Consumer Information
Veterans Benefits with Financial Aid & Shopping Sheet
Use of Financial Aid with Veteran Benefits
Financial aid can be used along with VA veteran education benefits. One-on-one assistance is available in the Financial Aid Office to help you understand the various types of aid potentially available to help you finance your education.
In order to receive financial aid, all students must go to studentaid.gov and:
-
Complete the Free Application for Federal Student Aid and list ICO (school code 001689) on their FAFSA.
-
All students will need a FSA ID (studentaid.gov) to complete a FAFSA. For eligibility requirements, please click here.
-
For the upcoming school year (fall term through summer term), the FAFSA opens on October 1st so students should aim to complete the FAFSA as soon as possible after this date.
Once you have submitted your FAFSA, review your ICO email account frequently as any additional requirements/information needed by the Financial Aid Office to complete the processing of your application will be sent to you via email.
Estimating Cost of Attendance
You can find our estimated cost of attendance at: https://www.ico.edu/estimated-cost-of-attendance-2024-2025
Financial Aid Shopping Sheet
The Financial Aid Shopping Sheet below is an example of the Shopping Sheet that will be customized for you, once you are accepted to Illinois College of Optometry, based on the information you submit on your FAFSA. The cost of attendance and the financial aid award amounts are the maximum provided students. Your amounts may be adjusted if you are awarded an academic scholarship or have other outside scholarships. Since academic scholarships are based on merit and not need, we do not include them here. The Shopping Sheets also do not reflect any VA benefits since the amount received is dependent upon the benefit type being used. You can use the VA’s GI Bill® Benefits Comparison Tool to determine the best VA benefit for you.
​
GI Bill® is a registered trademark of the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA). More information about education benefits offered by VA is available at the official U.S. government Web site at https://www.benefits.va.gov/gibill.
​