Tips for filling out the Financial Aid Application.

Modified on Sat, 9 Nov at 9:44 PM

We advise all applicants to involve their parents or legal guardians while filling out this information to ensure it is accurate and verifiable using official documentation.
It is important to provide the right information and the right documents and avoid resubmissions.
For any letters provided, please ensure that they are signed and have current contact information (Name, phone number and/or email address) of the writer of the letter to allow us to verify the information provided. Official letters should likewise have clear company letterheads. Letters that are not signed and/or lack contact information will not be accepted as supporting documents.
Please note that a letter from the applicant is not acceptable as proof of income unless the applicant themselves is the breadwinner. The official letter has to be from the guardian/employer/reference and be dated and signed and have full contact details.
A great application is one that has documents that clearly support the information an applicant provided during the application.
Please ensure that all documents submitted are either in English, French or Kinyarwanda, failure to submit the correct document will result in a resubmission request, and as such, a delay in your application processing. Please note that we will not be able to review an application that is in any language other than French, English or Kinyarwanda, should you not have the original documents in English, French or Kinyarwanda, please get a certified/sworn translated copy by a competent authority. For e.g, if you need the English translation of an A-Level certificate, the school or awarding body or other competent authority (3rd party official translators) should be able to provide the translation which you will submit along with the original document.
If sharing information on income, please ensure that all the information provided is dated at least 3 months prior to the date of your application. This ensures that the information you provide is an accurate representation of your current household financial circumstances. We recommend that you provide bank statements going back 6 months if your guardian does not receive their income monthly to allow us to better understand your financial circumstances. This should be accompanied by a signed letter from your guardian informing us of the source of income and the amount received.
Always check to ensure that all bank statements or mobile money statements that you upload are not password protected. This ensures that we are able to fully review your application as soon as we receive it.
If sharing a PDF or document via Google Drive, please ensure that the document is accessible for viewing to whoever has access to the document link.
Please ensure that the information you submit during your application is complete, accurate, and honest to the best of your knowledge, as you will be required to submit supporting documentation to validate the information. If the information provided is believed to be false or misleading, then the Financial Aid Office reserves the right to reject your application with no further reference to you.
If any documents you provide are not acceptable - i.e. not legible, password protected or not in English - we will ask you to re-submit them. Please ensure that you re-submit them as soon as you receive the notification according to the instructions to receive a decision early.
Please refer to the ALU Application guide for more information on the application process.