Award notices the Financial Aid Office generates estimated award offers for the eligible students once our office receives the processed FAFSA. New students will receive estimated award offers via an informational packet beginning on April 11, 2024. We will continue to send out award offer notifications as we received processed FAFSAs throughout the school year. The University of Montana's Financial Aid Office and financial education office are both here to help both new and continuing students complete their 2024-2025 FAFSA, if you have any problems with your 2024-2025 FASFA, please do not hesitate to contact our offices. 

Continuing students will receive their 2425 FAFSA notifications via e-mail and they will be ready to view on CyberBear.  New students receive an email to the FAFSA email address and are also mailed a packet of information. 

For students’ estimated offer award to become actual, it must go through a final review process or “sign off”. While this process is automated for many students, some may require manual review. During the final review process the student aid index is double checked for accuracy if any changes to the Student Aid Index (SAI) have been received from the Department of Education we are required to adjust aid accordingly; furthermore, if changes have been made to a student's residency status budget campus program or enrollment status corrections could be made to their aid. In addition, we are required throughout the year to adjust students financial aid packages if any additional information has been received that requires aid to be adjusted for example if a student receives an additional scholarship after the original aid offer was accepted, we are required to review the new funds being received and see if it fits into the students eight award. Students will be notified at any time their aid is adjusted. To reduce the likelihood of any unanticipated changes, please notify the Financial Aid Office as soon as academic plans or resources change. 

Initial award offers are estimated and made with the assumption that the student will be enrolled full time as an undergraduate student this means 12 or more credits. For a graduate student full time is 9 or more credits.

All students are directed to the financial aid section of CyberBear to answer a series of questions then accept or decline the aid offers. CyberBear is a secure portal that provides students access to academic records, billing statements, and financial aid award information including scholarships.  

CYBERBEAR – Students use their NetID to log into CyberBear. If you are not able to locate your NETID, you may use the search function at www.umt.edu/netid-lookup. Once in CyberBear, go to Financial Aid, then change the award year.  Lastly, select Award Offer.  

Students can accept, modify, or decline their financial aid awards through CyberBear. Once accepted, any corrections or modifications must go through the Financial Aid Office. Requests made close to the start of a semester may take longer to process due to peak processing times. 

When the Financial Aid Office generates, a student award offer it is available to be viewed and accepted on CyberBear. See detailed instructions on how to accept your aid in CyberBear. Once a student logs into CyberBear, a message will come up stating your estimated financial aid offer is ready to accept. Follow the link to take you to the financial aid section. Then, go to the home tab to provide answers to the questions regarding enrollment status, outside monies, and graduation date. Once the questions are answered then the student can continue to the award offer tab to accept or decline the aid.  

When accepting aid, the student has an option of accepting the full amount, modifying the amount and accepting a partial amount, or declining the full amount. Federal grants and most scholarships are automatically accepted on your behalf. The federal Pell Grant program is a federal entitlement program. 

Students may also be asked to submit additional documentation. Verification is the largest reason students are asked for additional verification. However, C flags or conflicts will also create additional documents to be submitted. When a student has an additional documentation request holding up their financial aid, they are sent emails to their University of Montana e-mail address on a regular basis until the document has been reviewed and satisfied.  These outstanding requirements are also listed on the home tab in the financial aid section on CyberBear. If you see a request for additional documentation or do not understand what the e-mail is requesting, please contact our office via phone or e-mail and we will work with you to get your documents submitted. 

Some students have additional requirements that must be satisfied before they receive an initial award notice and/or through the final review process. If a student has a federal hold or needs to provide proof of independent status, they will not receive an estimated award offer until the holds have been cleared and their independent status has been confirmed. Students selected for verification must apply all requested documents to Inceptia and have their process verified prior to going through the final review process. 

For loans and grants who appear as a credit on the student’s Nelnet account, aid has to be accepted and the file must have gone through the final review process or “sign off”. To ensure that your financial aid is processed in time to pay your fall bill by the first day of classes, please submit all documents requested in a timely manner prior to June 15th for the autumn term and November 1st for the spring term. Due to the peak processing, we cannot guarantee that late submitted documents will be processed in time to pay student accounts by the first day of classes. 

Once the award offer has been accepted in CyberBear, any corrections requested well need to be go through the Financial Aid Office. If you would like to make a change to your financial aid after you have already accepted on CyberBear, please contact the Financial Aid Office via e-mail or stop by the 5th floor of Aber Hall and complete a Revision Request Form.  

If a student receives outside monies that are not originally known when accepting your financial aid/scholarships, the student must notify the Financial Aid Office as soon as possible.  Submit a Revision Request Form via e-mail or come by the office on the 5th floor of Aber Hall to alert our office of additional financial aid and/or scholarships. 

For financially to disperse, the enrollment status (credits registered) must match the students funding enrollment status. For example, if an undergraduate student answered in CyberBear full time enrollment, then they must be registered in 12 or more credits for funds to disperse. A student who is waitlisted in class is not considered full time if they are not enrolled in 12 or more other credits. If a student decides they are going to enroll in 9 credits but were originally answered they were going to be full time, they must submit an Enrollment Change Form online or submit a Revision Request Form to our office.