Financial Aid Petitions

Types of Petitions

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  Computer Purchase Allowance

  The Computer Purchase Allowance is a request (rather than a petition), available to undergraduate and graduate students. It allows a one-time $ 1,500 increase to your Cost of Attendance (COA) for the purchase of a computer.

  If you've already received the annual Federal Direct Loan limit or you don't want to borrow additional loan funds, requesting an increase to your COA will not benefit you. This request can only increase your COA, potentially increasing your eligibility for federal or private loans. It doesn't increase your eligibility for Pell Grants.

  NOTE: For MSB and first-year law students, we automatically include a one-time allowance in your COA for the purchase of a computer since it's required by your program.

  When Submitting a Request

  We'll review your request to determine if a previous request has been approved. If you've previously received a request, we will not be able to increase your COA for the allowance unless you meet one of the petition circumstances listed below.

  If you have additional federal subsidized and/or unsubsidized loan eligibility, we'll offer the loan(s). You'll then be able to accept the amount you wish to receive on your My Aid Dashboard.

  Computer Purchase Allowance Petitions

  If you previously received approval for the Computer Purchase Allowance request, you may be able to petition for an additional allowance in the following circumstances:
  

  • It has been over 4 years since you previously received approval for an allowance
  • The computer you previously received the allowance for has been lost, stolen, or damaged
  • You need a computer for your program that costs more than the $1,500 limit
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  Cost of Attendance Increase

  Cost of Attendance petitions are allowed in certain special circumstances. Your loan eligibility cannot exceed your Cost of Attendance (COA) minus any other financial aid. If you have remaining loan eligibility that you cannot access because you have met your COA with other aid, and you have higher expenses than what the standard COA covers, you may petition to increase your COA.

  Common Reasons for Petitions

  • Disability-related Expenses: Special services, personal assistance, transportation, equipment, and supplies not provided by another agency. You must provide documentation of expenses.
  • Dependent Care Allowance: For students with one or more dependents. Documentation would include actual expenses incurred for dependent care while you are participating in education-related activities (such as class time, study groups, fieldwork, internships, and commuting). Your dependent may be your child or another person you provide care for, such as your parent or spouse.
  • Unusually High Out-of-Pocket Medical Expenses: Documentation would include copies of bills, canceled checks, pharmacy prescription statements, insurance premium statements, or wage statements showing the amounts withheld for premiums, etc.
  • Other unusual expenses not covered by the standard cost of attendance.

  Examples of expenses less likely to be eligible for COA increases:

  • Increased living expenses for married students or families based solely on the fact that costs are higher than for single students or what is estimated in BYU's published COA
  • Purchase of a vehicle or vehicle payments
  • Auto repairs and standard maintenance
  • Credit card or other consumer debt payments
  • Costs incurred outside the current academic year
  • Costs incurred by a family member or roommate

  Instructions

  1. Write a personal statement explaining the unusual expense you are experiencing.
  2. Provide pertinent documentation of the expense. Examples include (but are not limited to):
     
     • Summary of Expenses form for medical expenses
     • Receipts of medical expense payments
     • Medical bills
     • Documentation of prescription medication
     • Documentation of daycare expenses while in education-related activities
     • Documentation of expenses for disability-related expenses incurred by the student, not another agency
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  Dependency Override

  If you're considered a dependent student on the FAFSA and you have an unusual circumstance that prevents you from providing parent information on the FAFSA, you may petition for a dependency override so that only your information must be provided on the FAFSA. If you marked on the FAFSA that you are provisionally independent and you meet one of the following situations that may qualify for independence, you will be instructed to submit a dependency override petition.

  Common Reasons for Dependency Override Petitions

  • Abusive family environment that threatens your health or safety
  • Parental abandonment
  • You are unable to locate your parents
  • Incarceration of parents
  • Estrangement (meaning you have been cut off or prohibited from having any contact with your parents)
  • A court order that keeps you separated from your parents

  Circumstances That Don't Qualify for a Petition

  Please note that the following four reasons, alone or in combination, do not qualify as unusual circumstances and will not result in a dependency override:
  

  • Your parents are unable to provide financial support or refuse to contribute to your education;
  • Your parents are unwilling to provide the information needed to complete the FAFSA or the verification process;
  • Your parents do not claim you as a dependent for income tax purposes;
    or
  • You can demonstrate that you are financially self-sufficient.

  Instructions

  1. Submit a letter regarding your unusual circumstances. Include information regarding your relationship with your parents, the length of time you have been in this situation, other people you have lived with, how you have provided financially for yourself during this time, and, if you are a returned missionary, how you provided financially for your mission.
     
  2. Submit third-party letters from two or more people who have first-hand knowledge of your situation. The letters should be from people who are unrelated to you but are aware of your situation, such as a counselor, bishop, law enforcement official, etc. Those persons writing letters should include their relationship to you and how long they have been aware of your situation.
     
  3. Submit any additional documentation that may be applicable to your situation, such as:
     
     • Police report
     • Documentation of incarceration
     • Death certificate
     • Court order
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  Family Size

  If you submit the 2025-26 FAFSA and subsequently have a baby during the academic year, you may be able to update your FAFSA to reflect your baby's addition to your family size. To update your FAFSA, your child must have been born by June 30, 2026, and you must have current or future enrollment for the academic year. There are two ways we can add your newborn.

  Updating Family Size Through Verification

  1. Log in to fafsa.gov
     
     1. Click "Access Existing Form" (Do not submit a new FAFSA).
     2. Update the Family Size question that asks "How many people are in the student's family?"
     3. Submit
  2. Complete the verification tasks assigned to you. We typically receive the updated FAFSA in 3-5 days. You will receive tasks after that time. Please watch your My Financial Center and BYU email for notification.

  Updating Family Size by Petition (if verification was already completed)

  1. Write a letter indicating the reason(s) you are requesting a change to your family size. Reasons may include increased expenses, loss of income, etc. Indicate specifically if the child is your firstborn.
  2. Provide a copy of your child's birth certificate.

  Circumstances That Don't Qualify for an Update Through Verification or by Petition

  • Your child is born after June 30, 2026
  • You do not have current or future enrollment during the academic year
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  Loss of Income

  Loss of Income petitions are allowed in certain special circumstances. When you completed the FAFSA for 2025-26, you were required to report 2023 income. If your 2024 or 2025 income is less than the amount you earned or received in 2023 for any of the reasons listed below, you may petition for a reevaluation of financial aid eligibility.

  Common reasons for Loss of Income petitions

  • Unemployment or change in employment: Should be for a significant length of time (since recent unemployment may be short-lived and result in an insignificant loss of income or even an increase)
  • Disability of the student, the student’s parent or spouse
  • One-time income used for essential and special circumstances: Examples include an inheritance or withdrawal of 401(k) funds used to pay for critical repairs to the home or to pay for long-term medical care
  • Divorce/separation of student or parent: If you are separated or divorced and have already completed verification, you can petition to have your income or your parent's income information adjusted
  • Death of a student’s spouse or parent: If your spouse or your parent has passed away after you completed verification, you can petition to have your/your parent's income information adjusted

  Circumstances less likely to qualify for a petition

  • Loss of income due to quitting a job to go back to school or choosing to take a lower-paying job
  • Brief or recent unemployment or changes to employment
  • Adjustments to income for credit card or other consumer debt payments
  • Adjustments for one-time income used to pay other consumer debts (such as mortgage payments)

  Instructions

  1. Write a letter of explanation describing the unusual loss of income experienced.
  2. Submit a signed letter from your parent if you are a dependent student on the FAFSA and the loss of income is your parent's loss.
  3. Provide pertinent documentation of loss of income. Examples include (but are not limited to):
     
     • Letter of separation from employer
     • Paystubs/paychecks
     • Signed tax returns
     • Unemployment statements
     • Medical documentation
     • Court documents
     • Divorce decree
     • Death certificate
  4. Submit a Loss of Income Worksheet
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  Marital Status Updates

  Marital status updates may be considered for students whose marital status changes by June 30 of the academic year in which they want to receive aid.

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  Medical & Dental Expenses

  Medical and Dental Expense petitions are allowed in certain special circumstances. If you or your parents had unusual out-of-pocket medical or dental expenses paid in 2024, you may petition for a reevaluation of financial aid eligibility for the 2026-27 academic year.

  Common reasons for Medical and Dental Expense petitions

  • Large, out-of-pocket expenses for necessary surgeries due to injury or illness
  • Large, out-of-pocket expenses for physical therapy necessary due to injury or illness
  • Large, out-of-pocket expenses due to extended hospital stays due to injury or illness
  • Large, out-of-pocket pharmacy expenses

  Circumstances less likely to qualify for a petition

  • Medical/dental expenses paid by insurance or another agency
  • Routine co-payments, absent additional unusual expenses
  • Medical/dental expenses that do not exceed the allowance already accounted for in the calculation to determine your Student Aid Index (SAI).
  • Expenses for elective medical or dental procedures
  • Expenses paid for through Health Savings Accounts (HSA)

  Instructions

  1. Write a letter of explanation describing the unusual out-of-pocket medical expenses paid that year.

  2. Provide documentation of paid expenses. Paid expenses may include:
  

  • Doctors
  • Hospitals
  • Prescriptions
  • Health Insurance Premiums
  • Dentists
  • X-rays
  • Orthodontics (if required by accident or injury)
  • Other

  Documentation may include copies of bills, canceled checks, pharmacy prescription statements, insurance premium statements, or wage statements showing withheld premium amounts.

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  Satisfactory Academic Progress (SAP)

  Students must be meeting Satisfactory Academic Progress (SAP) to receive federal financial aid. Click here for more information on SAP requirements.

  SAP Petition

  When a student fails to meet SAP standards, federal regulations allow a student to petition to receive federal financial aid while not meeting SAP if the student has extenuating reasons why he/she was not able to meet SAP. Extenuating circumstances generally include something outside the student’s control.

  Common Reasons for SAP Petitions

  • Serious illness                                 
  • Accident or injury                                          
  • Medical or family emergency
  • Personal crisis                                 
  • Federally declared disaster                        
  • Death of a family member or other relative

  Circumstances Less Likely to Qualify for Approval of a Petition

  • Work conflicts
  • Chronic conditions without documentation showing how the situation has changed to allow you to successfully meet SAP again
  • Having too hard a workload, or being unprepared for the coursework
  • Being unaware of deadlines and requirements
    

  NOTE: Because federal regulations prohibit SAP overrides for a previous enrollment period, petitions must be submitted and approved before or during the semester/term for which you are requesting the override, but no later than two weeks before the end of that semester/term.

  Instructions

  To petition to override any SAP conditions (GPA, Completion Rate, Maximum Timeframe), please follow the instructions below.

  1. Attach a signed letter to your petition and include the following:
  

  • a detailed description of the reason(s) you failed to meet SAP, and
  • an explanation of what has changed that'll allow you to successfully meet SAP in the future.

  2. Provide documentation in support of your letter, as follows:
  

  • Illness, accident, or injury: medical documentation
  • Family Emergency: letter from a family member (if medical, provide documentation)
  • Death of Family Member: death certificate, obituary notice, or funeral program
  • Personal Crisis: third-party documentation, such as a letter from your bishop, therapist/counselor, or another who is aware of your situation firsthand

  NOTE: Documentation should show that your situation has changed or has been mitigated so that you can successfully complete classes. This usually requires attending a semester or term on your own prior to petitioning and completing all credits with a passing grade.

  3. If requested, complete an Academic Plan with your academic advisor or Enrollment Services Counselor.

  Re-establishing Federal Financial Aid Eligibility

  Students are evaluated at the end of each semester after grades post. Students failing to meet SAP standards can re-establish federal financial aid eligibility in future semesters by improving Cumulative GPA and/or Pace to meet the minimum requirements. Grade changes from a prior semester that are posted mid-semester can be used to help a student re-establish federal aid eligibility during that semester. Test credits, independent study credits, and any graded credits posted mid-semester (such as Spring, 1st block, or other session) can only be used to re-establish federal aid eligibility at the next SAP evaluation.