Financial Assistance is available for MicroMasters of Finance (MMFin) courses, on a per-course basis, to a limited number of eligible learners. Financial Assistance is intended to make the courses more accessible for individuals facing financial constraints.

However, Financial Assistance for MMFin courses functions differently from most other courses offered on the edX.org platform. You will not see any MMFin courses listed in the standard edX.org Financial Assistance Application, and you cannot apply for assistance in any MMFin course using that method. You must follow an application process specific to the MMFin program—detailed below.

Critical Information About MMFin Financial Assistance

Financial Assistance can only be applied for—and granted—for individual course sessions—not the whole program
Applications for Financial Assistance may be submitted only during four specific Application Periods each year
Learners must meet certain criteria to be eligible for Financial Assistance in an MMFin course—which include submitting and earning high scores on the first few Coursework Assignments
Once enrolled in an MMFin Course on the Audit Track, Coursework must be completed within a strict timeframe before the expiration of Audit Access
Learners who fail to meet the eligibility criteria will not be considered for Financial Assistance

Table of Contents

How Does Financial Assistance Work for MMFin Courses?
General Information
The MMFin Financial Assistance Application Cycle
What Are The Eligibility Requirements for Financial Assistance?
How to Apply For Financial Assistance
Audit Access Expiration for Self-Paced Courses

How Does Financial Assistance Work for MMFin Courses?

General Information

The MMFin program offers its five Content Courses as Self-Paced course sessions, which are open for enrollment at any time. The program's capstone, the Comprehensive Final Exam course (CFx), functions differently; it operates as an Instructor-Paced course, and enrollment is managed by the MMFin team directly.

Financial Assistance for all MMFin courses operates on a three-month cycle, which repeats four times each year. Applications are accepted during the first month of each cycle, and decisions and awards are released the following month. Learners may apply for Financial Assistance for only one MMFin course during each cycle.

A limited number of Financial Assistance awards are available for each MMFin course during each cycle. If the number of eligible applicants for any course exceeds the number of assistance awards available for that course during a cycle, a random lottery will be conducted to select which applicants will receive an assistance award. All learners whose applications meet the Eligibility Criteria will be entered into the lottery drawing, and award recipients will be chosen randomly.

Learners awarded Financial Assistance will receive a coupon for one MMFin course, granting a 90% discount off the full course price. Each learner may receive a maximum of one Financial Assistance Award, usable for one MMFin course, during each Financial Assistance Cycle.

The MicroMasters of Finance team is committed to providing a pathway to program completion for learners in need of financial assistance. Learners who receive Financial Assistance for an MMFin course and subsequently pass it will continue to receive assistance for subsequent MMFin courses as long as they continue to pass each course.

The MMFin Financial Assistance Application Cycle

MMFin Financial Assistance operates in a three-month cycle that repeats four times each year. Each cycle comprises two parts:

Application: Financial Assistance Applications are available during each Application Period, the whole months of January, April, July, and October
Decision/Award: Decisions are made, and Awards are distributed to selected learners in the month following each Application Period, by no later than the 15th day. (i.e. Awards for the January Application Period are distributed in February, by no later than February 15th)

Financial Assistance Applications are available for a limited time each cycle. Once a cycle's Application Period closes, no further Applications will be accepted until the next cycle's Application Period, three months later. This means that learners who enroll shortly after an Application Period ends must wait until the next Application Period to apply for Financial Assistance.

In certain uncommon situations, due to Audit Access Expiration (see below for details), a learner may lose access to their Courseware before they're ready to submit their Application or before they receive their Financial Assistance Decision.

What Are The Eligibility Requirements for Financial Assistance?

Learners must meet certain criteria to be eligible for Financial Assistance for an MMFin course. Learners must:

Submit a complete application during an Application Period
Demonstrate that paying the Verified Certificate fee would cause them economic hardship
Demonstrate they are capable of successfully passing the course

As part of the Application, learners will be required to declare their annual household income and answer a few questions explaining why they are applying for assistance and how obtaining the Verified Certificate will benefit them.

Learners must also complete and submit the first few Graded Problem Sets (homework assignments) from the course, and achieve high scores on each. In general, learners must earn a score of at least 80% on each of the first three assignments. (Note: the details of this requirement may sometimes vary between courses, but will always be communicated within the Courseware. Learners are responsible for understanding their specific courses' requirements)

Learners will be asked to choose one MMFin course to receive Financial Assistance for. Additional applications from the same learner during the same Application Period will be disregarded—only the first application will be considered for assistance. All Applications that do not meet the eligibility requirements will not be considered for Financial Assistance.

Important Note:

The restriction that each learner may only apply for Financial Assistance for one course during each cycle effectively limits the speed at which learners dependent on Financial Assistance can complete the MMFin Content Courses, and sets a minimum possible Program Duration. We understand that this may affect your anticipated schedule/completion timeline for the MMFin Program, but no exceptions are possible at this time.

For example: A learner who applies for and receives Financial Assistance for their first MMFin Content Course in either January or July, applies for assistance for each following course during the next possible Application Period, and takes the CFx course as soon as possible after completing all five Content Courses can expect to receive their CFx Grades, Course Certificate, and overall MMFin Program Credential by around mid-June or mid-December, respectively—17-18 months after starting their first course. A learner who starts in April or October instead can expect to receive their Program Credential by around mid-December or mid-June, respectively—20-21 months after starting their first course. (This logic also assumes that the learner passes each MMFin course on the first attempt, because that is a requirement for sustaining Financial Assistance eligibility)

How to Apply For Financial Assistance

Once you enroll in an MMFin course session, you may find detailed information about the Financial Assistance timeline and process, as well as instructions to apply within a dedicated module of the courseware. Typically, you can locate the financial assistance information within the first courseware module—for example, at Course > Welcome to Foundations of Modern Finance, Part II > Financial Assistance. Learners are expected to carefully and thoroughly read all the introductory material of each course to understand the important details, including the Financial Assistance process.

To apply for Financial Assistance in an MMFin course, you must be enrolled in a course session on the Audit (free) track. Once enrolled, you should begin learning the content and completing the Coursework Assignments. You must meet the Coursework portion of the Eligibility Requirements before your Audit Access to the course session expires (see below for more information).

Once you're enrolled in an MMFin course session, you may submit a Financial Assistance Application during an Application Period. If you enrolled during an Application Period, you can submit an application immediately, otherwise you must wait for the next Application Period to start. Financial Assistance Application Periods begin on the first day of January, April, July, and October each year.

While an Application Period is active, detailed instructions for submitting a Financial Assistance Application will be available within your course's Courseware (as described above), including a link to the Application form, which will guide you through the process. Use this link to access the MMFin Financial Assistance Application Form and carefully follow the steps to complete and submit your application.

Important Note: Because learners must be enrolled in a course session on the Audit (free) track to apply for Financial Assistance, but audit access is limited (see below), it is possible to lose access to your Courseware—and the Application Form link—if you wait too long to apply for Financial Assistance. However, as long as you have already met the Coursework element of the Eligbility Requirements, you can still apply for assistance! If you find yourself in this situation, please reach out to the MMFin Customer Support Team via this form so we can assist you further.

If you fail to complete the Coursework element of the Eligibility Requirements before your Audit Access expires, however, you will not be able to apply for Financial Assistance in that course session. You will need to wait until the next session of the course to re-enroll and apply for assistance. Because each MMFin Content Course session runs for a long time (more than a year), it may be quite a while before you can do so. The only way to regain access to a course session for which your Audit Access has expired is to submit payment to upgrade to the Verified (Paid) enrollment track. If you can no longer meet the requirements to apply for and receive Financial Assistance, then you must submit payment of the full course fee to upgrade.

For more information about the mechanics of Assistance Awards, see the articles below:

Audit Access Expiration for Self-Paced Courses

The MMFin MicroMasters Program utilizes a Self-Paced, "On-Demand" course format to allow all learners more flexibility in when they can enroll in MMFin courses. Notably, this format offers Paid learners considerably more flexibility in how long they have to complete the Course Content. However, the format also introduces an important limitation for learners enrolling on the Audit (free) track, including all learners intending to apply for Financial Assistance.

Access to Self-Paced course sessions on the Audit track is temporary. Learners are provided access to the Course Content for only the expected duration of the course—12 weeks. Consequently, learners intending to apply for Financial Assistance have a strict timeframe to meet the Financial Assistance Application Requirements.

As soon as you enroll in a Self-Paced MMFin course on the Audit (free) track, you will have 12 weeks within which to complete the Coursework Requirements. Importantly, this includes the Coursework requirement—completing the first few Graded Problem Sets with high scores. You must complete the required Coursework within your 12 weeks of Audit Access to the course.

Once your Audit Access expires—12 weeks after you enroll—you will lose all access to the Courseware, and you will no longer be able to access or submit Coursework. Once started, the Audit Access timer cannot be paused or reset. Due to the structure of the edX platform, no exceptions are possible.

If you fail to complete all of the required Graded Problem Sets before your Audit Access Expires, or if you fail to earn a high enough score on each piece of Coursework, then you will become ineligible to apply for Financial Assistance in that course session. You will only be able to become eligible for that course again when the next session of the course starts. You may need to wait a very long time (up to a year or more) for the next course session to become available.