Financial Aid News

The Tulane University Financial Aid Office continues to wait for the U.S. Department of Education (DOE) to start accepting school certifications of 2024-2025 Federal Direct Parent Loans for Undergraduate Students (also known as Federal Parent PLUS loans).

The Tulane University Financial Aid Office will soon start notifying students about our receipt of a parent PLUS loan for the 2024-2025 academic year.  However, we regret that we currently remain unable to certify parent PLUS loan applications until DOE’s systems are ready to receive our certifications.  DOE hopes that they will be able to process our certification of Parent PLUS loans within the next 45 days (by the end of August 2024). 

Please know that the Tulane Accounts Receivable Office has been notified of this unfortunate delay that is beyond Tulane’s control and they plan to not assess finance charges on 2024 fall semester charges remaining as of 8/15/24 for those impacted by the delay in PLUS loan certification.     

Thank you for your patience with this process, as we optimistically expect for DOE to continue to resolve the many hurdles they’ve faced so far in the 2024-2025 processing year.  We will update this News section of our website as soon as Parent PLUS loan certification commences.

Sincerely,

Tulane University Financial Aid Office 

Financial Aid News Update (7/8/24)

Due to the U.S. Department of Education’s extensive delays with the 2024-2025 aid processing cycle, as of today (7/8/24), several populations of Tulane students who have applied for financial aid for the 2024-2025 academic year have not yet had their financial aid offers finalized.  However, we expect most populations to receive their notifications of 2024-2025 aid offers within the coming weeks.  Below please see a status summary.

Important Information for All Students:

The U.S. Department of Education (DOE) has just recently allowed schools to start certifying federal student loans for the 2024-2025 academic year.  While we have commenced certifying accepted 2024-2025 Federal Direct loans (subsidized; unsubsidized; and graduate PLUS loans), we are waiting for the green light to initiate the certification of parent PLUS loans.  We have been informed that parent PLUS loan certification will be allowed to start within the next few weeks.  However, DOE is not yet accepting any FAFSA changes we submit to them for processing, thus if a change is required prior to loan certification, then we regret that this is blocking our ability to certify loans for some individuals. We remain hopeful that DOE will soon be able to accept our FAFSA corrections.  Please continue to check this space for a future update.  We currently anticipate that all federal loans eligible for disbursement will disburse as scheduled prior to the start of the 2024 fall semester. 

Remember that you must accept the aid items offered to you which you wish to receive.  Using the secure Tulane Gibson portal, after accepting the Terms and Conditions associated with your aid offer you can then navigate to accept specific aid items (either at the level offered or at a lower level). 

The acceptance of aid is required for the following:

• Disbursement of institutional scholarship. 
• Certification (and ultimate disbursement if eligible) of a federal loan.
• Commencement of employment if offered Federal Work Study.

The following aid items do not require your acceptance:

• Federal Pell Grants as these funds are automatically accepted on your behalf.
• Returning undergraduates with renewed merit scholarships.
• Medical School scholarships as these are automatically accepted on your behalf.

Important Information for Incoming Freshmen Undergraduates (non-School of Professional Advancement SoPA):

Our staff continue to finalize all previously estimated 2024-2025 aid offers as well as process initial 2024-2025 aid offers for later applicants.

Important Information for Returning Full-Time Undergraduates (non-SoPA):

Our staff continue to review all 2024-2025 financial aid applications in preparation of starting to email aid offer notifications in the coming days.  Our initial focus is finalizing aid for those seeking institutional need-based scholarship and federal student aid and then concentrating on those returning full-time undergraduates solely seeking federal student aid.  Currently, when logging into the Gibson portal only renewed merit scholarships are listed, as all other aid listings will be forthcoming. 

Important Information for Louisiana Students Eligible for Taylor Opportunity Program for Students (TOPS) Funding:

The State of Louisiana will soon be sending confirmation of students eligible to receive 2024-2025 TOPS funding.  For incoming freshmen, we will learn if you also qualify for a TOPS book stipend amount (at an annual level of $400 or $800) and we will amend your existing aid offer accordingly (not all students qualify for the book stipend).  For returning students, your estimated TOPS will be reflected on your 2024-2025 Gibson portal aid listing.

Reminder that the State of Louisiana delays the disbursement of their TOPS funding until several weeks into the start of each semester, as Tulane is required (after the last date to add/drop classes) to send an official listing of enrolled students to the State and only after their receipt and review of this information will they release TOPS funding.  We anticipate that actual TOPS disbursements will occur in late September or early October.  The Tulane Accounts Receivable Office is aware of this delayed disbursement and will not impose finance charges applicable to the delayed payment of these funds.

Important Information for All SoPA (School of Professional Advancement) Students:

For all undergraduate and graduate level SoPA students (both newly incoming and continuing) who have applied for 2024-2025 financial aid we anticipate that aid offer notifications will be available within the next few weeks. 

Important Information for All Graduate & Professional (non-SoPA) Students:

We continue to process 2024-2025 aid for completed applicants who are non-SoPA graduate and professional (newly incoming as well as continuing) students.

Unfortunately, we continue to experience delays from the U.S. Department of Education in being able to successfully complete all aspects of the financial aid process for the 2024-2025 academic year.  Despite these unforeseen obstacles, we are successfully moving forward with the following:

Finalizing all incoming freshmen aid offers (converting from earlier “estimated” aid to “actual” aid).

Completing 2024-2025 aid offers for other incoming student populations (graduate & professional students).

Completing aid offers for the 2024 summer semester.

Preparing to extend 2024-2025 aid offers for all returning undergraduates and graduates.  

Starting to certify accepted 2024-2025 federal student loans.

For returning undergraduates who have successfully completed their 2024-2025 financial aid application process, we expect to send out aid offer notifications (via email) by mid-July 2024.  
Once completed, the details of aid offers will be viewable via the secure Tulane Gibson portal.  Currently, undergraduate merit scholarships are listed for 2024-2025, yet institutional need-based scholarship eligibility and all federal student aid eligibility will be forthcoming (if eligible).  

All students should accept the terms and conditions of their aid offers and then accept the specific aid items they wish to receive.  Tulane is unable to certify a federal student loan until you accept a specified amount.  If offered Federal Work Study (FWS), you will not be allowed to commence employment until you accept the offer of FWS.  New undergraduates must accept their institutional merit scholarships, while returning undergraduate merit recipients can skip this step for the renewal of their merit scholarship for 2024-2025.  

Please remember to use the Tulane Gibson portal to navigate to the Financial Aid tab and review your 2024-2025 “To Do” list to determine if any specific aid application materials are still need by our office.

Thank you!
 

We regret that the U.S. Department of Education (DOE) continues to experience delays in delivering 2024-2025 FAFSA data to colleges and universities across the country.  Tulane University now expects to start receiving 2024-2025 FAFSA data from DOE by the end of April 2024.  If you have completed the 2024-2025 FAFSA, then please ignore your Tulane Gibson portal “To Do” listing that currently indicates that this requirement still needs to be completed.  Once Tulane receives your FAFSA data, then your Gibson records will be updated.  We recommend that those students who have completed the 2024-2025 FAFSA should check Gibson by June 1, 2024, to confirm that DOE has successfully sent your FAFSA data to Tulane.   

Incoming full-time undergraduate students:

The Tulane University Financial Aid Office (FAO) has commenced reviewing completed 2024-2025 financial aid applications for incoming freshmen admitted via the Undergraduate Admission Office’s Early Decision and Early Action portals.

At this time, due to the delayed access to the 2024-2025 Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA), all aid offers currently extended are solely based on our review of a student’s 2024-2025 College Scholarship Services (CSS) Profile application and consist of “estimated” federal student aid eligibility and “estimated” institutional need-based scholarship.  While we expect that our “estimated” aid levels are fairly accurate, it will only be after our receipt and review of a student’s 2024-2025 FAFSA data, that we will issue an updated aid notification detailing all federal student aid and institutional need-based scholarship eligibility levels.  Changes to aid offers would occur if reported FAFSA information did not match comparable information reported on the CSS Profile and/or if federal grant calculations and/or allocation levels change.  

IMPORTANT NOTICE REGARDING 2024-2025 FAFSA Processing (updated 03/29/24) Due to the multitude of changes surrounding the 2024-2025 FAFSA (such as changing access; reducing the volume of questions; and changing the federal methodology used in determining eligibility for federal student aid resources), the U.S. Department of Education (DOE) delayed the access to the online 2024-2025 FAFSA until 12/31/23.  While the 2024-2025 FAFSA is now available for online completion, DOE is now delaying the transmittal of completed 2024-2025 FAFSA data to your designated colleges and universities.  The latest guidance from DOE and the student system vendor indicates that although Tulane may start receiving electronic 2024-2025 FAFSA data by late March, the Tulane Financial Aid Office will be able to upload the data at the earliest at the end of April (NOT mid-February or late March) 2024.  Therefore, please understand that if have already completed the 2024-2025 FAFSA, yet our Gibson portal does not reflect Tulane’s receipt of your FAFSA, it is most likely due to the delay in DOE’s transmission and/or the late ability to configure and upload the transmission into the student system. Once the Tulane FAO receives 2024-2025 FAFSA data in the student system for an admitted applicant offered "estimated" aid, then we will commence our review of the fully completed aid application, reviewing all  "estimated" offers for accuracy.

Returning full-time undergraduate students: Students continuing their full-time undergraduate enrollment at Tulane during the 2024-2025 academic year and who seek consideration for federal student aid resources and/or Tulane institutional need-based scholarship should plan to complete the necessary 20254-2025 financial aid application materials by April 15, 2024.

Incoming and returning graduate & professional students: All graduate and professional students seeking consideration for federal student aid resources should be completing the 2024-2025 FAFSA.  Students are also encouraged to complete the appropriate 2024-2025 Tulane Financial Aid Addendum associated with your student population, as this supplement addendum collects additional information used to provide an accurate level of financial assistance based on your expected enrollment and borrowing intentions.

Once your Tulane school confirms their 2024-2025 tuition and fees schedule and academic calendar, we will commence reviewing all completed 2024-2025 aid applications and extending notifications of aid offers.

Incoming and returning SoPA students: All undergraduate and graduate students enrolling at Tulane’s School of Professional Advancement (SoPA) seeking consideration for federal student aid resources should be completing the 2024-2025 FAFSA. Students are also encouraged to complete the appropriate 2024-2025 Tulane Financial Aid Addendum associated with your student population, as this supplement addendum collects additional information used to provide an accurate level of financial assistance based on your expected enrollment and borrowing intentions.

Once SoPA confirms their 2024-2025 tuition and fees schedule and academic calendar, we will commence reviewing all completed 2024-2025 aid applications and extending notifications of aid offers.

All students seeking financial assistance for 2024-2025: All Tulane students seeking consideration for financial assistance are encouraged to review the details of the aid application process that are available at: https://financialaid.tulane.edu/apply.

Due to the 2024-2025 Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) experiencing a multitude of changes (such as changing access; reducing the volume of questions; and changing the federal methodology used in determining eligibility for federal student aid resources), the U.S. Department of Education (DOE) originally delayed the access to the online 2024-2025 FAFSA until 12/31/23.  While the 2024-2025 FAFSA is now available for online completion, DOE is now delaying the transmittal of completed 2024-2025 FAFSA data to your designated colleges and universities.  The latest guidance from DOE indicates that Tulane should expect to start receiving electronic 2024-2025 FAFSA data by late-March 2024 at the earliest.  Therefore, please understand that if have already completed the 2024-2025 FAFSA, yet our Gibson portal does not reflect receipt of the FAFSA, it is due to this delay in receipt of the information. https://studentaid.gov/h/apply-for-aid/fafsa

Incoming and returning graduate & professional students and all School of Professional Advancement (SoPA) students: All graduate and professional and SoPA students seeking consideration for federal student aid resources should complete the 2024-2025 FAFSA at this time.  Students are also encouraged to complete the appropriate 2024-2025 Tulane Financial Aid Addendum associated with your student population, as this supplement addendum collects additional information used to provide an accurate level of financial assistance based on your expected enrollment and borrowing intentions.

For incoming and continuing graduate & professional students, once your Tulane school confirms their 2024-2025 tuition and fees schedule and academic calendar, we will commence reviewing all completed 2024-2025 FAFSA applications received.  New incoming students must first receive an offer of admission before we initiate a review of their FAFSA data.  Returning students must be meeting all federal satisfactory academic progress criteria to retain federal aid eligibility. https://financialaid.tulane.edu/resources/eligibility/sap

2024 Summer Semester aid applicants will need to complete the 2023-2024 FAFSA BEFORE access to the online 2023-2024 FAFSA ends June 30, 2024, and to complete the appropriate Tulane 2024 Summer Addendum (soon to be available under the Forms section of our website).

Join Tulane Law School for the annual celebration of Constitution Day. 

The event will be held Sept. 18, 2023 at 4 p.m. in the John Giffen Weinmann Hall, Room 110, 6329 Freret Street.

This year’s Constitution Day speaker is David Hinojosa, with the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law. His talk is titled, From Hallowing Brown to Hollowing Brown: The Equal Protection Clause and the Affirmative Action Cases. Hinojosa argued the UNC case before the Supreme Court on behalf of student intervenors, and the Harvard case in the First Circuit on behalf of student amici. Hinojosa also serves as lead counsel representing the Charlotte Mecklenburg NAACP Branch in the historic North Carolina school finance case, Leandro v. State, where he helped obtain a precedent-setting order from the state supreme court that will ensure equitable resources for students of color and students in at-risk circumstances.