Apply for Aid

The requirements to apply for aid depend on your citizenship status. All 2024-2025 financial aid forms are available beginning October 1, 2023. We recommend completing financial aid application requirements before the published deadline. Missing the deadline to apply may limit your aid eligibility.

Requirements for US Citizens and Eligible Non-Citizens

• 2024–2025 CSS Profile (code 3089)
• 2024–2025 FAFSA* (code 002038)
  • A simplified FAFSA (Free Application for Federal Student Aid) is scheduled for a delayed launch in December 2023, for the 2024/2025 Academic Year.
• 2022 US tax documents (if applicable)

Requirements for All Other Applicants

• 2024–2025 CSS Profile (code 3089)
• 2022 tax documents

If this is your first time applying for aid at Bowdoin and your parents are divorced, separated, or never married, then each household must submit a CSS Profile and 2022 tax documents (if applicable). Bowdoin may waive a noncustodial parent's participation in extreme circumstances.

You will learn more information about which documents are required once you complete the CSS Profile and access IDOC. Please submit all tax and other documents through IDOC. To determine the status of aid application documents, applicants to the College should check their Bowdoin admissions portal and continuing Bowdoin students should check the "Documents" section of their MyAid portal.

We require the FAFSA and the CSS Profile because we use each form for different purposes. We use the FAFSA to determine US citizens' and eligible non-citizens' eligibility for federal student aid, and we use the CSS Profile to determine each aid applicant's eligibility for financial aid from Bowdoin College.

Federal Policy on Professional Judgement (PJ) 

Any applicant or current student may pursue a request for reconsideration of their federal aid eligibility based on special and/or unusual circumstance(s) that impact their ability to pay.  Per federal regulations, Professional Judgement (PJ) is a responsibility placed upon Financial Aid Administrators to use on a case-by-case basis and routinely requires documentation to support such requests.  

It is best to begin this process by speaking with your student aid counselor regarding questions or concerns, and to gain a better sense of our Request for Review process. Any adjustment of need-based institutional aid requires this request form and documentation.