Table of Contents
File the FAFSA
When to Apply
Institutional Application for Financial Aid
Verification and Other Documents
The Financial Aid Award Letter
Award Acceptance
Disbursement of Funds
Downloadable Forms
Step 1: File the FAFSA
The Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) is a free application that you submit to the U.S. Department of Education. It is used to determine your eligibility for all types of federal aid and authorizes Lesley University to disburse funds to you. Lesley also uses the FAFSA to determine your eligibility for institutional need-based grants. We recommend that you apply online and use the IRS Data Retrieval Tool to make the process even easier. For assistance with the FAFSA process, view these FAFSA Tutorial Videos. The FAFSA must be submitted each year to renew your financial aid eligibility.
Lesley University's school code: 002160.
- For the 2012-2013 Academic Year (September 2012 - August 2013), complete the 2012-2013 FAFSA.
- For the 2013-2014 Academic Year (September 2013 - August 2014), complete the 2013-2014 FAFSA (available January 1, 2013)
When To Apply
We encourage you to apply for financial aid at the same time as applying for Admission. While we cannot award you financial aid prior to being officially accepted into your degree-seeking program, we can communicate with you if there are any items in your financial aid application that require additional follow-up.
Step 2: Complete the Institutional Application for Financial Aid (not required of graduate students in off-campus national cohorts)
The Institutional Application for Financial Aid provides us with your enrollment plans so that we can set up a financial aid award that reflects your intended enrollment. For instance, if you plan to attend in the fall and spring semesters, we will set up your financial aid award for those semesters. If you plan to attend in the fall, spring, and summer semesters, we will set up your financial aid award letter for the full year. The Institutional Application for Financial Aid also requests information regarding outside resources and gives you the opportunity to provide a privacy release to any family members that you allow to communicate with our office on your behalf.
Please review the description for each Institutional Application below to see which one applies to you. You don't need to figure this out on your own. We will mail the form we need to your home address and will send email reminders that take you directly to the correct form.
Institutional Application for Financial Aid Options
On Campus Graduates, Online Graduates and On Campus Adult Undergraduates
2013-2014 Graduate/Adult BA Institutional Application for Financial Aid [pdf]
2012-2013 Graduate/Adult BA Institutional Application for Financial Aid [pdf]
Online Adult Undergraduates
2013-2014 Online Undergraduate Financial Aid Application [pdf]
2012-2013 Online Undergraduate Financial Aid Application [pdf]
Low Residency Programs (For students enrolling in the MFA Creative Writing, MFA Visual Arts, Intercultural Relations, Citizen Schools, or Ph.D. programs)
2013-2014 Low Residency Institutional Application for Financial Aid [pdf]
2012-2013 Low Residency Institutional Application for Financial Aid [pdf]
Collaborative School Students
2013-2014 Collaborative School Financial Aid Application [pdf]
2012-2013 Collaborative School Financial Aid Application [pdf]
Elementary Education Urban Initiative, Somerville
2013-2014 Somerville Partnership Financial Aid Application [pdf]
2012-2013 Somerville Partnership Financial Aid Application [pdf]
Step 3: Verification and Other Documents (not required of everyone)
After receiving your FAFSA, we will contact you by mail and by email if additional documents are necessary to complete your application. If you have been officially accepted to your academic program, you can also view a list of your required documents on the Lesley Online Information System (LOIS), www.lesley.edu/LOIS, under the "My Documents" link on the Students menu.
Many students are required to complete a process called verification, which involves submitting your tax return transcript and other information to our office. If you are selected for verification, there is no cause for concern! About 30% of students are randomly selected for this process by the U.S. Department of Education.
Only submit verification documents if we request them. Submitting documents that we do not require could needlessly lengthen the application process.
If you are selected for verification, we will send you a Verification Worksheet to complete. If you are unsure of which one you need to complete or if you feel we have asked you for the incorrect version please contact our office with any questions. If you need to access a form that was previously mailed to you, see our Downloadable Forms section at the bottom of this page.
Step 4: The Financial Aid Award Letter
Once we have reviewed your FAFSA and any other documents requested by our office, we will send you a final Financial Aid Award Letter. The award letter will contain the types of financial aid that make up your award, the amounts per semester, a page that outlines costs, as well as a financing strategy for any remaining financial need. Your award letter will also be accompanied by a Financial Aid Award Guide which explains how financial aid is calculated and reiterates the types of aid available.
Step 5: Award Acceptance
We will assume that you want any scholarships, need-based grants and/or work-study that have been offered to you so you don't have to accept these awards. However, any Federal Direct Stafford Loans that you have been offered will require additional steps before they can be credited to your student account. To accept the Federal Direct Stafford Loan offered to you, log in to your LOIS account (www.lesley.edu/LOIS) and follow the instructions to accept, decline, or revise your award.
Accept the award: this means you are accepting the Federal Direct Stafford Loan amount awarded to you.
Decline the award: this means you are declining the Federal Direct Stafford Loan amount in full.
Revise the award: this means you can opt to decrease the loan amount, or see if you have additional eligibility. Please note that the only students with additional eligibility will be graduate students who are enrolled in off-campus cohort programs as their loan amount has been based on the minimum requirement for tuition. Everyone else will be awarded their maximum eligibility from the start. Once you revise the amount, you must click Accept to finish the step.
After you complete the LOIS acceptance process, we will notify the U.S. Department of Education who will then certify your loan. We will send email reminders about this step until it is completed. If a considerable period of time has passed without the loan being accepted, we will cancel the loan and send you a cancellation notice.
When you accept Federal Direct Stafford Loans, there will be two more steps to complete to secure the loans.
If you have not previously borrowed a Federal Direct Stafford Loan, or if you have not borrowed within the last ten years, you must complete a Master Promissory Note (MPN). The MPN is an agreement between you and the federal government that you understand your responsibilities of as a Federal Direct Stafford Loan borrower. You can complete the Direct Loan MPN directly on the U.S. Department of Education's website.
If you have not previously borrowed a Federal Direct Stafford Loan at Lesley University, you must also complete the Direct Loan Entrance Counseling, which explains your rights and responsibilities as a Federal Direct Stafford Loan borrower. You will be prompted to do so after completing your MPN, or you can access Entrance Counseling directly on the U.S. Department of Education's website.
Please note that you will be required to log in using your Department of Education PIN at both the beginning and the end of Entrance Counseling. Please do not exit out of the browser, until you have entered your PIN again and have designated Lesley University to receive confirmation that you have completed Entrance Counseling (Federal School Code: 002160).
The U.S. Department of Education recently created a helpful tool called Financial Awareness Counseling. While we encourage you to review the Financial Awareness Counseling session, it is not the same as Entrance Counseling.
If you accept a Federal Direct Stafford Loan, there will be two more steps to complete to secure the loan(s).
Step 6: Disbursement of Funds
The disbursement of funds depends upon whether your program is set up as two 6-month semesters (low-residency programs), as traditional semesters (on-campus programs), or as 8-week terms (online and off-campus national cohorts). Financial aid funds will disburse once your courses begin, your registration has been confirmed and you have completed all the steps of the Stafford Loan Process.
We will review your registered credits to confirm your enrollment before disbursing your financial aid. We will send email reminders if your enrollment is different from what is anticipated and places your financial aid in jeopardy.
Once your financial aid funds disburse to your student billing account, they will go first to pay your tuition, fees, and any other direct charges that you owe the University. Any remaining funds will be mailed to you in the form of a refund check by the Student Accounts Office within 14 days after the disbursement date. Please take these dates into account if you are planning to use financial aid towards living expenses off campus. If you apply and are awarded financial aid after your disbursement date has passed, your funds will be disbursed as soon as possible once you have completed all requirements.
Disbursement by Program Type
Low Residency Programs
Financial aid for a given semester, including any certified Federal Direct Graduate PLUS Loans and/or any certified Private Alternative Loans, is credited to your student account ("disbursed") after the residency portion of your program has begun. Your fall semester typically begins in June or July. The earliest the U.S. Department of Education will disburse financial aid funds for the fall semester is the Monday following July 1st. When your loans are certified, you will be mailed a Disclosure Form by the U.S. Department of Education that will include your specific disbursement dates for the year. (Feel free to contact our office for this information if you are unable to locate your Disclosure Form.)
On Campus Programs
Financial aid for a given semester, including any certified Federal Direct Graduate PLUS Loans and/or any certified Private Alternative Loans, is credited to your student account ("disbursed") at the conclusion of each semester's add/drop period. In order to receive your maximum eligibility for federal and state grants, you must register for all classes, including independent studies, and must have submitted any required consortium agreements before the end of each semester’s add/drop period. (A consortium agreement is used when you are taking a course for your degree but outside Lesley University. You can find a Consortium Agreement in the Downloadable Forms section below.)
Online Adult Undergraduate Programs
Financial aid for a given semester, including any certified Federal Direct Graduate PLUS Loans and/or any certified Private Alternative Loans, is credited to your student account ("disbursed") once your reach half-time status. You can reach half-time status by taking 6 credits during one semester or by taking 3 credits in one 8-week term and 3 credits in the next 8-week term, so long as those terms are in the same semester. (For instance, you can reach half-time status by taking 6 credits in on-campus courses during the fall semester or you can reach half-time status by taking 3 credits in Fall Term 1 and 3 credits in Fall Term 2. In this example, your financial aid funds will not post until Fall Term 2 begins and your enrollment is confirmed.) In order to receive your maximum eligibility for federal and state grants, you must register for all classes, including independent studies, and must have submitted any required consortium agreements before the end of each semester’s add/drop period. (A consortium agreement is used when you are taking a course for your degree but outside Lesley University. You can find a Consortium Agreement in the Downloadable Forms section below.)
8-week terms (Online and Off Campus National Cohorts)
Financial aid for a given term, including any certified Federal Direct Graduate PLUS Loans and/or any certified Private Alternative Loans, is credited to your student account ("disbursed") the Monday following the start date of the term. We will review your registered credits to confirm your enrollment before disbursing your aid each term. We will send email reminders if your enrollment is below full-time and places your financial aid in jeopardy.
| 2012-2013 Terms | Start Date | End Date | Disbursement Date |
| Fall 2012 Term 1 | 09/04/12 | 10/26/12 | 09/10/12 |
| Fall 2012 Term 2 | 10/29/12 | 12/21/12 | 11/05/12 |
| Spring 2013 Term 1 | 01/07/13 | 03/01/13 | 01/14/13 |
| Spring 2013 Term 2 | 03/04/13 | 04/26/13 | 03/11/13 |
| Summer 2013 Term 1 | 05/06/13 | 06/28/13 | 05/13/13 |
| Summer 2013 Term 2 | 07/01/13 | 08/23/13 | 07/08/13 |
Downloadable Forms
The forms below may be requested when more detail or clarification is needed for your Financial Aid Application.
2013-2014 Forms:
2013-2014 Dependent Verification Worksheet [pdf]*
2013-2014 Independent Verification Worksheet [pdf]*
2013-2014 Asset Verification Form [pdf]*
2013-2014 Special Conditions Request [pdf]
2013-2014 Dependency Override Request [pdf]
2013-2014 Consortium Agreement [pdf] (for courses taken towards your degree but outside Lesley University)
2013-2014 NSLDS Override Form [pdf]
2013-2014 Question 23 Form and Student Eligibility Worksheet [pdf]*
2013-2014 Collaborative School Financial Aid Application [pdf]
2013-2014 Graduate/Adult BA Institutional Application for Financial Aid [pdf]
2013-2014 Low Residency Institutional Application for Financial Aid [pdf]
2013-2014 Online Undergraduate Financial Aid Application [pdf]
2013-2014 Somerville Partnership Financial Aid Application [pdf]
2012-2013 Forms:
2012-2013 Dependent Verification Worksheet [pdf]*
2012-2013 Independent Verification Worksheet [pdf]*
2012-2013 Asset Verification Form [pdf]*
2012-2013 Special Conditions Request [pdf]
2012-2013 Dependency Override Request [pdf]
2012-2013 Consortium Agreement [pdf] (for courses taken towards your degree but outside Lesley University)
2012-2013 NSLDS Override Form [pdf]
2012-2013 Question 23 Form and Student Eligibility Worksheet [pdf]*
2012-2013 Collaborative School Financial Aid Application [pdf]
2012-2013 Graduate/Adult BA Institutional Application for Financial Aid [pdf]
2012-2013 Low Residency Institutional Application for Financial Aid [pdf]
2012-2013 Online Undergraduate Financial Aid Application [pdf]
2012-2013 Somerville Partnership Financial Aid Application [pdf]
*Please do not submit any of these forms unless you have received a letter or email from our office specifically requesting them. Submitting documents that we do not require could needlessly lengthen the application process.
Your email address
Our office will continue to send email reminders regarding any form or step that needs to be completed. Once you have a Lesley email address, all email correspondence will be sent there so be sure to check it often or have it forwarded to an account you check more regularly!