Financial Aid for School Tuition (FAST)

Families seeking need-based grants and scholarships must file a financial analysis application. In order to ensure our process for establishing financial need adheres to national standards of best practice, University School of Milwaukee uses the Financial Aid for School Tuition (FAST) Program powered by Independent School Management (ISM).

We utilize the FAST Program because it is designed to be highly responsive to our families. Compared to other systems, It is more flexible in terms of the information it will accommodate, thus allowing families to represent their own particular circumstances more accurately. To make the online application process as easy as possible, FAST provides 24/7/365 help desk support.

All information from FAST is kept confidential, as is all information pertaining to a family's financial aid request.

For more information, please contact Sylvester Cutler, director of financial aid, at 414.540.3322 or scutler@usmk12.org.

Families applying for financial aid for the 2021-22 school year may apply after Oct. 1, 2020.

Step 1: Begin the FAST application by clicking here (after Oct. 1, 2020 you will be redirected to the FAST site). It may help to read these documents before starting the application.

• FAST Family Manual
• FAST Worksheet

The application fee for FAST is $45 (families will pay FAST directly).

FAST offers 24/7/365 customer support by email (help@ismfast.com) or phone (877.326.3278).

Step 2: Mail your tax documents to FAST. For the 2021-22 school year, please submit the following tax documents:  

• 2019 tax returns (before Dec. 11, 2020) or 2020 tax returns (after April 15, 2021)
• You may also have to submit additional documents based upon the information on your FAST application. 

You can submit your documents using the following steps:

1. Once you have completed the FAST application you will be directed to the Quick Processing Wizard and asked several questions. 
2. Once you have answered those questions you will be given a confirmation of completion form with a barcode. 
3. Put the confirmation form with the barcode and the copies of your tax documents in a sealed envelope and mail to the following address:

   Independent School Management
   Attn: FAST Processing
   1316 North Union Street
   Wilmington, DE 19806

Families can use any 9x12 envelope as long as the confirmation page with barcode is included. Once FAST has received your tax documents, you will receive another email indicating that your application has been verified. At this point, you are done with FAST process. We ask that 2019 tax returns be submitted by December 11, 2020 and 2020 tax returns by April 15, 2021.

Step 3: USM’s financial aid committee reviews the information provided to FAST and will notify family of the decision on their application.