Undergraduate Financial Aid
The Application Process

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To apply for financial aid at DBU, applicants must complete the following items in a timely manner. In general, all application materials should be fully completed no later than 30 days before registration. Otherwise, the student will be expected to make payment arrangements with the Cashier's Office using personal resources at the time of registration. Late aid applications will be processed after registration for aid as it becomes available. Each scholarship program has an individual deadline that must be met in order to be considered for an award from that particular scholarship program.

1. The Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) is available upon request from the Office of Financial Aid or from a local high school. Applicants should complete information on themselves and their spouses or parents (if applicable), and obtain the appropriate signatures as outlined in the directions for the FAFSA. The FAFSA can be filed with the government processor in one of the following ways:

• By FAFSA on the web: Submitting the FAFSA to the government processor can be done over the Internet. The address to the web site is http://www.fafsa.ed.gov; or,
• By mail: This method will require four to six weeks to receive a Student Aid Report (SAR).

If the student named DBU as a school to receive the Student Aid Report, an electronic Institutional Student Information Record (ISIR) will be received by DBU and used by the Office of Financial Aid to determine the student's eligibility. The priority deadline for a student to complete his/her file in order to receive federal or state financial aid is March 23.

Information reported by students filing for federal student aid is used in a formula established by the U.S. Congress. The formula determines the Expected Family Contribution (EFC), an amount the student and the student's family are expected to contribute to the cost of the student's education.

2. The DBU Supplemental Application for Financial Aid and Scholarships, also available from the Office of Financial Aid, must be submitted annually by every financial aid applicant. Continuing students wishing to apply for institutional scholarships must submit the supplemental application by March 23.

3. If the student is selected for verification, a process required by the U.S. Department of Education for some students applying for federal aid, the student will have to submit additional documentation as requested by the Office of Financial Aid.

Independent Status
An independent student is one who is at least 24 years of age by January 1 of the award year. A student who has not attained this age is considered to be independent if he/she:

• is an orphan or a ward of the court;
• is married;
• is a veteran of the U.S. Armed Forces;
• is not married but has legal dependents as defined by federal regulations;
• is a graduate or professional student; or,
• applies for and is approved for a dependency override.

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