Frequently Asked Questions

You can see who your financial aid counselor is by logging into EAB Navigate via the mySLU portal. Your counselor will be listed under 'Your Success Team.' You can email them or request a virtual appointment through EAB Navigate. Visit the contact student financial services page for more ways to contact the Office of Student Financial Services. 

No, appointments are not necessary to speak with your counselor. You may call, email, or request a virtual appointment with your financial aid counselor through EAB Navigate. Learn more about contacting student financial services.

If you are an incoming student, please schedule a financial aid meeting with your admission counselor. 

Yes, you can use our cost calculator. The exact cost of attending SLU can vary depending on your program or degree.

Your SAI is a measure of your family's financial strength and reflects how much of your family's financial resources may be available to contribute towards your education. It is based on the information provided in your FAFSA and remains the same regardless of any school’s cost. The amount you are expected to pay at each school will likely differ from your SAI, depending on a school’s specific costs.

Saint Louis University uses resources from generous donors, in addition to state and federal funds, to provide you with your financial aid package. While our institutional funds provide a great deal of assistance to our students, these funds are still limited. We will always strive to distribute our awards to each family equitably and ethically.

We recommend that everyone complete a FAFSA before their first year of school to enable our office to award the best financial aid package possible. Regardless of household income or assets, you will still qualify for student loans by filing the FAFSA. In addition to income, the FAFSA takes many factors into consideration including family size, number of dependents, asset portfolio and more. 

No, you may only participate in one job within the federal work-study program; however, you can work a second job on campus as long as it is a "student worker" position and not an additional federal work-study position.

Your work-study job hours are limited by federal law to a maximum of 20 hours per week. Your student worker job hours are set by the department in which you work. You can apply for both types of positions via the Handshake app on your mySLU apps dashboard.

Applications for summer aid generally become available in the first week of April. You can find the application by visiting our financial aid forms page. 

You can accept or decline your financial aid award by logging into mySLU and navigating to Banner Self-Service. View step-by-step instructions on how to finalize your financial aid award.

Returning students will typically receive their award letters in mid-April. The award letter will be emailed to your Saint Louis University email account.

You can view your refund amount by accessing your Payment Suite app from your mySLU portal. In Payment Suite, you can also set up your refund method. If a refund method is not listed, a paper check will be mailed to the permanent or billing address on file as of the date the check is issued. This method could take a few weeks for students to receive their refund. It is recommended that students sign up to receive an eRefund via direct deposit to avoid delays in receiving their refund.

We recommend contacting your financial aid counselor to help guide you through your specific situation. It is best to reach out prior to dropping any classes as it may impact your financial aid. 

It is your responsibility to notify Student Financial Services of all outside awards (scholarships, loans, etc). If you receive a scholarship check made out to your name instead of SLU, bring it to our office in DuBourg Hall, Room 119, so that it can be credited your student account. Make sure to include your Banner ID on the check. You can also mail your private scholarship checks to the address below:

Saint Louis University
Office of Student Financial Services
Attn: Scholarship Department
One Grand Boulevard
DuBourg Hall, Room 119
St. Louis, MO 63103

Title IV funds are funds provided by the federal government such as Pell, SEOG, National Direct Student Loans and PLUS Loans. If you were to accrue any charges related to parking passes, bookstore charges, technology charges or the like, you may choose to authorize your Title IV funds to be used towards those charges. You may choose to accept or decline this authorization.

The FAFSA can be completed online at studentaid.gov. Have additional questions about completing the FAFSA? Find answers to common questions about the FAFSA process.

Yes, all contributors will need an FSA ID, including parents without a Social Security Number.

Contributors may include: 

• The student
• Student's parent(s) and/or step-parent(s), if dependent
• Student's spouse, if married

Parents of dependent students that filed taxes married filing jointly on their prior, prior year taxes will only need one parent FSA ID. Parents that filed taxes married filing separately will each need an FSA ID to complete the FAFSA. Parents without a Social Security Number will be able to establish an FSA ID in order to electronically file the FAFSA. 

If you already have an FSA ID, you do not need to create a new one. Your studentaid.gov account information can be recovered if you have trouble accessing it. 

FAFSA guidelines state that the parent section should be completed using information about the custodial parent. The parent that has provided more financial support during the last 12 months is identified as the custodial parent. If the custodial parent is remarried as of the date you are filing your FAFSA, complete the parent section using information about your custodial parent and stepparent. 

The FSA website has great resources to help students determine which parent(s) needs to contribute to their student(s) FAFSA and create an FSA ID including a Who's My FAFSA Parent? wizard. 

Saint Louis University's FAFSA school code is 002506.

SLU's priority FAFSA filing deadline for the 2026-27 academic year is February 1, 2026. There are other federal and state deadlines that students will want to be aware of when filing the FAFSA. 

Once your FAFSA is submitted, Federal Student Aid will process the application and make the information available to the schools that you listed on your FAFSA. This process usually takes 2-3 days. SLU pulls in FAFSA information weekly. You can see when we have received your FAFSA by looking at the Financial Aid Dashboard of your Banner Self Service via mySLU. 

You do not have to fill out a FAFSA, but we highly recommend doing so. Even families with high income levels can be awarded some type of aid after filing their FAFSA.

Yes. To be considered for federal aid, the FAFSA must be completed each year.

When filing the FAFSA for the upcoming school year, you will use the tax return you filed two years prior to the award year. For example, for the 2025-26 academic year, you will use your 2023 tax return. For the 2026-27 academic year, you will use your 2024 tax return. 

In the past, in order to file the FAFSA by deadlines established for time-sensitive programs, students used estimated numbers and then need to correct them after tax returns were filed in April. Since you will be using a tax year for which the filing deadline and extension deadline has already come and gone, the numbers will be actual, and there will be no need to correct any information.

As a result of the FAFSA Simplification Act passed by Congress in 2020, the IRS now has a service called the Direct Data Exchange. When filing the FAFSA, students and parents will be required to consent to use of this service in order to be eligible for federal student aid even if they did not file any tax return. It will allow the FAFSA to retrieve and disclose federal tax information directly into FAFSA. It will both automatically draw the appropriate tax information into the FAFSA populating the fields with the correct corresponding data and cut down on potential corrections, verifications and award adjustments. 

No. The FAFSA will request prior-prior year income information for all applicants.

If you are applying for financial aid for ...	Use information from ...	Submit the FAFSA as early as ...	Preferred time frame to file is ...	SLU will begin to award aid on or after ...
2025-2026 academic year	2023	December 2024	December 2024 - February 1, 2025	February 2025 (new students)  May 2025 (returning students)
2026-2027 academic year	2024	October 2025	October 2025 - February 1, 2026	December 2025 (new students)  May 2026 (returning students)

As you complete your FAFSA online, you can refer to the help text for every questions to assist you through completion. During certain times of the day, you can also chat online with a Federal Student Aid customer service representative. You may also choose to “Ask Aidan” by clicking on the green owl at the bottom right corner of every screen on the Federal Student Aid website. You may also call the help line at 18004FEDAID (1-800-433-3243).

Verification is an audit process required by the Department of Education. The Department of Education selects FAFSAs to audit for a variety of reasons, some of which include incomplete or inconsistent answers.

Saint Louis University understands that circumstances sometimes change after you file your FAFSA. To share this, you can complete the Special Circumstances appeal process. One of our financial aid counselors will follow up with you regarding your special circumstances.

Student loans can help provide you with additional funds to help pay for your education at Saint Louis University. The most common loans a student can utilize are Federal Direct Loans. Other current options for the 2025-26 academic year include federal Parent PLUS loans, federal Graduate PLUS loans and private/alternative loans.

Due to the One Big Beautiful Bill Act that was signed into law on July 4, 2025, there are significant changes being made to federal student loan eligibility and repayment. Learn more about these federal aid changes to best inform your decision as a student borrower. 

Your Federal Direct loan Master Promissory Notes and entrance counseling can be completed at studentaid.gov. Our office recommends logging into your Banner Self Service – Student application via your mySLU portal and completing the prompts on the home page of your Financial Aid Dashboard. MPNs and loan entrance counseling are included in that list, and once completed, most students will have met all requirements for aid to disburse in a timely manner.

Private loans will require the completion of a credit-qualifying application and promissory note. The steps to complete these requirements may vary by lender.

Interest rates are updated annually and vary with the type of loan. Specific rates for federal student loans for the 2025-26 school year are displayed below.

• Federal Direct Subsidized Loan (Undergraduate) - 6.39%
• Federal Direct Unsubsidized Loan (Undergraduate) - 6.39%
• Parent PLUS Loan (Undergraduate) - 8.94%
• Federal Direct Unsubsidized Loan (Graduate) - 7.94%
• Graduate PLUS Loan - 8.94%

Interest rates for the 2026-27 academic year should be announced on July 1, 2026. 

Private loans have fixed and variable rates available for applicants. Our list of preferred lenders on ELMSelect allows students and families to compare a variety of different loan options. As with any loan application, it is important to remember that lenders consider a variety of factors when processing applications, and the interest rates quoted on ELMSelect may differ from the rate you're ultimately approved for.

• Dependent, Undergraduate: $31,000 (no more than $23,000 of which can be subsidized Federal Direct loans)
• Independent, Undergraduate: $57,500 (no more than $23,000 of which can be subsidized Federal Direct loans)
• Graduate/Professional: $138,500 (no more than $65,500 of which can be subsidized Federal Direct loans)

Beginning July 1, 2026, there will be new limits on Direct Unsubsidized Loans for graduate and professional programs. Learn more about these federal aid changes to loan limits. 

You can review all the federal student loans you have taken out during your time as a student online at studentaid.gov. You will need your FSA ID to access this information. For information regarding non-federal loans such as a private or alternative lender loan, contact your loan provider.

• Federal student loans go into repayment six months after you drop below what is considered half-time enrollment or graduation. Half-time enrollment is ultimately determined by program but it’s typically defined as 6 credit hours for undergraduate programs. Half-time enrollment for graduate programs varies by program.
• Private student loans vary by lender. Please contact your lender for this information.
• Federal parent loans generally begin repayment 60 days after the final loan disbursement; however, parents may request a deferment (delay in payment) for up to four years. There is no grace period. Interest begins to accumulate at the time the first disbursement is made regardless of your choice to defer or not.

Beginning July 1, 2026, there will be changes made to the repayment plans available to student borrowers. Learn more about these federal aid changes to repayment plans. 

Private or alternative lender loans offer another way to finance your college education, separate from traditional federal and state options like Federal Direct Loans or PLUS Loans. Our list of preferred lenders on ELMSelect allows students and families to compare a variety of different loan options.

The largest difference between the two options is that Federal Direct Student Loans are not credit-qualifying loans, but they limit borrowing to specific amounts. Private loans are credit-qualifying loans that typically require the student to have a credit-worthy co-signer, but they will allow students to borrow up to cost of attendance minus your other financial aid.

Starting July 1, 2026, there will be changes made to the federal student loan programs that will impact how much the student can borrow depending on certain eligibility criteria. Learn more about these federal aid changes to best inform your decision as a student borrower.