The 2025-2026 FAFSA is now open.
Early aid offers will be guaranteed through December 6, 2024,
with the last early aid offer letters being sent on December 9, 2024.
Delays in the FAFSA this year are creating uncertainty for students and families on if they can afford and attend college. CMU is eliminating that uncertainty by allowing new students to receive an early financial aid offer.
Our commitment to you: CMU will stand behind early financial aid offers entered before December 6, 2024. If the data entered into the calculator accurately reflects 2023 income and household information, confirmed in the FAFSA or CASFA, CMU will honor the offer that is greater.
Early 2025-2026 Financial Aid Offers FAQs
New undergraduate admits for fall 2025 can receive an early aid offer.
Early aid offers are not available for current students at this time.
Students who complete the net price calculator before December 6, 2024 with the email address used on the CMU admission application and submit results to CMU will receive an early aid offer.
The first wave of estimated award offers will be sent around October 10. After that, they will be sent out weekly and final letters will be sent December 9, 2024.
Our team has put in a lot of time and hard work to ensure these early aid offers are accurate as possible, given that the information provided is too.
If there are discrepancies between the early and actual award offers, our team will holistically review each student’s award offers to ensure that our students are receiving the better award offer for the 2025-2026 school year, within reason. Factors we will look at: did the student accurately represent their 2023 tax information, and then other normal financial aid requirements such as enrollment, residency, housing status, etc.
The financial aid team is reviewing actual FAFSA/CASFA data compared to Early Aid Offers to make sure of the accuracy before an official financial aid offer will be sent.
You should receive your early aid offer within one to two weeks from the time you submit your calculator results. The first round of early aid offers will be generated beginning October 10 and ending December 9.
New students will receive an email containing their early aid offer in addition to a physical early financial aid offer in the mail.
The calculator is set up to ask questions similar to the FAFSA/CASFA along with questions unique to the types of aid offered at CMU. These questions include:
- Personal information
- Citizenship status
- State and county residency
- Student and parent financial and asset information
- Dependency status
- General questions such as HS GPA and housing plans while in college
Yes! Students whose parents do not have an SSN can still complete the calculator to receive an early aid offer.
Students will still need to complete the FAFSA with their parent once they are able to do so.