Appeal for Reconsideration

You can submit one appeal per academic year prior to the deposit deadline (admitted students) or payment deadline (continuing students) for that year. Decisions will be made during the review period outlined above and we cannot consider additional appeals after your decision deadline.

In order to be considered for BU financial assistance in your second year, you must have applied for financial assistance in your first year and had a change in circumstances since your initial applications. Students who applied for financial assistance in their first year but submitted their applications after the deadline may also reapply. Students who did not apply for financial assistance in their first year can find more information on our New Applicants webpage.

Total Parent Income is the combination of a family’s taxable and untaxable income, excluding certain losses. Total Parent Income is not always the same as the Adjusted Gross Income (AGI) on your tax return as it includes additional income sources.

BU Special Assistance Scholarship is a one-time BU appeal scholarship in recognition of circumstances impacting a student’s plan to pay for BU. A BU Special Assistance Scholarship is not included in BU Scholarship Assurance and will not be renewed in subsequent academic years.

A successful appeal answers two questions: “What was your plan to pay for the upcoming academic year?” and “How have these circumstances disrupted that plan?”

Compelling appeals are complete appeals (FAFSA, CSS Profile, Tax Returns & W-2s) uploaded through the BU portal which demonstrate a significant change in circumstances from your initial applications that has not been previously reviewed.

We cannot consider appeals based on a job loss from the current tax year:

• If your family has experienced a recent loss of employment, we cannot consider this circumstance until the following academic year once tax returns are available to document the change in income.

All appeals are carefully considered, however, we cannot guarantee additional funding for any appeal.

A significant change in financial circumstances is a change of greater than 15% of your family’s annual income compared to the income on your initial applications.

Example A – Successful Appeal

First Year: AGI on 2024 taxes is reported as $150,000.

Second Year: AGI on 2025 taxes is reported as $110,000.

Explanation: Since the annual income for this student’s second year is greater than 15% less than the AGI on their initial applications, this change in circumstance could be considered in an appeal.

Example  B – Unsuccessful Appeal

First Year: AGI on 2023 taxes is reported as $150,000.

Second Year: AGI on 2024 taxes is reported as $200,000.

Third-Year: AGI on 2025 taxes is reported as $168,000.

Explanation: While this family’s AGI did decrease by more than 15% from 2024 to 2025, the income reported in 2025 is still higher than the income reported on the initial applications ($150,000). Since BU offers awards that are guaranteed for four years, the award was set based on the lower 2023 AGI. In this case, even though 2025 is lower than 2024, it is still higher than the initial income that the current award was established with and thus would not result in an increase in eligibility.

Merit-based scholarship recipients are selected by the Board of Admissions and selection decisions are final. Scholarship terms and conditions, including award amounts, are pre-established.

Current students who experience a change in financial circumstances after the appeal deadline will be able to submit an appeal based on these circumstances for the following academic year.

You may also contact BU Financial Assistance to discuss what financing options and other resources are available for the current academic year.

No, we are not able to consider additional appeal requests during the academic year or re-review appeals that have already been considered. All appeals are reviewed by our appeal review board and carefully considered. If your appeal was not approved, you will need to consider other financing options for the academic year.

You will be able to submit a new appeal for the following academic year if you have new circumstances or your circumstances have worsened.

BU uses the dependency status and noncustodialIf your biological or adoptive parents are divorced, separated, and/or do not share the same household, your noncustodial parent is the parent who provides less support for you than your custodial parent. parent status established with your initial applications for subsequent appeal consideration. Changes to either of these statuses may not result in an increase to BU need-based aid eligibility.

BU still requires parent income information for independent students regardless of changes in circumstances after enrollment at BU.

At BU there are many housing and dining plan options with different costs. After the first year, housing selection is one of the primary sources of increased costs.

It’s important to start considering and planning for the different housing costs and what housing options your student may be interested in future years. BU Financial Assistance is calculated based on the standard rate for Housing and Dining Plans.

Selecting a more expensive housing option is a choice and will not increase BU need-based financial aid. It is important to make sure you communicate with anyone helping you pay for BU about your housing selection and where you are thinking about living in the upcoming years.

If you attempted to waive BU SHIP and were not approved for the waiver, you may be eligible to receive assistance with this cost if you are eligible for BU need-based financial aid. To apply for the BU SHIP cost appeal, complete this form.