must carefully calculate their rent expenses for the semester and ensure they borrow sufficient loan funds to receive a refund after their billed charges are paid. It is the student's responsibility to budget their refund throughout the semester to pay rent on time each month. Additionally, leases are usually signed for 12 months at a time (oftentimes May to May). Financial aid awards, however, only cover the nine months a student is enrolled in fall and spring semester classes. If you have questions about your budget for off-campus living, please contact the Office of Financial Aid.
To abide by federal regulations, the Office of Student Accounts is unable to start the refund process until after classes begin. This means that refunds do not occur until early September for fall semester and mid-January for spring semester. Please keep this in mind when budgeting. You can contact Student Accounts by emailing stu-acct@up.edu or by calling 503-943-7347.
Once you are a matriculated student, you, the student, are the only person the Office of Financial Aid will release information to unless you give us permission to release your information to someone else through Proxy Access. This is in accordance with the Federal Education Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA). If you would like the Office of Financial Aid to be able to release your financial aid information to someone else, such as a parent, spouse, or scholarship organization, please go to Self Serve, select the Proxy Access tab and follow the instructions.
Most forms will be linked on students' Self-Serve requirements page, which can be accessed by logging in to Self-Serve, selecting the Financial Aid tab, then the Award Overview tab, and then Outstanding Requirements.
Financial Aid forms are also located on the Financial Aid page in Pilots Portal. Log in to Pilots Portal, go to Pages and select Financial Aid.
The best way to submit requested documentation to the Office of Financial Aid is by fax, mail or our secure Document Upload Form. Contact our office to request the link to our Document Upload Form.
Do not send documents containing sensitive or personally identifiable information via email. This includes tax documents, W2s or anything else that may compromise your identity.
Current UP Students: Check that you’re typing your UP network credentials correctly. If you need to reset a forgotten password, visit the UP Password Management Site and select Reset a Forgotten Password.
New UP Students: If you are logging in for the first time and need to activate your account, visit the UP Password Management Site and select Activate a New Account.
If you need to reset a forgotten password, go to the UP Password Management Site and select Reset a Forgotten Password. When prompted for your preferred delivery method, select Personal Email.
If you don't know your username, contact finaid@up.edu or (503) 943-7311 for assistance.
All forms requiring a parent co-signer must be initiated by the student. Once the student has completely filled out their portion, the parent will receive an email with a link to the partially completed form. Parents then create an account for themselves using the parent email address the student supplied on the FAFSA. Parents may then sign forms electronically, using their birth date and the last four digits of their social security number for identity verification.
Make sure when you return to the form, you are logging in to your Dynamics Form account and selecting the Pending/ Draft Forms option, then find the draft of the form that you saved. If you click the direct link to a form again, you will start a new version of the form rather than continue your saved form.
Your cost of attendance can be increased to include the cost of health insurance. For most students, this will increase their eligibility for loans, but will not increase their gift aid. Contact the Office of Financial Aid for additional information or to make that request.
Federal loans disbursed after July 1, 2024, have the following interest rates:
Federal loans disbursed between October 1, 2023, and September 30, 2024, have the following origination fees:
Federal loans disbursed after July 1, 2025, have the following interest rates:
Federal loans disbursed between October 1, 2024, and September 30, 2025, have the following origination fees:
Each spring, Congress sets federal student loan interest rates based on the high yield of the last 10-year Treasury note auction in May.
Loan fees can be calculated using our Loan Origination Fee Calculator.
All Direct Loans (student and parent) are repaid directly to the federal government through a loan servicer. You can find your loan servicer by logging into studentaid.gov.
Doucette and Eagin loans are paid back directly to UP. Contact Student Accounts with questions.
In most circumstances, yes. There is some flexibility in reinstating and declining the entire loan or portions of it. However, Doucette and Eagin loans have limited funding. If you decline one of these loans, the funds may be awarded to another student, making them unavailable to you.
All reinstatement requests must be made by the loan holder in writing.
Loan entrance counseling is required by federal regulations for all first-time borrowers. The counseling session gives an overview of the federal loan program, including the types of loans available, interest rates, borrower rights and responsibilities, etc.
Loan exit counseling is required when borrowers graduate or leave college to make sure that they understand their rights and responsibilities as a borrower.
Entrance and exit counseling can be completed at studentaid.gov.
Federal student loans offer low, fixed-interest rates, income-based repayment plans, loan forgiveness and deferment options, including deferment of loan payments when a student returns to school. For these reasons, students and parents should always exhaust federal student loan options before considering a private loan.
You can notify the Office of Financial Aid and complete a Loan Change Form requesting additional loan funds based on the higher grade level. You will not need to sign another MPN for the increased amount. When the loan is processed, your student account will be credited.
Yes, you can consolidate all your federal loans through the Federal Direct Loan Consolidation program.
Financial aid recipients are required to maintain the following standards of Satisfactory Academic Progress. The entire policy can be found within the Financial Aid Handbook. Some critical parts of the policy include the following.
Financial Aid Warning is the result of a student not making Satisfactory Academic Progress for one semester. Students who are on warning may still receive financial aid. Students who successfully complete Satisfactory Academic Progress requirements in the next semester that aid is received from the University will have their warning status removed.
Financial Aid Suspension generally occurs when a student who is currently on Financial Aid Warning fails to meet Satisfactory Academic Progress requirements for a second consecutive semester. All financial aid is suspended. This includes all federal, state, and institutional aid including tuition remission and tuition exchange, and most outside scholarships. For the complete policy, please refer to the Financial Aid Handbook.
Financial Aid Suspension can also occur as a result of a student who is placed on disciplinary probation at the discretion of the Vice-President of Student Services or the student faculty court. The probationary student can lose all or part of the aid the student has been given from the date such action is taken. In such instances, the student will be required to make arrangements immediately with the director of the Office of Student Accounts for payment of any balance due to the university.
Students placed on Financial Aid Suspension status and have had their financial aid denied have the right to appeal their status to the Director of Financial Aid. To appeal you must submit a written petition to the Director of Financial Aid. The petition should include:
Students who successfully appeal their suspension status may have their aid reinstated for one semester. During this probationary semester, students must meet all satisfactory academic progress requirements or follow their approved education plan in order to continue to receive aid beyond the probationary semester.
While your initial merit award will not increase if you do well at UP, you may be offered one of our privately-funded endowed and annual scholarships if you are successful academically.
Bring it to the Office of Financial Aid. If the check was made out directly to you, endorse the back as well. We will apply it to your financial aid package.
We realize that the FAFSA does not always capture the true picture of a family’s financial situation. The federal government allows us to consider certain special circumstances and/or expenses when determining a student’s aid eligibility.
These include but are not limited to:
We recognize that the current economic situation may be hitting some families rather unexpectedly. If your family is experiencing a hardship because of the current financial situation, let us know. While we cannot guarantee an increase in the financial aid package, we may be able to direct your family to other options for covering college expenses.
Call, email, or stop by the Office of Financial Aid to request a Special Circumstances Form. Forms will only be distributed after you have received your initial award letter for the current aid year. You will also be required to submit current year tax returns and W2s along with other documentation. Your special circumstance will not be considered until you can provide all of the requested documentation.
If your family has a situation that you feel is not accurately reported on the FAFSA, let us know. Each family's situation is unique and will be evaluated on a case-by-case basis by a counselor.
We will review your special circumstances after all requested documentation is submitted. Files are reviewed in the order in which they are completed. The review process can take six to eight weeks, or longer during peak processing times, such as spring and summer. You can speed up the process by making sure that all requested documentation is submitted in a timely manner.
Yes. If special circumstances continue, they have to be reaffirmed and re-documented each year.
Federal and state financial aid is available for both institutional study abroad programs (hosted and run through the University of Portland) and IES study abroad programs. Institutional financial aid is available for institutional study abroad programs only. French and German majors studying abroad with IES (to fulfill a major requirement) in Nantes, France and Freiburg, Germany during fall or spring semesters are eligible for institutional, federal, and state aid as long as their participation is approved by the Director of the Studies Abroad. Please refer to the Studies Abroad website for details on whether a specific program is eligible for financial aid.
Tuition remission may be used for University of Portland Institutional study abroad programs, ILACA study abroad programs and IES abroad programs that are required for a student’s major. Tuition remission may only be used for studies abroad during the fall and spring terms. Summer studies abroad and E-scholars extra program changes are not eligible for tuition remission. Tuition remission for study abroad programs may only be used to cover tuition charges. Note that some study abroad programs have single charges that cover expenses beyond tuition. In such cases, tuition remission will cover only the portion of the charges that are derived from tuition expenses.
Tuition exchange may not be used for any study abroad programs regardless of the semester.
Federal financial aid such as federal loans and grants are available to use for summer programs to eligible students. Institutional aid is not available for summer semesters. Contact financial aid directly with questions about specific programs.
Students who want to study abroad with another university or program, not affiliated with UP, will be required to take a leave of absence and apply for financial aid with their host university. Financial Aid from UP will be forfeited for the duration of the leave of absence. Contact the Office of Financial Aid for the Non-UP Study Abroad Checklist and make an appointment to discuss your options with a Financial Aid Counselor.
The verification process is required to receive all federal and state aid as well as some institutional aid. While verification is not mandatory to attend classes, it is required to receive most forms of financial aid. Failure to complete the process will result in cancellation of a large portion of your award.
The verification process ensures that students and families receive all of the aid they are eligible for. Your aid may be adjusted, up or down, depending on the accuracy of the information reported on your FAFSA. If you are selected for verification, your award is considered an estimate until verification is complete.
Once all forms have been completed and submitted to the Office of Financial Aid, verification can take two to four weeks (or longer during peak processing times) to complete. Submitting incomplete or unsigned documents will delay the process.
Students and families who have been victims of tax related identity theft are not going to be able to follow the normal verification process. Please contact the Office of Financial Aid at 503-943-7311 or finaid@up.edu for alternative guidance for completing the Verification process.
If you were not required to file taxes for your earnings, you can indicate that in Section B of the Verification Worksheet. You will also need to provide copies of all W-2s for the past year. If you are not sure if you need to file taxes, please use the Do I need to file? IRS tool. Two common reasons students are required to file are if they made more than $400 net self-employment (independent contractor) income or if they earned more than $7,900 W2 earnings and can be claimed as a dependent on someone else’s tax return – even if they are not claimed.
If you are a resident of Guam, the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico or the U.S. Virgin Islands, your tax information will not be transferred from the IRS automatically. If you are from Guam, the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, or the U.S. Virgin Islands, you will need to submit a signed copy of your income tax return that was filed with the relevant tax authority.
If you are a resident of American Samoa, you must provide a copy of your Tax Account Information filed with the tax authority for American Samoa (must come from the American Samoa Tax Authority).
If you have further questions please contact the Office of Financial Aid at 503.943.7311 or finaid@up.edu.
University of Portland
5000 N. Willamette Blvd.,
Portland, Oregon 97203-5798
503.943.8000
