Special Circumstance Appeals
At UChicago, we realize that your financial aid application may not always reflect the realities of your family’s financial situation. We use your family’s prior-prior year income to determine your financial aid eligibility, and situations can change in the interim. Because of this, we offer students and families an opportunity to appeal their financial aid decision if one of the following special circumstances exists:
- Loss or reduction of employment, significant reduction of income (job loss with 12 weeks of continuous unemployment, death of parent, etc.)
- One-time, nonrecurring income (pension payout, inheritance, employer reimbursements) that artificially inflated the adjusted gross income for the year reviewed
- Out-of-Pocket medical or dental expenses in excess of 11% of your parent(s) Adjusted Gross Income
- Natural disaster that has caused excessive out-of-pocket repair costs not covered by insurance or has resulted in a loss of income
If you believe that your family’s financial situation has been impacted by one of these circumstances (or some variation thereof) please complete and submit to our office the Special Circumstance Request Form and provide the required documentation. While submission of a special circumstance request does not guarantee an increase in your financial aid, we will thoroughly review your situation to determine if any additional aid could be made available.
- 2022-23 Special Circumstance Request Form
- 2023-24 Special Circumstance Request Form