How to apply for financial aid

Don’t see the answers you’re looking for?

Here’s how to reach the Mane Desk for help:

☎️ 214-768-5555
 📧  manedesk@smu.edu
🚶🏾 Laura Lee Blanton Building, Suite 101

What you'll find here: Step-by-step guidance for determining aid eligibility, filing deadlines, and FAQs on the financial aid process.

Video

Your questions answered

Our Student Financial Services experts walk you through what you need to know about financial aid, tuition and fees, paying your bill and more.

Financial aid eligibility 

➡️ Complete the required applications:

The following financial aid applications are required to establish for federal and state aid, as well as SMU's The following financial aid applications are required to establish eligibility for federal and state aid, as well as SMU’s institutional need-based aid programs, such as the SMU Opportunity Award and the Access SMU Scholarship. To ensure maximum consideration for financial aid, applications must be received by the priority deadlines listed below. Financial aid applications received after the priority receipt deadlines risk a reduction in your financial aid offer due to the limited availability of funds.

Application Type of Assistance First Year and Transfer Undergraduate  Continuing Undergraduate  Graduate
 FAFSA  Federal/State Aid Priority Date
January 15, 2026		 Receipt Deadline
March 27, 2026		 ASAP
CSS Profile  Need-Based Aid
Opportunity Award
Access SMU Scholarship 		 Priority Date
January 15, 2026		 Receipt Deadline
March 27, 2026		 Not Applicable 

Once your aid applications have been submitted, please allow 3-5 business days for processing and transmission to SMU.

Incoming First-Year and Transfer Undergraduates:

Submit the FAFSA (School code 003613) and CSS Profile (School code 6660) as soon as possible after submitting your admission application. Remember, both applications are required to establish eligibility for SMU need-based funding. The Office of Undergraduate Admission automatically considers students for merit scholarships during the admission process. Students will need to submit additional applications and other documentation to be considered for the Hunt Leadership Scholars Program or President's Scholar Program, which provide substantial academic and scholarship funding benefits.

Continuing Undergraduate Students: NEW Priority Application Receipt Deadline!!

Beginning with the 2026-2027 academic year, the FAFSA and CSS Profile must be received by March 27, 2026, to ensure maximum financial aid consideration. Both aid applications are required each academic year. Financial aid funds are limited and offered based on availability. Applications received after the priority receipt deadline risk a reduction in your financial aid offer due to the limited availability of funds.

Scholarship renewal: Students must meet enrollment and GPA requirements for scholarship renewal. Renewability is reviewed at the end of the spring term, after spring grades have posted. If your GPA falls below the minimum requirements, you can enroll in the SMU May or Summer term(s) to potentially raise your GPA before the start of the Fall term. 

Graduate Students:

Submit the FAFSA (School code 003613) as early as possible. The CSS Profile is not required for graduate programs. If you are seeking scholarships from your graduate program, contact your academic department (not Financial Aid Services) for more information. Your academic department will provide information for scholarship renewability.

➡️ Know the timeline:

Financial aid offers are sent to newly admitted and continuing students only.

  • Incoming undergraduate students: Financial aid offers for admitted students are sent via the USPS and available in the my.SMU portal. An email will be sent to your SMU email account when your financial aid offer is available. 
  • Incoming Transfer undergraduate students: Financial aid offers for fall transfers are available late May. Offers are sent via the USPS and are also available through the my.SMU portal. Mid-year transfer financial aid offers are available late November for the following spring term.
  • Continuing undergraduate students: Financial aid offer notifications are sent to your SMU email account only. If your applications are received by the priority receipt deadline of March 27, 2026, you can expect to receive a financial aid offer late May. Applications received after March 27, 2026, will still receive financial aid consideration, but may be subject to the limited availability of funds.  
  • Graduate students: Financial aid offer notifications for graduate students will be sent beginning mid-to-late June. An email will be sent to your SMU email account when your financial aid offer is available in the my.SMU portal.  

➡️ Stay on top of additional requests: Check your SMU email regularly for requests for additional documentation needed to finalize your financial aid offer. Monitor your to-do checklist in my.SMU to ensure all requirements are complete.

➡️ Access your aid offer:

If you are an incoming student, your financial aid offer will be sent via the USPS and made available in the my.SMU portal. Continuing students will receive an email notification when your financial aid offer is ready to review in my.SMU.

If you are an undergraduate student, please make sure to submit both the 2026-2027 FAFSA and CSS Profile applications.

Information you provide on the CSS Profile should match the information on your FAFSA. SMU recommends completing both applications at the same time to avoid conflicting data which will delay processing. 

General financial aid FAQs

Financial aid eligibility

Yes, depending on the type of aid and source.  In general, you must be enrolled at least half-time (six credit hours) to qualify for financial aid. However, the type of aid (scholarship, grant or loan) as well as the amount is directly tied to number of enrolled hours for any given term. For example, federal student loans require half-time enrollment while most grants and scholarships require full-time enrollment. Specific award amounts will vary depending on the number of hours you are enrolled in. Enrollment statuses are as follows: 

  • Undergraduate students:
    • 5 or fewer hours is considered less than half-time
    • 6 to 8 hours is considered half-time
    • 9 to 11 hours is considered three-quarter time
    • 12 or more hours is considered full-time
  • Graduate students:
    • 4.5-8 hours is considered half-time
    • 9 or more hours is considered full-time

  • Undergraduate students: If you’re using Direct Subsidized Loans or Direct Unsubsidized Loans, you must complete a Master Promissory Note (MPN) and Loan Entrance Counseling before funds may be disbursed. The MPN is good for 10 years, and loan entrance counseling only needs to be completed once. If you’re a dependent student and your parent is using a Parent PLUS loan, they must submit a new loan application at StudentAid.gov for each loan and complete a PLUS MPN as well as PLUS Credit Counseling if they are initially denied and later approved with an endorser.
  • Graduate students: If you’re using Direct Unsubsidized Loans, you must complete a Master Promissory Note (MPN) and Loan Entrance Counseling before funds may be disbursed. The MPN is good for 10 years, and loan entrance counseling only needs to be completed once. If you’re using a Graduate PLUS loan, you must submit a new loan application at StudentAid.gov for each loan and complete a separate PLUS MPN as well as PLUS Credit Counseling if you are initially denied and later approved with an endorser.  

For program-specific scholarships, contact your academic department (not Financial Aid Services). Your department sends a list of scholarship recipients to Financial Aid Services. The Financial Aid Services team does not determine who receives departmental scholarships. If you expect to receive a departmental scholarship that isn't showing up in your financial aid package, you should contact your academic department first. 

For all other questions, please contact the SMU Mane Desk at manedesk@smu.edu or 214-768-5555.

If you received SMU merit-based or need-based financial aid during the previous fall/spring terms, you may be eligible to receive a pro-rated amount of financial assistance based on your enrolled hours. The total amount of aid cannot exceed tuition and fees. For an estimate of the pro-rated amounts, please use our Intersession Tuition & Financial Aid Calculator. Additionally, students will need to submit the Summer Financial Aid Application, available in early April, for summer term aid consideration. Students enrolled for May term and receiving an SMU academic scholarship will automatically be reviewed for a pro-rated amount of their SMU scholarship(s).

While SMU aid has no minimum hour requirement, the SMU Summer Loan and federal aid programs require at least 6 enrolled hours.

Funds will be disbursed to your student account no sooner than 10 days before the first day of class for the term.

All financial aid programs – federal, state, and institutional – disburse up to 10 days prior to the start of the respective term.  For example, if the Fall semester begins on August 25th, then financial aid for the Fall will begin disbursing as early as August 15th.  Likewise, if the Spring semester begins on January 20th, then financial aid for the Spring will begin disbursing as early as January 10th.  Pending To-Do items could potentially delay disbursements, so please be sure you are reviewing your SMU dashboard in my.SMU and checking your SMU e-mail for notifications of missing information.

FAFSA FAQs

FSA ID process and requirements


FAFSA FAQ

An FSA ID is a username and password required to log in, complete, and submit the FAFSA application. To create an FSA ID, visit StudentAid.gov. All FAFSA contributors (student, spouse, parent, etc.) must have an FSA ID to submit a FAFSA online.

Yes. Parents of dependent undergraduate students must create their own FSA ID, separate from the student’s, to complete their portion of the FAFSA.

Parents without a Social Security Number (SSN) are still required to create an FSA ID to complete their section of the FAFSA. Federal Student Aid provides detailed instructions for this process.

No. Previously created FSA IDs are still active. If you have forgotten your username or password, you can recover them through the FSA website.

No. It typically takes 48 hours for a newly created FSA ID to become fully effective. You can create your FSA ID before the FAFSA becomes available. Be sure to store your username and password in a secure location for future reference.

Contributors on FAFSA


Contributors on FAFSA

A Contributor is anyone other than the student who provides information for completing the FAFSA. This may include:

  • Parent(s)
  • Stepparent
  • Spouse (for independent students)

While completing the FAFSA, dependent undergraduate students will be prompted to send an email to invite contributor(s) to complete their portion of the application. While their information is required to determine federal aid eligibility, this does not mean they are obligated to provide financial support for the student’s education. Find additional guidance about FAFSA Contributors here. 

The Contributor is the parent who provided the greatest financial support to the student during the previous 12 months.

If both parents provide equal financial support, the Contributor is the parent with greater financial resources (e.g., income, assets).

Yes. For FAFSA to calculate a student’s federal aid eligibility, Contributors must:

  1. Provide all requested information.
  2. Consent to having their Federal Tax Information (FTI) transferred from the IRS to the FAFSA via the Direct Data Exchange (DDX).

If a Contributor does not provide the required information or consent, the student’s federal aid eligibility cannot be calculated.

  • Federal Tax Information (FTI): This is tax return information from the student and/or Contributors, directly retrieved from the IRS.
  • Direct Data Exchange (DDX): Securely transfers tax information from the IRS to the FAFSA application.
 

Consent for financial information


Consent for financial information

Consent is required for both students and Contributors to authorize the transfer of their Federal Tax Information (FTI) from the IRS to the FAFSA application. Consent must be granted each academic year when a new FAFSA is submitted — it does not carry over automatically.

If consent is not granted, the Federal Tax Information (FTI) cannot be transferred, and the Student Aid Index (SAI) cannot be calculated. Without the SAI, the student will not be eligible to receive federal aid.

Yes. But only if consent has been granted, and the FTI cannot be transferred via the DDX. Both the student and Contributors must first attempt the DDX process. If it fails, they can manually enter tax information. Consent is still required; otherwise, federal aid eligibility will not be calculated and the student will not receive federal aid.

Yes. All students and Contributors must provide consent, even if they have no reported income or are considered non-filers for the requested tax year. Without consent, the FAFSA cannot calculate federal aid eligibility, and the student will not receive federal aid.

Yes. Starting with the 2024-2025 FAFSA, amended tax return information will be included in the FTI transfer, provided consent is granted.

Consent is still required, even if the Direct Data Exchange (DDX) cannot retrieve the Federal Tax Information (FTI) from the IRS. In such cases, Contributors must manually enter their financial information on the FAFSA, converting foreign funds into U.S. dollars. Without consent, federal aid eligibility cannot be calculated and the student will not receive federal aid.