Check Your Email
- After your FAFSA® and any additional documents that are needed have been reviewed, your financial aid eligibility is determined.
- We notify you via email and ask you to view your aid offer online under the Finances tab of your PAWS account.
- You should check your university email regularly for notifications from the Student Financial Service Center. We will use the email address you used when you applied for admission until you have a UWM email account.
- Aid offers to new students usually begin in mid-December. Delays due to the implementation of a new FAFSA process for 2024-25 should be expected. (Current timeline indicates the earliest aid offers will begin will be April).
- Aid offers to current students usually begin in mid-April. Delays due to the implementation of a new FAFSA process for 2024-25 should be expected.
Important Enrollment Information:
- Initial financial aid offers assume full-time enrollment for the fall and spring terms.
- Full-time enrollment is twelve (12) credits for undergraduates; eight (8) credits for graduates; and three (3) credits for dissertators.
- Undergraduates should notify us if they will be enrolled less than full-time so adjustments can be made that will allow aid to disburse.
- Once the add/drop period has concluded, we will make adjustments based on actual enrollment for anyone who is still waiting for their aid to disburse.
Review Your Offer
You need to accept or decline the aid offered via your PAWS Student Center. Review our Financial Aid PAWS Tutorial for help or watch this video walk- through. Complete this requirement within 30 days of the aid being offered to you.
Adjust Your Offer
Your aid can be adjusted at any point during the year for reasons including, but not limited to:
- you receive other financial resources (tuition waivers and scholarships) after your initial offer, or
- you make corrections to your FAFSA or change your enrollment.
Let us know as soon as possible if this occurs so adjustments can be made. You will receive an email notification any time your aid is adjusted.
Special Circumstances
You should contact our office or review and submit the Special Circumstance Form if you/your family have special circumstances (e.g. you are no longer receiving an income source, a significant change in income is expected, etc.) We will review any information you send and let you know if additional documentation is required. Before we will consider a Special Circumstance, you must have received an initial aid offer. You can find more information on our Appeals & Special Circumstance page.