Updated September 12, 2023
Find answers to frequently asked financial aid questions:
Financial aid began disbursing on August 15, 2023 for students who completed all of their outstanding items. It is not too late to complete the 2023-2024 Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) at fafsa.gov.
o Make sure you have checked Wingspan for any outstanding items for the 2023-2024 award year and submit items to the Office of Financial Aid (Wingspan, Financial Aid, Eligibility, choose appropriate award year). Due to the volume of paperwork we receive in the summer, it can take us several weeks to review your information so please submit it NOW.
All Federal Direct Loan payments paused during COVID-19 will resume in October 2023! Students no longer attending college at least half-time who have borrowed federal loans have their first loan payment in 3 years. Log in to studentaid.gov to find your loan servicer. Discuss with your loan servicer repayment amounts, repayment options, etc. Further information can be found here for borrowers who made payments prior to March 2020 and found here for borrowers who will be making payments for the first time. Do not fall into default! Stay in contact with your lender.
Paperwork can be submitted securely through Wingspan (Financial Aid, Document Upload), dropped by the Office of Financial Aid, or sent by fax to 803/323-2557. You can also mail your documents. If you choose to scan and e-mail to finaid@winthrop.edu, instead of document upload, we suggest you black out any private information like Social Security Numbers, because e-mail is not considered secure.
Learn more about other funding options such as Parent PLUS Loan and Private Loan.
Due to national updates to the FAFSA, it will not be available until sometime in December 2023. We will post the date it will be released as soon as we are provided it. We expect the new FAFSA to have a lot of technical issues so we strongly recommend waiting a couple weeks after it opens up before submitting the FAFSA to let some of the kinks work out.
Financial Aid offers for incoming freshmen and transfers will begin by late March. Students admitted after this date are packaged on an ongoing basis (allow approximately 2 weeks after you are admitted to receive your aid offer). You will receive an email when your aid offer is available to view in Wingspan. Financial aid offers for returning students, readmitted students, and all graduate students will be made by late June 2024.
Winthrop does not have any additional information at this time other than what has been posted by the U.S. Department of Education (ED) which can be found here. We encourage loan borrowers to sign up for notifications from the ED subscription page (choose Federal Student Loan Borrower Updates as the option when signing up). Borrowers can check their aid history online to determine if they ever received a Pell grant by logging in to their account at studentaid.gov.
"Fresh Start" is a U.S. Department of Education (ED) initiative to help eligible borrowers in default. More information about this program can be found here here.
Winthrop University has an emergency fund for students experiencing sudden financial hardship. Access the application.
