The Financial Aid Guide to Special Circumstances

At Duke, we take the time to personally consider each individual family's financial circumstances.  We make every effort to be as accommodating as possible when determining your financial aid award, and we have developed guidelines to help you understand what we can and cannot consider as special circumstances.  For example, if your family has lived separately while supporting two households in the past year, we may be able to make special allowances when calculating your financial aid eligibility.

It is important for you and your family to be aware that we will not reduce your expected family contribution as consequence of a family’s financial decisions, such as refusing to pay educational costs, or cash flow problems due to choices your family has made in allocating your financial resources.

Federal and institutional financial aid policies regulate what circumstances can be considered and what documentation will be required.  The following guide is intended to help you help us understand those circumstances that aren't readily apparent on the financial aid application.