Applying for Aid: Next Steps

When you apply for financial aid and list Cal Maritime as a school to receive your information, the Department of Education and the California Student Aid Commission sends us your application electronically. Additionally, the federal processor will send you a confirmation that your FAFSA was successfully processed- we suggest that you TAKE THE TIME and REVIEW the FAFSA information carefully. Errors can be costly and impact your eligibly for financial aid. 

Your "To Do List"

After Cal Maritime receives your FAFSA, we review the information and determine if you were selected for a process called "verification." If selected, you will need to submit verification documents to the Financial Aid Office.  The most common requests are income verification forms, tax transcripts, and household size verification forms. All of our financial aid forms can be found here.

The Financial Aid Office notifies you if you were selected for verification in two ways. First, we will place any requests for information on your "To Do List" viewable through Self Service in the PeopleSoft area of your student portal. Second, we will send an email to your CSUM email account letting you know that we have placed items on your "To Do List." Cadets will not be awarded financial aid until the Verification process is complete.

To view your "To Do List": 

  • Log into your Student Portal
  • Click on the PeopleSoft icon- this will bring you to your Student Center
  • Through the Student Center, you will see the "To Do List" on the right had side
  • Click on "details" to get more information on items listed in your "To Do List"

When you have satisfied all the verification requirements and your financial aid file is "complete", we can review your eligibility for financial aid.

Income Verification

If you have been selected for verification, we most likely need you and/or your parents to verify their previous year's income information. This can be done one of two ways: 

  • Using the IRS data retrieval tool from the FAFSA
  • Ordering tax transcripts from the IRS

For more information about how to use the IRS DRT, or how and when a transcript can be ordered, click HERE.

Receiving your Award Package

You will be notified through your CSUM email when your financial aid awards are posted in your Student Center and ready to review. To view your awards: 

  • Log into your Student Portal
  • Click on the PeopleSoft icon- this will bring you to your Student Center
  • The accept/decline financial aid link will be located in the Finances section of the Student Center- in the middle of the page

Accepted financial aid is disbursed to your Cal Maritime account no sooner than ten days prior to the start of the term, and offsets any outstanding charges you may have. If you have more charges than aid, then you will be responsible for paying the difference. If you have more aid than charges, the difference will be refunded to you at the start of the term.