JD Students

Students who submit their application materials after the deadline will be considered for financial aid but may not qualify for all financial aid programs, based on the availability of funds.

Students who wish to apply for scholarships only must complete the University Aid Application. Students who to apply for both scholarships and loans must complete the University Aid Application and the FAFSA.

Deadlines

All financial aid application materials must be submitted by March 3rd (or, if admitted after this date, within seven days of receiving your Net ID and password to access CAESAR).

Application Steps

1. Complete the FAFSA
2. Complete the Law Entering University Aid Application
3. Submit additional items to our office
4. Receive a preliminary aid offer
5. Receive official aid offer and accept or decline your loan assistance 

1. Complete the FAFSA

Suggested completion date: March 3rd or as soon as possible.

• Visit the FAFSA (Free Application for Federal Student Aid) website and complete the online 2025-26 application. If you do not already have an FSA ID, you will need to set one up before completing the FAFSA. This FSA ID will be used for many Department of Education websites.
• Designate Northwestern University - Evanston as the recipient of the information; our federal school code is 001739. Any other Northwestern University codes (001740, school-specific codes beginning with an "E") should not be used.
• After the FAFSA is processed (allow two weeks), you will receive a FAFSA Submission Summary, summarizing your information. Resolve any incorrect information via the FAFSA web site or by returning the corrected and signed FAFSA Submission Summary. If you do not receive your FAFSA Submission Summary within four weeks, or if you need to request a duplicate, call 800-433-3243. You can also monitor your FAFSA submission status by logging into studentaid.gov. Your FAFSA status will appear under "My Activity" on your dashboard. 

• Please note that although the FAFSA for 2025-26 is available to complete now, due to system and processing delays your FAFSA application may not be marked as complete until sometime in February or upon receipt from the Department of Education. We apologize for any inconvenience.

• International students are not required to complete the FAFSA and are only required to complete the Law Entering University Aid Application.

2. Complete the Law Entering University Aid Application

Deadline: March 3 or within 7 days of receiving CAESAR Access

• For incoming regular decision admits, the University Aid Application is available via your task list in CAESAR. The application can take up to 30 minutes to complete. The application must be completed in a single session as you will not be able to save and return to the application after starting it.
• To complete the application, you will need:
  • A copy of the 2023 federal tax return for the student applicant.
  • A copy of the 2023 federal tax return for the applicant’s parent(s).
  • Information about your assets and your parent(s) assets, including investments, businesses, homes, trusts, and vehicles.
  • Please note that all figures should be reported in US Dollars. Foreign currency should be converted to USD with the conversion rate noted in the special circumstances.
• Students age 26 and older are not required to provide parental information on the university aid application.
• Students under the age of 26 (or who will not be 26 by August 1, 2025 must provide parental information if they wish to be considered for institutional need-based grants.
  • Exceptions to requirements for parental information: 
    • If you are married, and your spouse is NOT a student, you only need to submit your and your spouse's information. If your spouse is a student, you will still need to submit your parents' information.
    • If you are active duty military or a veteran, you do not need to submit your parents' information.
    • All other exceptions are made on a case-by-case basis by the Director of Financial Aid and are extremely rare.
  • Note: If your parents are currently separated or were divorced after September 1, 2021, submit financial information for both parents; if they were divorced before that date, submit information for your custodial parent only. If your custodial parent has remarried, submit your stepparent's information as well.
• For all students admitted after July 1, 2025,  the long-form application is no longer required. Students may complete the short-form university aid application via their task list in CAESAR.

The Law Entering University Aid Application is used to assist in determining eligibility for institutional scholarships for regular admit JD students only. If you are admitted under early decision, as a transfer student or do not wish to be considered for scholarship funding, but do wish to apply only for federal student loans, then you only need to complete the FAFSA (unless you’re an international applicant) along with the Chicago Office of Financial Aid's short-form University Aid Application. The short-form University Aid Application is different from the more in-depth Law Entering University Aid Application noted above. In this case, please contact the Chicago Office of Financial Aid to request that our short-form University Aid Application be made available to you via CAESAR.

Once you have your NetID from Admissions, you can check the status of your application. Please allow 3-5 business days for your materials to be marked as received. 

3.Submit additional items to our office

Priority Deadline: March 3 or within 7 days of admission

Submit all items to our secure document upload portal. Please note that CAESAR will be updated to reflect received documents within 3-5 business days of submission.

Student income information

• If you filed an Income Tax return for 2023, submit signed copies of your 2023 Federal Income Tax return and W-2 forms.
• If you have not yet filed or were not required to file your 2023 Federal Income Tax return download and complete the 2025-26 Verification of Student (and Spouse) Income form.
  • Please also submit a copy of your 2022 Federal Income Tax return and 2023 W-2 forms along with the Verification of Student (and Spouse) Income form.

• If you will be married by October 2025, you must also submit a copy of your spouse's 2023 Federal Income Tax return.

Parental income information

Students under the age of 26 (or who will not be 26 by August 1, 2025) or do not meet other criteria to waive parent data must provide:

• Submit signed copies of your parents' 2023 Federal Income Tax return and W-2 forms.
• If your parents have not yet filed or were not required to file their 2023 Federal Income Tax return, download and complete the 2025-26 Verification of Parents' Income form.
  • Please submit a copy of their 2022 Federal Income Tax return and 2023 W-2 forms along with the Verification of Parent's Income form.

•  Students age 26 or older on or before August 1, 2025 are not required to submit this information.

Northwestern Dependents with divorced parents may need to submit additional tax returns:

• If your parents are currently separated or were divorced after September 1, 2021, submit tax returns for both parents.
• If your parents were divorced before September 1, 2021 submit a tax return for your custodial parent only. If your custodial parent has remarried, submit your stepparent's tax return as well.

4. Receive preliminary financial aid offer

The Law School Office of Admissions and Financial Aid releases scholarship notifications throughout the spring, starting in March.

Preliminary financial aid offers for students who complete application materials for scholarships and loans are released by the Chicago Office of Financial Aid before the relevant tuition deposit deadline, provided that students have applied for financial aid by the application deadline.

No action is required on your preliminary aid offer.

5. Accept or decline your offer via CAESAR

Deadline: As soon as possible after you receive your official financial aid notice email

Once tuition and fee figures are finalized for the upcoming academic year, the Chicago Office of Financial Aid will begin releasing official financial aid offers.

The Chicago Office of Financial Aid will release official financial aid packages to Northwestern email accounts in early Summer. Once you receive notification that the official package is available in CAESAR, you must accept or decline the loan assistance offered to you for the academic year. Learn more about the steps to accept or decline .