COVID-19 Financial Aid Impacts

In most cases, changing from graded to credit/no credit should not have an impact on your financial aid eligibility as long as you are passing the course. However, we encourage you to contact our office to review your account before you make the decision.

The Student Financial Aid Office is fully operational during reduced campus operations due to COVID-19. We encourage you to submit any and all documents as soon as you receive the request so that we can get them reviewed. Please continue to check GoWMU and your WMU email for regular updates.

As the health and safety of our students and staff are top priorities, we encourage you to submit your documents electronically by scanning or taking a picture and emailing them to finaid-info@wmich.edu.

Verification documents and appeals can be uploaded directly through your online Student Forms portal, accessed by clicking on the specific financial aid requirement in GoWMU.

The Bronco Express drop box is available next to the elevator if you need to submit paper documents. When submitting multiple pages, please use a stapler, paper clip or envelope. Western ID Numbers (WIN) MUST be included on all documents.

Students should contact Bronco Express at (269) 387-6000 to request a Change in Family Circumstance Assessment. 

Students and parents can contact our office via email finaid-info@wmich.edu or call (269) 387-6000 to determine together the next steps you must take.

For students who have lost their job due to COVID-19 - if you need immediate emergency assistance you can apply for support through the Student Emergency Relief Fund (SERF) through the Invisible Needs Project. This is emergency assistance that we are able to provide to students immediately based on their needs. Apply at https://wmich.edu/invisibleneed/serf and note that students must be enrolled half-time in order to receive emergency funds through SERF.

A student can use work-study to fund remote work if the duties can be performed remotely and supervisor approval is granted. The supervisor should work closely with the student employee and provide necessary supervision. Supervisors must be able to document work performed.

No, students must work to earn work-study wages.

Federal Work-study recipients were paid wages based upon previously established work schedule(s). 

In addition to the standard documentation requirements found at https://wmich.edu/finaid/workstudy/employers/campus departments are required to maintain the following in the student’s file:
- Student work schedule
- As a reminder, Federal Work-study students may not work during scheduled class times, which includes on-line courses.
- Documentation noting the dates of COVID-19 payments.
- Documentation recording if/when a student worked during this time frame.

Please visit the Student Financial Aid website at https://wmich.edu/finaid/workstudy/employers/campus or email specific questions to angela.madden@wmich.edu