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Student Financial Aid

Financial Aid Appeals 

Students have the right to appeal or request a review of various financial aid components. The information below describes the most typical types of requests. When submitting an appeal, please use one of the following appeal forms as a cover to your request. Please note that submitting a request does not guarantee approval.

Before Submitting an Appeal 

To help determine if submitting an appeal may increase your financial aid offer, please consider the following:  

  • There is no exact income cutoff for the Federal Pell Grant, but in general, eligibility begins to decrease at a family income around $40,000 and is usually eliminated at approximately $70,000.
  • Therefore, if your income was significantly impacted by unemployment, divorce or death of a parent/spouse, but remained above $70,000 in a subsequent year, an adjustment to the amount of financial aid offered is unlikely.
  • When comparing your current income to the FAFSA, consider severance pay, unemployment compensation and projected future employment.

Please note that appeal decisions are typically not final until after the start of school in the Fall, as Summer processing is devoted to finalizing initial aid packages for all students. 

Types of Appeals 

General Appeals 

Students who feel that they have received an unsatisfactory response to a financial aid request can request an appeal. Along with the need-based appeal form, you can submit a letter to the Financial Aid Appeals Committee stating your situation and requested change. 

If you have extenuating circumstances or a significant change in financial status since you filed the FAFSA, you can submit the need-based appeal form to the financial aid office and request a review. If a comprehensive review is warranted, you will be requested to provide additional supporting documentation. 

Need-Based Appeal Form 

Satisfactory Academic Progress Appeals 

If you have received notice that you are ineligible for financial aid because of a failure to maintain Satisfactory Academic Progress, you can submit an appeal to the Financial Aid Appeals Committee.   

To appeal, you must submit the Satisfactory Academic Progress Appeal Form, a detailed letter documenting the extenuating circumstances for why the deficiency has occurred, actions you have taken to resolve the issue and any supporting documentation.  

The appeals committee reviews appeals as quickly as possible in the order that they are received. During peak processing times, appeals can take three to four weeks to process.  

Satisfactory Academic Progress Appeal Form

Scholarship Appeals 

Clemson University Scholarship Appeals

To appeal the loss of a University scholarship, you must submit the scholarship appeal form, letter and supporting documents to the Office of Scholarships. As part of the appeal, you must clearly document the reasons beyond your control that contributed to not meeting the renewal requirements of your scholarship(s).

**University scholarship appeals are reviewed during the Fall semester each academic year. The scholarship appeal form and supporting documents must be submitted by the last day to register or add a class.

University Scholarship Appeal Form

State of South Carolina Scholarship Appeals

To appeal the loss of a state scholarship (Palmetto Fellows or LIFE), you must appeal directly to the South Carolina Commission on Higher Education (CHE) as Clemson University does not have the authority to make exceptions to state legislation and/or regulations. More information can be found on the Commission’s website.

How to Communicate About Your Appeal 

The official method of communication with the Clemson University Office of Student Financial Aid is via the University-issued email account. To stay informed and aware, students are required to set up and maintain their email accounts. You should check your email frequently.

We recommend that you add finaid@clemson.edu to your contact list so that important emails from the Office of Student Financial Aid do not accidentally go to your spam folder.