Special Circumstances
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
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.
One-time Budget Appeal: In addition to special circumstance requests, the College allows for a one-time budget appeal request for certain costs (typically the purchase of a computer or for childcare costs). If a budget appeal is approved, your Cost of Attendance will be adjusted (up to $2,500) and the additional funds would be in the form of a student loan that will have to be repaid. Please contact our office via email at college-aid@uchicago.edu for more information on one-time budget appeals.