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Applying for Financial Aid

Financial Aid Application Process

When the FAFSA is released in December, complete the FAFSA using actual tax information in order to be awarded financial aid for the upcoming academic year.

The Carver College of Medicine requires parental tax information to be considered for College of Medicine grants or need-based scholarships. You must provide  parental income/asset information on the FAFSA and retrieve their parental tax information directly from the Internal Revenue Services (IRS) (see below).

If your parents do not file U.S. federal taxes or file in another country, contact the Carver College of Medicine Financial Services, 319-335-8059.

Students who receive loans as part of the their financial aid, are required to participate in entrance counseling, provided by the Office of Student Financial Aid.

Steps to Apply for Financial Aid

Step 1

File Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) as soon as possible in December (priority deadline is February 1). Use the FAFSA IRS Retrieval option to provide your parents federal tax information directly from IRS

Title IV code is: 001892

Step 2

Receive Student Aid Report (SAR) from federal processor.

Step 3

Receive Award Notification by email in the spring. Your award will only include loans until parent tax information is received. If parental information is provided later through the retrieval process, please notify Linda Birkhofer (linda-birkhofer@uiowa.edu) or by calling 319-335-8059 that this has been done so that we know to look to determine need-based aid eligibility.

Step 4

Check the status of your award on MyUI. Loans must be accepted on MyUI to be processed.

Step 5

Complete and submit promissory notes and entrance loan counseling, if applicable—only first-time borrowers. First-time borrowers must complete Master Promissory Notes (MPNs). Separate MPN for Staffords and Grad PLUS. If your award includes Carver College of Medicine loans, promissory notes will be included in your award letter email.

Step 6

Receive financial aid funds. We encourage you to carefully review your expenses and resources and to borrow only what you will need.

The cost of attendance includes housing and personal and transportation expenses. Actual expenses may be lower than the estimated amounts; therefore, you may not need to borrow the full amount awarded.

If you wish to decline or reduce your loans, please contact the CCOM Financial Services team, 319-335-8059, to discuss your wants/needs.

Completing the FAFSA IRS Retrieval

Call the FAFSA hotline (800-433-3243) if you need assistance obtaining the FAFSA IRS Retrieval.

  • On the https://studentaid.gov/h/apply-for-aid/fafsa  web page, click on the green Login button in the Returning User section.
  • After logging onto the appropriate year FAFSA, select the Make FAFSA Corrections link located in the midsection of the screen.
  • Once you are in the FAFSA corrections area, select the Financial Information tab at the top of the screen.
  • Answer the questions presented. They will be prefilled with answers, so change them if necessary.
  • If you are eligible to complete the FAFSA IRS Retrieval, you will be presented with the option to link to the IRS's website. If you are not eligible, you may turn in a signed copy of your parents’ federal Tax form to 1216 MERF and we will determine your eligibility based on the paper return.
  • Once you complete the IRS information, it will bring you back to your FAFSA.
  • Scroll to the bottom of the FAFSA screen, click on next, and follow the directions.
  • Make sure you submit the corrections and sign your FAFSA using your federal FSA ID.
  • After you have completed the IRS retrieval, the Office of Student Financial Aid will receive a new FAFSA record in approximately one week.
    • If parental information is provided with the IRS retrieval process after initially filing the return, please notify OSAC Financial Services that this has been done so that we can look to determine grant eligibility.

You will be informed in Step 5 if you are not eligible to use the FAFSA IRS retrieval option.

The IRS retrieval option cannot be used if the tax return filer is:

  • Married and filed their tax return as either head of household or married filing separately.
  • Has filed an amended tax return.

If you are not able to use the IRS data retrieval, then you can manually enter the data into your FAFSA from your student and parental tax returns.

Financial Aid