1L: Applying for Financial Aid 2012–2013
There is no financial aid deadline for entering 1Ls and all information is strictly confidential.
There are three types of financial aid for which you may qualify: merit-based scholarships, need-based grants, and loans.
Admitted students are automatically considered for merit-based scholarship decisions, and no separate application is required.
Need-based grant decisions are made by the Financial Aid Office. In cases where no merit scholarships or need-based grants have been offered, the Financial Aid Office is occasionally able to take financial aid offers from competing schools into account.
Loans are processed in the Financial Aid Office for all students applying for financial aid.
To determine if you might qualify for need-based grants, admitted students must complete our simple online questionnaire on the Admitted Students website. Click on Mail & Money and Financial Aid Instructions to access the questionnaire. If it appears that you may be eligible for need-based grants after completing the questionnaire, we will direct you to complete additional financial aid information on the 2012–2013 Need Access form. This tool assists in determining resources available to a student. Parent information is not required to apply for aid. If you have completed the parent information for another school, we will disregard that data.
To apply for Stafford loans complete and submit a 2012–2013 Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) at www.fafsa.ed.gov. Your and your spouse's information must be recorded on the FAFSA. (2012–13 is the correct form to complete even if you're a summer starter.) Be sure to use the Data Retrieval Process (see below for details).
Request that a copy of the FAFSA report be released to the University of Michigan Law School, code # E00506. (Note that the rest of the University of Michigan uses a different number.) Be sure to retain a copy of the completed form for your records.
The Department of Education has changed a couple of things which will affect the completion of your FAFSA and how you verify the information. First, they have created the IRS Data Retrieval Process, which is an option on the FAFSA application to import your tax information directly into the FAFSA. You are strongly encouraged to use this option, if it's available to you. You can take advantage of it if you filed your tax return electronically at least 2 weeks before completing the FAFSA, or 6-8 weeks after filing a paper tax return. It will save you time and possibly aggravation, down the road.
If you filed your 2012-13 FAFSA with estimated information, because you had not yet filed your 2011 tax return, we recommend that you file your tax return electronically, wait two weeks, and then do a FAFSA correction, requesting the Data Retrieval Option at that time.
The second change is to the 2012-13 Verification Process. The Department of Education routinely flags FAFSA reports for further verification of information by the schools. If you have chosen to use the Data Retrieval Process, you are less likely to be selected. If you did not use the Data Retrieval Process and you are selected for verification, you will need to request a tax transcript (PDF) directly from the IRS to be sent to us, as well as a verification worksheet (PDF). A copy of your tax return will no longer be sufficient. If you did use the Data Retrieval Process, you will only need to send us copies of W-2s and a verification worksheet (PDF). A transcript from the IRS will not be necessary.
Financial aid offers are only made to admitted students starting at the beginning of March 2012, typically within two weeks of the completion of your file.
Once you have decided to come here, please complete these additional steps:
Complete entrance counseling for federal loans on the StudentLoans.gov website.
Complete the Master Promissory Note for federal loans on the StudentLoans.gov website. There are separate promissory notes for Stafford and Grad PLUS loans. If you are borrowing both, you will need to complete a promissory note for each one.
If you need to borrow a Grad PLUS or private loan, a separate application is required. A comparison of different types of loans is available on our loan comparison chart/FAQ [PDF]. Since credit approvals expire, the earliest you should apply is June 1st unless you are a summer starter in which case you can apply as early as March 1st. If you borrow a Grad PLUS loan, please be sure to complete the school's Grad PLUS loan application, and not the one on the StudentLoans.gov website.
Please address inquiries to:
The University of Michigan Law School
Financial Aid Office
701 South State Street
South Hall, Suite 2200
Ann Arbor, MI 48109-3091
Telephone: 734.764.5289
Fax: 734.763.7761
E-mail: lawfinaid@umich.edu