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Overall Financial Aid Process

Guide to Financial Aid

  1. Apply for financial aid by March 1 of every year for the following school year. Go to the FAFSA website to complete the application. The financial aid office should have your results within 5-10 business days. 

  2. If your tax transcripts are being requested, we recommend you log on to your FAFSA and use the IRS Data Retrieval option to link your tax information to the FAFSA. If you need your tax transcript instead, go to the IRS website. This processing usually takes 5-10 business days. 

  3. Once the processing is complete, your file is reviewed and completed. In approximately a week, your awards can be located in myNMSU.

  4. Aid will pay out at the start of the semester, or within a few business days of award posting, if the semester has already started. It will be processed by Accounts Receivable at the Las Cruces campus and will post as a credit to your student account. Once your charges have been applied, any balance of funds will be paid out through either a check or direct deposit.  

  5. Additional documents may be needed to complete your file. Promptly taking care of these will help in the financial aid process.

  6. Call 575.439.3600 to check on the status of your file or award. You can also login to myNMSU and check the financial aid page.

FAFSA Tools

Tools to help with the FAFSA Application Process

Create a New FSA ID

New to FSA? Create an FSA ID.
An FSA ID gives you access to Federal Student Aid’s online systems and can serve as your legal signature.

How to create your FSA ID

Ordering Tax Transcripts

If you are selected for verification you can order your tax transcripts for FREE from the IRS.

Linking Tax Information

The FAFSA allows you to link your tax return directly to your application using the IRS Data Retrieval Tool! Learn more in this IRS Data Retrieval Tool video from NMSU.