Summer Financial Aid Request

 General Eligibility Criteria

• Full-time enrollment (minimum 12 credits) over the two summer sessions is required to be considered for institutional financial aid, such as a LC scholarship and/or grant funding. 
• To be considered for part-time aid, you must petition the Financial Aid Office before submitting a request for summer aid. Petition information is available in the ‘How To Apply for Summer Financial Aid’ section below. 
• Use of financial aid during the summer counts against your remaining semesters of financial aid eligibility.
• You must be making Satisfactory Academic Progress (SAP). We recommend you review the Undergraduate Policies page for additional detailed information.

How To Apply for Summer Financial Aid

To apply for summer financial aid, you must complete the following:

• 2026/27 FAFSA must be received by February 15, 2026 (or as soon as possible)
• Summer Financial Aid Request Form due by May 1, 2026
• All outstanding documentation requested on Self-Service Financial Aid due by May 1, 2026

• Must be registered for ALL of your summer 2026 credits. Summer aid requests can only be processed when your registration matches the number of credits reported on your request form.

• Students who need to petition the Financial Aid Office to be considered for part-time aid must complete that process prior to submitting the summer aid request form. (Note: Federal regulations require a minimum of 6 credits to be considered for federal loans)

Note: Summer classes begin mid-May (See the 2026 CAS Summer Academic Calendar).  You must complete all of the application steps listed before a financial aid award can be prepared. Once you receive an award you may be required to complete additional steps to secure the aid before it can be disbursed to your student account.

After You Apply for Summer Financial Aid 

Once you’ve been awarded, we’ll send an email notification to your Lewis & Clark email address advising you to log into Self-Service to review your award letter. Most students will see an award offer which includes 3 semesters: Summer, Fall, and Spring. If this is the case, you will also notice that any Federal aid offered to you has been split evenly over the 3 semesters. We strongly advise you to do a little budgeting to determine the gap between your anticipated charges for each semester, and the financial aid offered each semester.

To secure your financial aid, you must complete the steps on the “Securing Your Aid” page, where you will be guided through the process of accepting any work-study and/or loans which may have been offered.

If your parent(s) will apply for a Parent PLUS Loan, they will need to complete the PLUS application (and MPN if applicable) online. There is information about the PLUS Loan and an application link on our “Federal Direct PLUS Loan.

Things To Keep In Mind

Once the Student Account & Department Services updates the ‘Undergraduate Costs’ section of the website to reflect summer 2026 charges, you can review the per credit summer tuition amount. The per credit tuition rate for summer courses is significantly less expensive than the cost of tuition during the regular academic year (fall and spring semesters). Due to the reduced tuition rate, institutional financial aid (i.e., Lewis & Clark scholarships/grants) will be prorated down based on the reduced amount of your summer tuition costs.

Example of prorated aid: “Student A” enrolls in 12 credits for summer. If summer per credit tuition is $1,000, and their Lewis & Clark institutional aid usually covers 25% of tuition during the regular Fall/Spring academic year, “Student A’s”  summer prorated Lewis & Clark aid would be $3,000 assuming they continue to meet all other eligibility criteria. (12 credits x $1,000 tuition per credit = $12,000 tuition charge. And, $12,000 tuition charge x 25% = $3,000).

If you receive financial aid for the summer, you are using one of your Lewis & Clark semesters of aid eligibility. Typically, undergraduate students who start at Lewis & Clark as freshmen have up to eight semesters of financial aid eligibility. A student who transferred to Lewis & Clark from another institution will have a reduced number of semesters for financial aid eligibility, and should refer to their Transfer Eligibility Letter. We advise all students who wish to use financial aid during the summer to make sure that taking summer courses will allow you to graduate at least one semester earlier than you otherwise would have.

You are responsible for making arrangements and submitting payments to Student & Departmental Account Services (SDAS) for any charges on your account, which are not covered by your financial aid. We recommend you review their website for deadlines and important information about making a payment.