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Completing your application
Apply early!
Applications are usually available early to mid-June and applying well before your school start date is best. You don’t need to be accepted to MRU to apply, so don’t wait. You will need to reapply for funding each year, as your financial situation may change.
Alberta Student Aid - Application Demo
Most of the information on the application is selected via a drop-down menu, program, specialization, dates, tuition, mandatory fees and books and supplies.
It’s important to complete your application correctly. If you need to provide additional information or make any changes, this will delay the processing of your application. Contact or visit the Registration and Financial Aid Office if you would like someone to review your application before submitting it.
Once you submit your application, you may hear back right away. However, if Student Aid detects any errors, some applications can take 4-6 weeks to be processed.
Common mistake: Frequently, applicants only apply for grants on the full-time application. To ensure proper assessment, you must enter the full tuition and fees on the application. The $1.00 amount should only be entered at the very end, after you have been assessed for government funding. 
TIP: If you plan to attend the fall and winter semesters, we suggest applying for the full year (September to April). Spring and Summer semesters are usually treated separately.
FACT: Open Studies funding is limited to 12 months. These 12 months of funding will count towards your program funding maximums.
Calculating your financial need
Alberta Student Aid and the Canada Student Loans Program calculate your eligibility using a financial need formula that compares your costs with your resources. The formula is:
Education and Living Costs - What You Contribute = Your Financial Need
Your assessed financial need is then compared with the student aid Loan Limits allowed for your study period. The lesser of these two amounts is what you are eligible to receive.
TIP: Parental income alone will not affect your student aid funding. You may still receive student loan funding if your parents have a high income, but parental income will be a factor in determining eligibility for grant funding.
FACT: Alberta Student Aid expects students to contribute $1,500 towards their post-secondary education. This amount will be automatically included in your total resources.
Grants vs student loans
When you apply for a full-time government student loan, you will automatically be assessed for grants offered by the federal and provincial governments. Grants do not have to be repaid unless your eligibility changes.
TIP: If you wish to receive grants only and not student loans, enter $1.00 when asked how much you request after completing your application.
Part-time funding
The part-time application is a paper application that can be found under “applications and forms” on the Alberta Student Aid website. There will be a new part-time application every academic year and you will need to complete an application for each semester you are part-time.
Part-time student aid eligibility is based on your income. If you are married, your spouse's/partner's income is also considered when calculating the family's income.
The following costs are considered when determining part-time eligibility:
- tuition and mandatory fees
- books, supplies and instruments
- disability-related costs (if required)
- transportation - $50 per month (if required)
- childcare - (if required) provide receipts if you need more than $75 per month, per child
Transportation and childcare costs are not considered if you are in a correspondence or distance learning course.
When you apply for part-time student aid, you’re automatically considered to receive Canada student loans or grants and Alberta grants.
TIP: We will have to fill out page 3, Section 5 of your part-time paper application, so once you have completed your portion of the application, you will need to either email the entire application to financialaid@mtroyal.ca for us to ensure this is completed correctly or you can come in person to the Office of the Registrar.