Accepting and Declining Financial Aid

You have the option to either accept, decline, and/or reduce the amount of the financial aid you are eligible for on your Financial Aid Notification. You may accept, decline, and/or reduce your aid in the My Financial Aid section on my.UChicago.edu.

Federal Work-Study (FWS)

Students can accept or decline their total Federal Work-Study (FWS) online. If you would like to accept a reduced amount of your FWS you may do so by indicating the amount of FWS you would like for the year on the Financial Aid Change Request form. If you would like to convert your Federal Work-Study eligibility to a Federal Direct Grad PLUS Loan, please decline the entire FWS amount on my.UChicago.edu and include the amount in your request for additional Grad PLUS Loan on the Financial Aid Change Request form. The request form can then be uploaded to Upload Application Materials under the My Financial Aid section on my.UChicago.edu.

Federal Direct Unsubsidized Loan

Students can accept, decline, or reduce their Federal Direct Unsubsidized Loan on my.UChicago.edu. However, once the loan is accepted, you cannot go back and make changes online. If you would like to make additional adjustments after the loan has been accepted, you will need to contact the Graduate Financial Aid Office for assistance in making changes.  

Your Federal Direct Unsubsidized Loan funds will not disburse to your account unless you accept your loan and complete the required documents listed on your Financial Aid Notification. Required documentation may include completing a Master Promissory Note (MPN) and Entrance Counseling. More information on completing these steps can be found here.

Federal Direct Graduate PLUS Loan

A student is not eligible to receive a Federal Direct Grad PLUS loan until they first accept the full amount of their Federal Direct Unsubsidized Loan. You cannot accept your Graduate PLUS Loan eligibility on my.UChicago.edu. You do have the right to decline your Federal Direct Grad PLUS eligibility, if you choose not to borrow. A federal loan that has not disbursed yet will incur no interest charges or penalties.

More information on applying for a Federal Direct Graduate PLUS Loan can be found here in the Applying for Aid section.

What if my federal loan has already disbursed?

You may still cancel all or a portion of a federal student loan that has disbursed. However, Graduate Financial Aid cannot be responsible for any interest or fees charged by the lender on funds that you wish to cancel after a disbursement. Therefore, we encourage students to determine well in advance whether or not they wish to request a loan cancellation. If you choose to cancel your loan after it has disbursed, the cancellation must be received no later than 120 days after the disbursement of your student loan.

If you choose to cancel a loan after loan funds were received as refund, it is your responsibility to return the refunded amount to the University of Chicago. If the refund was distributed via ACH deposit you will need to repay your Student Account. If the funds were issued to you via paper check you may destroy the check or return to the Office of the Bursar.

Please contact the Office of the Bursar for further questions or concerns at (773)-702-8000 or bursar@uchicago.edu.