Financial Aid FAQs

All institutional financial aid at Barnard is awarded based solely on demonstrated financial need. Barnard does not offer any merit, athletic or talent based scholarships.

All federal financial aid administered by Barnard College is based on demonstrated need as determined by the Federal Methodology formula. Need for institutional aid is determined using a Barnard Need Analysis formula which takes into consideration all sources of income and all assets, including home equity, as well as the number of siblings in college.

No. If you think you will need financial aid to attend Barnard, you MUST apply at the same time you apply for admission to the College and meet the required due date.

Students who are U.S. citizens or permanent residents who do not apply by the deadlines for their first year can apply for aid in subsequent years if they meet the published deadline for the next year.

International students must apply for aid at the time of admission in order to be eligible to apply for aid in subsequent years.

Visit Barnard's Estimate Your Eligibility page to use the MyinTuition and Net Price Calculators to receive an estimate of the amount of financial aid you may be offered if you are accepted to Barnard. The Financial Aid Office will need to see all tax returns and requested documentation before reviewing a financial aid file to determine eligibility. 

The calculators are intended for first-year applicants who are U.S. citizens or permanent residents only. The calculators will not be as accurate for international applicants.

All aid at Barnard is based solely on demonstrated financial need and the methodologies used to calculate Early Decision and Regular Decision eligibility are the same. Students who apply for aid and are eligible for need-based institutional financial aid receive the same financial aid award regardless of whether they apply early or regular decision.

Early Decision applicants are encouraged to keep in mind that the early decision contract is binding and so if financial aid is a concern and you would like the opportunity to compare financial aid packages with other schools, it may be advisable to apply Regular Decision.

A student who is admitted to Barnard with a Barnard College Grant may expect grants in future years, provided that she continues to meet economic and academic eligibility and reapplies each year. Factors that may impact a student's eligibility in subsequent years include: the number of siblings enrolled in college, fluctuation of parent or student income and assets, and family size. Students who are admitted to Barnard without financial aid are not guaranteed College grants for future years. Awards are for the academic year only. 

Yes. Barnard requires financial aid information from both parents regardless of when child support ends and regardless of what the divorce decree states.  The College is not bound by family or court agreements when awarding our own institutional funds.

The Non-Custodial Parent Information is a required part of the application for financial aid at Barnard and it is rare that we are able to waive this requirement. Our policy is to collect both parent's financial information, regardless of state laws, divorce decrees, or a parent's unwillingness to contribute to college costs. If the whereabouts of your noncustodial parent are unknown, or if you have extenuating circumstances and you are unable to submit Non-Custodial parent information, please complete Barnard's Non-Custodial Parent Waiver Petition online.

Please note that the Waiver Petition requires you to submit a letter from a third-party to verify the information presented in the petition. The Petition will not be reviewed until the required third party letter is received.

Students will be notified of the Waiver Petition decision by email. All decisions are final and cannot be appealed. If the Waiver Petition is denied, the student's financial aid application will remain incomplete until all required documents are received from the Non-Custodial Parent.

Barnard does not accept the College Board/IDOC version of the form.

More information can be found on our Non-Custodial Parent Policy page.

Barnard's policy is to collect financial documentation from both parents, regardless of their marital or legal status.  We do not consider unwillingness to submit financial documents as a reason to waive this requirement.  Refer to Barnard's policy.

The number of dependent siblings in undergraduate college is a major factor in calculating the parent contribution.  If you reported on the CSS Profile and FAFSA that you have siblings enrolled full-time in undergraduate college, and they do not enroll as reported, there will be an adjustment to the parent contribution and the financial aid award.

Once a sibling has graduated from college, the institutional and CSS Profile formulas do not take into account any graduate school or post-college programs costs. Students in graduate school programs are generally considered to be independent students, per federal regulations.

RA students are not charged for housing and are eligible to receive an RA financial aid award as part of the financial aid package. The RA financial aid award will reduce the self-help (Work/Student Loan) portion of your financial aid package.  If your RA financial aid award and any outside scholarships exceed the amount of your self-help, then any remaining funds will be used to reduce any Barnard Grant you may have received. 

Please note: RAs can still work on campus using a Barnard College Job award. Students interested in working on campus should contact Beyond Barnard for assistance finding a job on campus.

Students who decide to live off-campus or commute from home will have their Barnard Grant reduced by approximately $15,000 to reflect the cost of a commuter.  Please see our policies on Resident or Commuter status.

All required documents are listed on each applicant's personalized Financial Aid Checklist. Documents are populated based on the information reported on the CSS Profile and FAFSA. The Financial Aid Checklist is located in the application portal. First-year and transfer applicants receive access to their portal after they have completed the Common Application. Returning students can access their portal using their Barnard email address and password.

Documents are updated on the checklist as they are reviewed by our office.

The CSS Profile and FAFSA are completed online. All tax documents and supplementary forms can be uploaded into the application portal.

We recommend saving your document as a pdf, jpeg, or Word document in order to successfully upload your documents to the portal. Documents that are password protected cannot be uploaded. If a document is password protected, we recommend temporarily removing the password in order to upload the document or sending a hard copy to our office for our staff to upload for you.

After the deadline date, there is no guarantee that funds will be available.

All required documents are listed on the student's Financial Aid Checklist. Uploaded documents are reviewed on a daily basis by the Financial Aid Office staff and the checklist is updated accordingly. During peak admissions times it can take 2-4 business days for the checklist to be updated due to the high volume of documents under review.

First-year and transfer applicants who have submitted a complete financial aid application will receive their financial aid decision when they are notified that they have been accepted to the College.

Assuming that the deadlines are met, returning students will receive their financial aid decision letters in late June.

All financial aid decisions will be posted within the Financial Aid Portal.

All outside scholarships must be reported to the Financial Aid Office by submitting a copy of the award certificate or letter from the scholarship donor indicating the type and amount of the award.  All outside scholarships reduce or replace the self-help portion of the package and the Financial Aid Office will make adjustments to the package as soon as documentation of the outside scholarship is received. Outside scholarships do not change or impact the expected parent contribution.

Scholarship checks must be submitted to the Bursar's Office, 3009 Broadway, 15 Milbank Hall, New York, NY 10027.

All students who submitted a complete financial aid application by the published deadlines will receive their financial aid decision letter when they are notified of their admission to the College. Students who did not submit their application on time or did not complete their application cannot be considered for institutional need-based financial aid. In these cases, the Financial Aid Office can process federal aid only (i.e. Pell Grant and federal loans).

Students with questions concerning their financial aid awards are encouraged to contact our office to discuss their financial aid decision with their assigned financial aid counselor. Our counselors are happy to discuss the financial aid decision, the expected family contribution, and financing options with students and their immediate families.

In most cases, the financial aid decision is final since we conduct a thorough evaluation based on the information submitted as part of the financial aid application. If there has been a significant change in circumstances that occurred after the application was submitted, or if there is any incorrect or unusual information reported on the initial application, a family may submit a letter of appeal. All letters should formally request reconsideration of the application and specify in detail the additional information that would impact the original evaluation. Letters can be submitted by email, mail, or fax. Appeals are reviewed by our director and a response is typically sent out by email within a week of receipt. All appeals decisions are final.

All enrolling students should monitor their Financial Aid Checklist regularly. Documents may be added to the checklist in order to finalize award eligibility. The Financial Aid Office will also send out emails to enrolling students with instructions to complete all required documents. Students are encouraged to submit all outstanding documentation as quickly as possible to allow the Financial Aid Office to process all aid and to ensure that the fall bill is correct when it is issued in July.

First-year and newly-admitted transfer students can use the First Year Billing Worksheet to estimate their bill and review their payment options. This worksheet is intended as a tool to estimation purposes only. The Bursar's Office will release the fall bill in early July and families will receive their actual fall balance at that time.

*The Billing Worksheet will be updated with tuition and fee information for the 2020-2021 academic year in April, 2020.

The Bursar's Office manages all billing and payment. Their office releases the bill twice a year:

• The Fall bill is released in early July and is due in early August
• The Spring bill is released in early November and is due in early December

The financial aid letter includes a budget for both billed an non-billed expenses. Some of your family contribution may cover billed expenses from Barnard and some of your family contribution may need to cover non-billed expenses, such as books & supplies. For more information on the differences between the financial aid award letter and bill, please visit the Financial Aid & Your Bill page.

If you are already covered by another medical insurance, you may submit a request to waive Aetna Student Health Insurance.

Students who receive need-based institutional aid and do not qualify for the waiver are encouraged to complete the Health Insurance Assistance Form to request additional aid to cover the health insurance fees.

Refund requests are processed by the Bursar's Office. Students who receive a refund should use those funds to cover non-billed expenses such as books & supplies or personal expenses.

Students studying abroad should use any refund they receive to pay their study abroad billed expenses (i.e. room & board, travel, additional program fees).

Students enrolled for the full year have all loans disbursed in two installments, with half the loan (minus fees) credited to the fall bill and the other half (minus fees) credited to the spring bill.

Students who are enrolled for only one semester have their loan disbursed in one installment for that semester.

Loan application procedures for both federal and private loans can be found on the Apply for a Loan page of our website.

Effective for loans first disbursed on or after July 1, 2019 and prior to July 1, 2020:
Fixed Interest Rate:  4.529%

For loans where the first disbursement is made on or after October 1, 2018 and before October 1, 2019:
Origination Fee: 1.062%
Net Fee of 1.062% is deducted from the amount borrowed.

Interest rate reduction: You might be able to get a 0.25% rate discount as a repayment incentive for automatic payments when you use the electronic debit account (EDA) option to make payments on your loan.

When you graduate, drop below half-time, or withdraw from Barnard College, you will receive a six-month grace period for your loans. Once your grace period ends, you must begin repaying your loan.  Refer to the repayment options at the Federal Student Loan website.

Students who wish to borrow additional loans or increase the amount of their loans can request an increase by completing the Federal Loan Form.

Students who wish to decline or cancel their loans can do so by completing the Loan Adjustment Form online.