Office of Financial Aid and Scholarships

With the safety of everyone in mind, we have moved to a primarily virtual setting and are serving you like never before!

• You can see us in person in the North Lobby of the Joyal Administration Building during regular business hours 8am-5pm.
• Call us at 559.278.2182 for answers to your questions! If we aren't able to help you on the spot, we can make a phone appointment at a time that is convenient for you to speak with a counselor!
• You can also make an appointment with a counselor on your own. Click here to schedule an appointment with a financial aid counselor. 
• Walk in Wednesdays are back! Stop by the Joyal Administration North Lobby any Wednesday from 8:30am-11:30am or 1:00pm-4:30pm to meet with a counselor in person, no appointment needed.
• Chat with us from our webpage! You'll see a little box appear at the bottom of your screen where we will be available to chat or take a message.
• Send us an email at financialaid@mail.fresnostate.edu but remember, we cannot accept documents to this email.

How can you submit documents?

• Email attachments to our fax by sending your email to 5592784833@fax.csufresno.edu
• Fax documents to 559.278.4833
• Submit appropriate documents electronically through our Student Forms portal. You will be directed to this portal through To Do items on your Student Center.
• Mail documents to our office (not advised, as this is the slowest way to get documents to us!)

Stay safe!

The 2024-2025 FAFSA is Changing!

Simplifying the financial aid application process: the FAFSA Simplification Act is an initiative by the United States Department of Education to make applying for federal student aid easier for students.  As a result, the 2024-2025 FAFSA will open in December 2023.

This process is the first major redesign of the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) process in over 40 years. It represents a significant overhaul of federal student aid, including the FAFSA form, need analysis, storage of federal student aid application data, and many policies and procedures for schools that participate in the Title IV programs.

The process for the California Dream Act Application (CADAA) will include some of the changes from the new FAFSA, both of which will be implemented for the 2024–2025 award year. All students must complete either the FAFSA or CADAA to be considered for federal student aid.

Both the 2024-2025 FAFSA and CADAA will open in December 2023, and as a result of the delay, we have extended our priority deadline to April 2, 2024.

The Fresno State Financial Aid & Scholarships Office is dedicated to keeping students, families, supporters and our campus community updated.  We will continue to update this webpage as we receive more information from the Department of Education and post on our social media pages (Facebook, X, and Instagram @FSfinancialaid).

For more information and FAQ's regarding the FAFSA Simplification changes visit our Applying for Aid page.

The U.S. Department of Education has created the Federal Student Aid Estimator, which will allow you to estimate the federal aid that you could be eligible for.

Please keep in mind that this is just an estimate and only includes federal aid. If you are a California resident and you complete your 2024-2025 financial aid application by the April 2, 2024 deadline, you could be eligible for California State aid opportunities as well. For more information on the California State aid opportunities, visit the California Student Aid Commission here.

To use the Federal Student Aid Estimator, click here.

Both the 2023-2024 Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) and the California Dream Act Application (CADAA) opened on October 1, 2022. You'll be able to find them at the respective link below:

• The 2022-2023 Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA)
• The 2022-2023 California Dream Act Application

The priority filing deadline is March 2, 2023. Keep an eye out for dates where we will be hosting Financial Aid Application Workshops!

What you'll need for the 2023-2024 application:

• Your FSA ID (For the FAFSA - Not sure? Go to FSAID.ed.gov to get it)
• Your social security number (For the FAFSA)
• 2021 Federal tax information, W-2s, and other records of money earned
• 2021 untaxed income information
• Current bank statements and records of investments (if applicable)
• If you are a dependent student (meaning your parents' information must be reported as well) you will also need most of the above information for your parent(s). 

NOTE: If you are completing your 2022-2023 financial aid application, you will use income information from 2020.

Awesome, nice work!

For 2023-2024: We will begin loading the financial aid applications early 2023. You may start to see financial aid To Do items on your Student Center as early as March 2023.

For 2024-2025, the financial aid applications will be available at the end of December 2023. Because of the massive overhaul to the FAFSA, processing will be delayed. Keep an eye on your Student Center and follow us on social media to stay up to date.

NEW: We have a new Student Forms portal where you can complete, sign and upload most documents electronically. You'll be directed to create an account from your To Do item in your my.FresnoState Student Center. For more information and helpful tutorials, click here.

Financial Aid awards can be made up of any combination of Grants, Scholarships, Loans, and/or Work Study.

Normally awards are split between the fall and spring semester, but there are instances when they can be for a single semester only. Summer is awarded separately. Log in to your Student Center and click "View Financial Aid" to see how your awards are broken down.

Your financial aid is disbursed no earlier than 10 days prior to the start of classes. Depending on the awards, it will first pay what you owe the university for the semester, and if there is a remaining balance, a refund will be issued to you. Make sure to select your refund preference with BMTX, Inc. from your my.FresnoState account if you're expecting a refund! For more information, visit this link: https://bankmobiledisbursements.com/refundchoicessso/.
Disbursements are happening twice a week on Wednesday and Friday during the first half of the semester and then will happen at the end of each week for the last half of the semester.

 If you aren't doing well in school, or you've taken more credits than are needed to graduate, you could lose financial aid eligibility. Click to see what you need to do to remain eligible! 

Should you find that you are not meeting the SAP criteria, you will be given a "warning" for the upcoming semester. This will give you the opportunity to get back in good standing with the SAP Policy. If you don't meet the SAP requirements after this warning semester, you'll be ineligible for federal aid. An appeal process is available should this occur! Please contact our office for more information or see our SAP policy!