Frequently Asked Questions
General Aid Information
Academic vs. Award Year?
- The Academic Year is the period of time when educational institutions conduct academic activities and formal instruction. It is expressed as a minimum number of credit accrued over a minimum number of weeks of instructional time. Example: 2024-2025 Academic Year includes Fall 2024, Spring 2025, and Summer 2025.
- The Award Year is the school year for which financial aid is used to fund a student’s education. Generally, this is the 12-month period that begins on July 1 of one year and ends on June 30 of the following year. The FAFSA opens 9 months prior to the Award Year (October 1) and ends on the last day of the award period (June 30 the following year).
Can I Appeal My Scholarship Decision?
All scholarships are merit based, and Questrom Graduate Admissions oversees the selection process. All incoming residential graduate students are considered for merit scholarship at the time of application submission. Admitted students may request a review of their merit scholarship – please contact your admissions Program Manager for additional information.
Need Based vs. Non-Need Based Aid
Need-based aid is financial aid a student can receive if they have financial need and meet other eligibility criteria. Students cannot receive more need-based aid than the amount of their calculated financial need.
Non-need-based aid is financial aid that is not based on a students financial need. This type of aid includes merit & private scholarships, unsubsidized & private credit-based loans, and some employer benefits.
At the graduate level, there is no need-based financial aid for domestic or international students.
What Are My Aid Options?
The admission committee considers all admitted residential candidates for institutional Merit Scholarship awards. Recipients are notified of these opportunities in their official admission letter.
Students are encouraged to apply for Private Scholarships – Private funding sources are not affiliated with Boston University and require students to research and apply on their own.
Federal Unsubsidized Loans are available to US citizens and US permanent residents. Visit our Federal Direct Loan page for additional information and application instructions.
Federal Graduate PLUS loans are available to US citizens and US permanent residents. Visit our Federal Graduate PLUS Loan page for additional information and application instructions. The Graduate PLUS Loan is credit-based and is reserved for graduate students who have already borrowed the maximum amount of the Unsubsidized Loan.
Students may utilize credit-based Private Educational Loans if ineligible for Federal Aid.
What Is A Cost of Attendance?
The Cost of Attendance (COA) is the cornerstone of establishing a student’s financial need, as it sets a limit on the total aid that a student may receive. The COA is not the bill that you get; it is the total amount it will cost you to go to college each year. It includes direct and indirect expenses and is based on the length of the period of enrollment.
The total Cost of Attendance includes direct expenses for which you are billed, such as tuition and fees, as well as estimates and allowances for indirect expenses such as room, board, books, supplies, transportation, and incidental and personal expenses.
This comprehensive cost figure is used when processing financial aid applications and educational loans to ensure that a realistic and reasonable allowance is made for all expenses.
During a given period of enrollment, a student is not allowed to receive a total amount of student aid (including scholarships, grants, federal student loans, private student loans, and Federal Work-Study) that exceeds that student’s Cost of Attendance.
Where Is My Financial Aid Award/Package
Students who are awarded a merit scholarship by our Graduate Admissions Team, will receive notice of their award in their acceptance letter. Attached to the acceptance letter will be the scholarship’s terms of acceptance.
Graduate students who plan to utilize federal loans or credit-based loans must first commit to Boston University, by submitting their enrollment deposit. Once the enrollment deposit has been processed, the student will be given the ability to set up their BU email and student accounts.
Students utilizing federal loans or credit-based loans must work with the Questrom Graduate Financial Assistance office to have these funds awarded to their account – review of federal eligibility or creditworthiness is required prior to awarding.
Managing Your Student Account
Are There Payment Plan Options?
Boston University provides flexible payment options for full-time and part-time students. You can review additional information about Full-Time Payment Plans and Part-Time Payment Plans by visiting or speaking with Student Accounting Services.
Students may enroll in a payment plan by navigating to “Student Account Balance” from the Financials menu item on MyBU Student. Students can click on the “Nelnet Payment and Refunds” button to be redirected to Nelnet’s QuikPAY® site. Select “Payment Plans” from the left-hand menu to view available payment plans and complete enrollment. Guest Users may also enroll directly in a payment plan following the same navigation from their “Student Account Balance” view.
Can I Adjust My Payment Amount?
When students go to make a payment via QuikPay/Nelnet, the system is not reading the pending/anticipated aid, and it is showing students the full tuition amount under the “Amount Due” field. Students can edit the “Payment Amount” field to include any scholarships/aid they may have.
How Do I Read My Bill
Students will want to go to the MyBU Student Portal and on the right-hand side, select the “Financials” tab. From there, you can click between “Student Account Balance Due” and “Student Account Details”.
Student Account Balance Due will show your current charges, any pending aid, and your remaining balance. The details listed on Student Account Balance due may look different based on the charge priority allocation, I would recommend always looking at your Student Account Details sorted from newest to oldest to see the most up to date and detailed information on your account. I would not recommend looking at specific terms as those screens may be misleading due to the term allocation.
Student Account Details will show all charges, payments, credits, and refunds in a line-by-line breakdown per semester. Charges and credits (including payments and aid) are sometimes allocated to different terms in the new student system, all credits over the entire term and account history have been applied to the overall balance due. Students and guest users can see this reflected in their MyBU portal under Student Account Details, any previous credits have been applied to the total balance due as listed on your MyBU portal.
Students can also download their account details into an Excel spreadsheet by clicking on the Export to CSV icon on the upper right hand side, this will provide all the entire account transaction history which can then be sorted. Any remaining balance due or credited to the student account is the cumulative total after all of the transactions have been applied.
How Do I Request My Refund?
Students who have a credit on their account after all billed expenses have been settled, can request a credit refund. Refund amounts can be comprised of personal payments, scholarships, and loan funding.
Refunds are processed automatically, however, due to the implementation of the new MyBU Student Portal, students with a valid credit balance will need to submit the Graduate Refund Request Form to initiate their request.
Please contact Student Accounting Services or the Refunds page for additional information.
How Do I View My Student Account?
The MyBU Student Portal is a self-service website for students currently enrolled at Boston University. Through the portal, students can access many services such as their student account details, grades, class listings, and student employment. You will want to navigate to the left-hand task bar and click on the “Financials” drop-down.
The “ShareLink Access” feature allows students to grant Web/Internet access to parents, legal guardian, or other third parties to view information and make payments on their student account. Access to records is granted at the student’s discretion. To take advantage of the ShareLink option, students may log on to the MyBU portal and select “My Bill & Aid,” then “Grant ShareLink Access.”
How Do I Waive My Health Insurance?
Boston University automatically enrolls full-time, three-quarter time, and international students in the basic Student Health Insurance Plan (SHIP). Students who have comparable health insurance are eligible to waive, as long as proof of coverage is provided. Additional information about the waiver process can be found on our BU SHIP page.
Semester Billing Invoices
The most official document that is available to students is your account statement which has your name, ID number and current account information. You can access this by logging on to the MyBU portal, select Student Account Details, sort the date from newest to oldest then click on the upper right hand print icon where you can save this as a PDF if needed. The Semester Account Statement includes all posted transactions that have been applied to the student account and cannot be amended.
What Is This Tuition Overload Fee?
Standard full-time tuition covers 12-18 credits per semester. All full-time students can automatically take up to 18 credits per semester. Overloading is registering for more than 18 credits in a semester. Every additional credit beyond 18 credits will incur per-credit charges, unless stated otherwise. If your program requires you to take a course load beyond 18 credits, you will automatically be granted an overload fee waiver, covering the additional charges. All courses taken beyond the overload maximum will be charged at the per-credit rate.
Who Do I Contact About Billing?
If your student bill looks incorrect, please outreach your academic advisor/program manager as they can determine if your enrollment is updated correctly in our system. Once updated, charges should automatically be updated to the correct amounts. If other billing issues persist, please outreach Questrom Financial Assistance and Student Accounting Services.
Why Am I Being Billed Health Insurance?
Full-time students, international students, and students who are enrolled in at least 9 credits, are required by Massachusetts law to carry health insurance. Students covered under another health plan that meets Massachusetts requirements may waive participation in the Boston University Student Health Insurance Plan (SHIP). Students with coverage from insurance carriers outside the United States or coverage by non-US National Health Service programs may not waive participation. Charged in the fall semester for the academic year. Health insurance is subject to change for the 2025-2026 academic year. For more information, please visit Student Health Services’ BU SHIP page.
Why Can’t I Register For Classes?
Students must settle their financial obligation to the University each semester to be able to register or be awarded. To resolve a financial hold on your student account, you will need to settle your account through Student Accounting Services.
Why Is There A Financial Hold On My Account?
A financial hold may be placed on a student’s account due to an overdue balance after the semester due date. A financial hold restricts access to certain University services such as course registration or adjustment, awarding of financial aid, eligibility to move into your assigned on-campus residence, and purchase of convenience points.
Federal Aid Information
Am I Eligible for Federal Aid?
- Be a US citizen or permanent resident and compliant with US Selective Service requirements
- Be enrolled in a degree program
- Be registered for at least half-time (6 credits per semester that are accepted towards the degree program)
- Maintain Satisfactory Academic Progress (according to their programs student handbook) at the end of each semester
- Not have an outstanding balance from a prior period of enrollment at Boston University
- Not be in default on a previous Federal Stafford, Perkins, or other educational loans
- Have not met the cumulative (aggregate) limit for the Federal Direct (formerly Stafford) Subsidized/Unsubsidized loan program of $138,500 for graduate and professional students, including any amount borrowed for undergraduate study.
PLUS Loan Periods
In the School Name section, be sure to select Boston University.
In the Loan Period section, select the appropriate loan period start and end dates.
- For Academic Year 2024-2025, select August 2024 as the Requested Loan Period Start Date and May 2025 as the Requested Loan Period End Date
- For Summer 2025, Select May 2025 as the Requested Loan Period Start Date and August 2025 as the Requested Loan Period End Date
- For Academic Year 2025-2026, select August 2025 as the Requested Loan Period Start Date and April 2026 as the Requested Loan Period End Date
When Should I Complete My FAFSA?
You need to fill out the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) form only once per year. The federal deadline is your last opportunity to submit that school year’s FAFSA form because the Department of Education does not close the FAFSA form for the current academic school year until June 30. That means that the 2025–26 FAFSA form will disappear from StudentAid.gov on June 30, 2026, because that’s the end of the 2025-26 school year.
Which FAFSA Should I Complete?
The FAFSA year coincides with the Academic Year.
- 24-25 FAFSA covers the Fall 2024, Spring 2025, and Summer 2025 semesters
- 25-26 FAFSA covers the Fall 2025, Spring 2026, and Summer 2026 semesters
Why Did My Federal Loan Disburse For Less Than I Requested?
Federal Direct Loans are subject to an Origination Fee. The origination fee is charged by the Department of Education for each federal student loan you receive. It is a percentage of the total loan amount you are borrowing (request/awarded amount). The loan fee is deducted proportionately from each disbursement of your loan. This reduces the actual loan amount you receive (needed/received amount). The specific loan fee that you are charged will be included in a disclosure statement you will receive after the first disbursement of your federal student loan. You will be required to repay the request/awarded amount.
- Federal Direct Unsubsidized Loan Origination Fee = 1.057%
- Federal Direct Graduate PLUS Loan Origination Fee = 4.228%
Why Don’t I See My Federal Aid On My Account?
If you are missing your Federal Unsubsidized Loan…
- Completing the FAFSA is the first step in receiving federal financial aid. While the FAFSA provides proof of eligibility, Boston University requires students to submit the Unsubsidized Loan Request Form. This form serves not only as the request, but the acceptance of federal funds.
- Please ensure that your personal information provided to the FAFSA (such as name and social security number), matches what was provided to Boston University. BU uses this information to locate and pull your FAFSA into BU’s student information system.
- Make sure that the Entrance Loan Counseling and Master Promissory Note are completed. Both are requirements for loan disbursement.
- Students must be enrolled in at least 6 credits and have no past-due balances from previous semesters to be awarded their federal aid.
If you are missing your Federal Graduate PLUS Loan…
- Students must request,accept, and exhaust their Federal Unsubsidized Loan eligibility before Boston University Financial Aid awards the Federal Graduate PLUS Loan. This is because the Federal Unsubsidized Loan has a lower interest rate and fees than the Graduate PLUS Loan.
- Please make sure that the Graduate PLUS Loan Credit Counseling and the Master Promissory Note for Graduate Students are completed.Both are requirements for loan disbursement.
Why Is BU Requesting Proof of Citizenship?
To be eligible to receive federal or state financial aid you must be a U.S. citizen or eligible non-citizen. You may be required to submit proof of your citizenship status before your financial aid application can be considered complete.
If you receive a request for proof of citizenship, please upload acceptable documentation of your citizenship status via our Citizenship Documentation Submission Form.
Please visit our Citizenship page for more information.
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