Special circumstances

It’s possible that at some point you’ll encounter a situation that doesn’t seem to fit our standard financial aid procedures. We refer to these conditions as “special circumstances.” We’ve listed some of the most frequent types of special circumstances below, with links to more information on what to do. But the basic message is this: anytime you have an individual concern, please contact us. We’re committed to making an MIT education accessible and affordable to every student we admit. Your financial aid counselor will work with you individually to find the information, additional resources, or funding to help meet your specific needs.

There will be times when we contact you because something happens that requires lowering your student expense budget and/or financial aid award. The most common reasons for these adjustments are light load registration (which we explain under Adjustments to Your Student Expense Budget) and overawards (which we explain under Revisions to Your Financial Aid Award).

• Adjustments to your student expense budget, including adjustments for light load registration
• Financial aid award adjustments, including overawards, appealing your initial financial aid award, requesting a waiver of your non-custodial parent, and replacing your summer earnings expectation
• Study abroad
• Summer school
• Leaves and withdrawals