New Undergraduate Instructions

These instructions explain the steps you must complete after you receive Your Award Notification from TU.

Aid Steps Deadlines

Please complete the Part 1 steps within two weeks of Your Award Notification.  Because some of the Part 1 steps could change your financial aid application data and aid offers, it is best to complete those steps earlier so that we can notify you about any changes faster. Completing Part 1 does not obligate you to attend TU.

Complete Part 2 (Accepting Aid) within two weeks of submitting your TU Enrollment Contract.

Part 1 (Steps 1 - 9)

1. Review Your Financial Aid Notification

When your Award Notification is ready, Admissions will notify you.

After they notify you, log in to your TU Admissions Portal to view your Financial Aid Award Notification. Please note that it is a three-page document. To view all the pages, use the navigation arrows in the letter viewer or download it as a PDF.

If Admissions hasn't notified you yet, please be patient as we will continue to release additional awards every week.

2. Read Your Award Guide

All students are required to read the entire Award Guide because it explains your award requirements and your aid responsibilities. It also explains your aid offers, and how they were calculated.

3. Release of Financial Information Form

If you want to authorize TU to discuss your aid data with your parents (or others), you must complete our Release of Financial Information Form. Visit Forms & Online Services.  Federal law prohibits us from discussing your aid without your authorization.

4. Respond promptly to document requests

Some students or parents will need to complete additional aid documents or steps that are not listed below.

  • If we need additional documents, we will email the student.
  • If you need your parents help with any requests, forward those requests to your parents.
  • We will also post all requests to the To Dos list on your personalized Towson Online Services Student Dashboard.

To access this dashboard, you must activate your TU Net ID and email account. If you have technical issues, contact the OTS Technology Support Desk at or 410-704-5151.

5. FAFSA Data Verification

If your Online Services To Dos list includes any requests for verification documents, please follow the instructions on those requests.

6. Additional Resources/Aid Form

If you will receive any other aid or educational benefits that are not listed on your TU award notification, you must submit a TU Notice of Additional Resources Form. Go to Forms & Online Services.  (Examples of other aid include private scholarships, tuition waivers, and vocational rehabilitation benefits.)

7. Will You Enroll Part-time?

If at any time you decide to enroll part-time (less than 12 units) for the fall or spring semesters, you must submit a Course Load Change Form to prevent aid payment and rebate delays.

Review the Minimum Credit requirements to see how your aid will change.  Federal loans require at least half-time status. 

The Course Load Change Form is available now.  To submit it:

  • Login to the Towson Online Services Student Dashboard.
  • From the Main Navigation menu, choose Financials.
  • Choose Financial Aid Forms.
  • Choose the 2024-2025 Aid Year.
  • Choose the Course Load Change Form.

If you plan to enroll full-time, please do not submit this form. We already assume that students will enroll full-time.

8. Review/Update Your Housing Status

We award aid based on the two different housing choices listed below

  • On Campus or Off Campus (not living with parents)

  • Living with Parents

Review the housing status we listed on your Award Notification. If the status on your notification does not match your housing plans, then you must submit a TU Housing Verification Form.

If the housing status on your TU Award Notification is already correct, please do not submit it.

The Housing Verification Form is available now.  To submit it:

  • Login to the Towson Online Services Student Dashboard.
  • From the Main Navigation menu, choose Financials.
  • Choose Financial Aid Forms.
  • Choose the 2024-2025 Aid Year.
  • Choose the Housing Verification Form.

If the Maryland Higher Education Commission (MHEC) offers you any state aid, you must login to their MDCAPS system to accept their aid offers and to report your housing status to them.

9. Financial Need Adjustments?

If you have experienced any financial changes that you weren't able to report on your FAFSA form, please review our Special Financial Conditions process to determine if you are eligible to request financial need adjustments that might increase your eligibility for aid.

Part 2 (Accept Your Aid)

Complete these steps after you choose to enroll at TU.

Before you can access your TU email and the Towson Online Services Student Dashboard, you must activate your TU Net ID and email account. If you have technical issues, contact the OTS Technology Support Desk at or 410-704-5151.

10. Check Your TU Email Weekly

  • After you enroll at TU, we will start sending all financial aid communications to your TU student email account.
  • Please regularly check your TU email, and respond promptly to all financial aid requests. 
  • If you need your parents help with any requests, please notify them.
  • If you want to forward all of your TU email to a different email account, follow these Outlook email forwarding instructions.

If you do not check your email and To Dos list regularly and fail to complete required aid tasks by the deadlines, your aid will be canceled or delayed, and you may receive a $150 late payment fine.

11. Accept Your Aid / Choose Loan Amounts

You must accept/decline each aid offer and must decide how much you want to borrow. See step 12 for more loan guidance.

  • Log in to the Towson Online Services Student Dashboard.
  • From the main Navigation Menu, choose Financials, and Accept/Decline Awards.
  • Then, choose your Aid Year, and accept or decline each aid offer.
  • If you accept loan offers, you do not have to borrow the maximum amount offered. To borrow a lower amount, first accept the loan, then enter your amount.
Maryland Residents

If the Maryland Higher Education Commission (MHEC) offered you any aid, you must also login in to their MDCAPS system to accept their offer and tell them which school you will attend. Then they will notify our office. After we confirm that you meet their eligibility requirements, we will add their awards to your aid record.

12. Calculate How Much to Borrow for This Aid Year

If you will borrow loans, you must decide how much to borrow and which loans to borrow.

First, calculate how much you want to borrow for this academic year (Fall & Spring).  You can borrow loans to pay your TU charges and for your other living and personal expenses.  To calculate your remaining costs, subtract your total grants and scholarships from your estimated Cost of Attendance Budget.

Next, decide how much you want to borrow from each loan program. You can reduce your borrowing by accepting smaller loan amounts and by accepting one loan program and declining others. Borrow the loans with the lowest interest rates first (1st Subsidized Direct Loans, 2nd Unsubsidized Direct Loans, and 3rd PLUS Loans).  Review the federal loan interest rates table here. Private loan rates vary based on your credit history, but they usually have higher rates. For more information about each loan program, use the links below.

Your Award Notification lists the maximum amounts you can borrow from Federal Direct Subsidized & Unsubsidized Student Loans. For dependent students, it also lists the maximum amount your parents can borrow from Federal PLUS Loans. You could also apply for Private/Alternative Loans or use TU’s monthly Payment Plan.

The following loan origination fees will be deducted from federal loans with first disbursements between 10/1/2020 and 9/30/2024.

  • 1.057% for Federal Direct Subsidized/Unsubsidized loans
  • 4.228% for Federal Parent PLUS Loans

13. Borrowing Federal Direct Subsidized/Unsubsidized Loans

Every year, you must accept/decline your loan offers and choose your loan amounts at Towson Online Services.

The first time you borrow loans at TU, you must also:

If you need to change your loan amount after you accept it, submit a TU Loan Change Form. Go to Forms & Online Services.

14. Borrowing Federal Parent (PLUS) Loans

If your parent wants to borrow a PLUS Loan, please follow our PLUS Loan Instructions.

15. Earning Federal Work-study (FWS) Funds

If your Award Notification included a Federal Work-study (FWS) award, review this Federal Work-Study Program information. If you might be interested in pursuing a FWS job, accept the award in step 10 above. Then, when you are ready, follow the job search instructions on the FWS page.

Because we receive limited annual FWS funding, if too many FWS students pursue FWS jobs, we reserve the right to freeze hiring.  If we do freeze hiring, students who haven't started FWS jobs yet will not be able to earn any FWS funds this year.

If your Award Notification did not offer you any FWS funds, then you can’t earn FWS funds, but you can still pursue many other part-time jobs on and off-campus.  Visit the Career Center’s Student Employment page.

16. Bill Payment, Aid Disbursements and Aid Refunds

The Student & University Billing Office will bill you for one semester/term at a time. Your online eBill will include tuition, fees, and other miscellaneous charges for each term. If you will live on campus, it will also include room and board charges.

If you met all of our aid deadlines, your eBill should list all of your pending financial aid disbursements.

  • If your eBill does not list enough authorized aid to pay all of your charges, then you must make other arrangements to pay your full bill balance by your bill due date.
  • If your total term aid exceeds your term charges, the Student & University Billing Office will send you a refund.

To grant your parent(s) or others access to your bill data, please visit eBill & Online Payment for instructions on How to Set Up an Authorized User and How To add an Alternative Email for eBill Notifications. 

For more information about billing and payments, visit the Student & University Billing Office.

17. Text Notification Service

Please opt-in to our financial aid text service to receive important reminders about aid deadlines and missing application items.

You can opt-out at any time by replying STOP to any message. We can't receive text messages, and we will continue to send most aid notices to your TU email address.

18. OPTIONAL - Use of Funds Form

When we disburse your aid, we will automatically use it to pay all your TU charges for this term unless you choose to restrict which charges we can pay with your aid funds by submitting the optional TU Use of Funds form.  Visit Forms & Online Services.