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2025 Financial Aid Updates

Students in the Fall 2025 entering class are experiencing small changing timelines due to the launch of the new Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) last year. With the goal of being as helpful and transparent as possible, we have created this page to provide up-to-date information on the latest changes and items you need to know to help with your college search process.

Financial aid timeline

Now: File your 2025-26 FAFSA! CMU's school code is 002243.

Early 2025: FAFSA data will be sent to colleges by the United States Department of Education. Students will receive an email when their FAFSA submission summary is ready to be viewed at studentaid.gov. If you have filed your FAFSA already, learn how to check on the status of your application by reading the below FAQ section.

Early Spring 2025: Financial aid notifications from CMU have begun to be sent out showing your personal financial aid offer. 

In early Spring, all incoming main campus undergraduate students who have completed their FAFSA successfully should have received their aid offer via email. If you have not received an aid offer email by that time, but you have filed the FAFSA and included CMU on your FAFSA, take the following steps:

1. Log into Studentaid.gov to review your FAFSA status. If it states "action required" follow the steps to complete your FAFSA: How do I check the status of my FAFSA® form? | Federal Student Aid 

2. Log into your financial aid portal to review any missing steps: https://studentfinaid.cmich.edu/ 

3. Reach out to our office so we can look into your situation: Office of Scholarships and Financial Aid | Central Michigan University (cmich.edu)

Not filing the FAFSA? You can file at any time to ensure you are considered for the max aid possible. However, we will begin to send out aid offers to our non-FAFSA filers by early June.

Updated as of 11/22/2024.

Financial aid steps

Here are five easy steps to securing your maximum offer.

Step 1: Create your studentaid.gov account. 

Step 2: File your FAFSA to maximize your financial aid! CMU's school code is 002243.

Step 3: Students and schools will begin to receive processed FAFSAs in early 2025. Once received, we will begin to put together your financial aid offer!

Step 4: Offer notifications will be sent beginning in early Spring. You will receive a packet in the mail outlining your offered aid, next steps and a breakdown of what each component of your offer means. In addition, we will send you an email to your CMICH account when it is ready to be viewed in your financial aid portal.

Step 5: Complete the next steps within your financial aid portal.

CMU tuition advantage and other aid opportunities

On February 6, 2024, we announced the expansion of the CMU Tuition Advantage for qualifying newly admitted Michigan students, allowing more students than ever before to attend CMU tuition-free! Information about the CMU Tuition Advantage and more scholarship and grant opportunities are listed below.

    Starting 2024-25 academic year, newly admitted Michigan students whose families have an adjusted gross income and family assets of $65,000 or less may be eligible to attend CMU tuition-free. We will cover the cost of 30 credit hours (15 credits in the fall and 15 credits in the spring) and the student services fee through a combination of federal, state and institutional aid.

    CMU Tuition Advantage

    The Michigan Achievement Scholarship program is free money from the State of Michigan to lower the cost of your college tuition by thousands of dollars per year. New 2023 MI high school graduates and beyond could receive up to $5,500 in free money!

    MI Achievement Scholarship

    Our Maroon and Gold Merit Scholarships provides scholarship opportunities to incoming freshmen based on high school academics. Incoming freshmen who have applied to CMU are automatically considered for these awards.

    Maroon & Gold Scholarship

    Merit-based scholarships are awarded to qualifying incoming transfer students based on materials submitted at application for admission. Students can earn up to $13,500 over three years by combining qualified scholarships designed specifically for transfer students.

    Transfer Scholarships

    We offer a scholarship-matching tool for admitted CMU students through Scholarship Universe. After answering some initial questions, Scholarship Universe connects you to donor-based internal (CMU) scholarship opportunities for which you qualify for the Fall and Spring semesters of the 2024-2025 academic year.

    Scholarship Universe

    Get ready for your offer

    While you wait for your financial aid offer to come in April there are steps you can take right now!

    • Activate your CMU account. This is a crucial step as we will communicate with you via your CMICH email address, so you want to make sure you have your account set up and ready to be used.
    • File your FAFSA! We cannot move forward with your financial aid offer and look for your max aid possible without your FAFSA data. CMU's priority deadline for offered aid is May 1st. 

    Frequently asked questions

    Students that have filed their FAFSA may check the status of their 2025-26 application on StudentAid.gov. To check the status, students should do the following:

    1. Log in using your FSAID and password.

    2. Navigate to your account Dashboard.

    3. Select "2025-26 FAFSA Form" from the "My Activity" page. The application status will be one of the following:

    Draft: Your section of the FAFSA form is incomplete.

    In Progress: You provided your consent, approval, and signature to your section of the FAFSA form, but the FAFSA has not yet been submitted.

    In Review: You have submitted your form and your application is still processing.

    Processed: Your application was processed successfully.

    Action Required: Your application requires further action from you or your contributor(s). In some cases, you may need to contact your college or career/trade school to resolve the issue.

    StudentAid.gov

      Once you receive an email that your FAFSA has been processed and if you have CMU on the FAFSA, we will receive your information at that time. Whenever you make a correction or an update to the FAFSA, we will receive the new FAFSA within 1-3 business days.

      Corrections and updates are now available on the How to Correct or Update Your FAFSA. CMU will receive an updated version of your FAFSA 1-3 business days after you submit your corrections and updates.

      You will receive an email from StudentAid.gov once your FAFSA has processed. You will be able to review your FAFSA Submission Summary (FSS) and check the status of your FAFSA by logging into StudentAid.gov.

      This is great news! Leave the rest to us. In the weeks to follow, we will mail you your financial aid offer as well as email you at your CMICH email address with a link to your financial aid portal so you can review your offered aid.