Your financial aid is based upon the information you provided on your Free Application for Financial Student Assistance (FAFSA) for that school year. Sometimes, special circumstances not reflected on your FAFSA can affect your ability to pay for your education. In these situations, federal regulations allow financial aid administrators to use professional judgment (PJ) on a case by case basis, with documentation, to adjust the data elements on your FAFSA that may impact your Student Aid Index (SAI). These adjustments can help to more accurately assess your financial need and may increase your eligibility for federal and/or state need-based financial aid. Need-based federal financial aid includes Pell Grant, Subsidized Loan, and Federal Work Study. Need-based State aid may include the NJ Tuition Aid Grant.
NOTE: Since a professional judgment review’s purpose is to determine whether you may qualify for additional need-based federal aid, students who already have a -$1,500 Student Aid Index (SAI) on their FAFSA do not need to submit the form below as a professional judgment review will not impact your financial aid eligibility. If your EFC is already -$1,500, please reach out to your financial aid counselor so that we may determine any other options that may apply to your specific situation.
Financial aid counselors may be reached via email at [email protected], Zoom or phone at 609-896-5360.
Submission Deadlines
2024-25 Academic Year
Fall 2024: November 1, 2024*
Spring 2025: April 1, 2025*
*Subject to change
Types of Professional Judgments
There are two types of professional judgments that a financial aid professional can make: special circumstances or unusual circumstances.
Special Circumstances
Cost of Attendance Adjustment
An increase to a student’s financial aid budget (cost of attendance) that will allow for more financial aid to be applied in a term or academic year
- Common reasons to request this adjustment
- Living in an off-campus apartment (away from parents)
- Unusually large course load (over 18 credits as an undergraduate level student)
- Request for Cost of Attendance (Budget) Re-evaluation (PDF)
Student Aid Index (SAI) Adjustment
Reduction of a student’s SAI which can allow additional need-based federal financial aid (Federal Pell Grant, Federal Direct Subsidized Student Loan) to be offered to the student
- Common reasons to request this adjustment:
- Loss/reduction of employment or self-employment income (student, student’s spouse, parent/guardian)
- Death of one supporting parent or spouse
- Divorce of student and spouse or student’s parents
- Rollover of IRA or pension funds
- Change in housing status (e.g. homelessness)
- Out of pocket medical expenses
- Reasons that do not qualify for this:
- Tuition paid for elementary/secondary private school
- Unusual expenses related to personal living (bills for repairs, wedding expenses, credit card bills, home mortgage or school loan payments, car payments, legal expenses and other miscellaneous consumer item expenses)
- Reduction in income resulting from bankruptcy proceedings
- Foreclosure of your primary home
- 2024-2025 Student Aid Index (SAI) Adjustment Application (PDF)
Unusual Circumstances
Dependency Status Adjustment
If you fall into any of the following categories related to no contact with your parents you may qualify for a reconsideration of a student’s dependency status from “dependent” to “independent”
- Common reasons to request this adjustment
- Legally granted refugee or asylum status
- An abusive family environment that threatens the student’s health or safety
- Incarceration: Includes single-parent incarceration without contact/support from another parent or both parents’ incarceration
- Legal guardianship, ward of court, foster care
- Death of parent(s)
- Documented abandonment — where your parent(s) voluntarily left or were absent for an extended period of time
- Unsafe living environment as a result of physical, emotional, sexual, or substance abuse by your parent(s)
- Parental incarceration
- Parental mental incapacity/institutionalization
- Death of custodial parent and no contact with other biological/legal parent
- Parents do not reside in the United States and cannot be contacted
- Parent(s) disowned or ended contact/support because of conflicting beliefs or practices related to race, religion, education, health, gender, sexual orientation, cultural expectations, etc.
- Reasons that do not qualify for this:
- Your parents refuse to contribute to your college expenses
- Your parents refuse to supply necessary information for FAFSA or FAFSA verification completion
- Your parents do not claim you as a dependent for federal tax filing
- You demonstrate complete financial self-sufficiency
- 2024-2025 Petition for Dependency Status Review (PDF)