Disbursement of Funds

Financial aid funds must be used first to pay university tuition and fees and then to university housing, and other institutional educational expenses. Once you have registered, your university Statement of Account will be available. Your online statement will show instructional and general fees, health insurance, room and board, and other appropriate charges. Financial aid awards will appear as credits. All fees, including penalties, must be paid according to the deadline indicated on your Statement of Account. Funds must have been received by the university, including outside scholarships or loans before a disbursement is made.

Conditions for Aid to Disburse:

Your application for financial aid must be complete. View any missing requirements in the "Student Requirements" section of Financial Aid on PAWS.
You must meet all Satisfactory Academic Progress requirements. You may check your financial aid Satisfactory Academic Progress on PAWS in the "Student Requirements" section of Financial Aid.
Funds must have been received by the university, including outside scholarships or loans.
Timing - Funds will not appear on your account until enrollment is verified. Funds will be available to use in the bookstore. The disbursement process will continue daily throughout the registration period.

Financial Aid Eligibility Checks

Please be aware that you must fulfill certain criteria of enrollment status and eligibility to receive your financial aid funds. Your eligibility is initially checked when aid is posted to your account for the semester and is monitored on an ongoing basis. Aid which was initially credited to your account for which you cease to be eligible will be withdrawn. Eligibility checks include incomplete verification, SAP status, and being in default or owing a refund to a financial aid program.

If you are ineligible for any of the aid originally credited to your account, you will be responsible to pay, by the deadline date, those charges which were covered by that aid on your original account.

Payment Process

If your financial aid award appears on your account as a memo and all else remains the same, it will be applied toward your charges and any overage, a credit balance, will be directed to you for other educational expenses including off-campus housing. Credit balances (the credits exceed the charges on your account) can be made available to you.

Reductions in Disbursed Aid

If the Office of Financial Aid determines that you are no longer eligible to receive aid that has already been disbursed to you, you may be asked to repay it. This is a result of the continuous, ongoing eligibility and reconciliation checks that the Office of Financial Aid performs for all aid programs to ensure that funds are going only to students eligible to receive them. If necessary, a recovery of disbursed funds from you will take one of the following forms:

The Office of Financial Aid may reduce your aid for the current term to make your award consistent with your eligibility status. This reduction would take the form of a reduced financial aid credit placed on your account that may increase your personal financial obligation for university charges. (In rare circumstances, a recovery of prior semester aid is necessary. In this case the reduction would take the form of a charge placed on your current semester account that may increase your personal financial obligation for university charges.)
The Office of Financial Aid may reduce future disbursements of aid to make your award consistent with your eligibility status. This reduction might result in an increase of your personal financial obligation for university charges for those semesters.
The Office of Financial Aid may initiate a charge to be applied to your account. An increase in your personal financial obligation will increase the amount you owe for university charges (or reduce your credit balance). If you have insufficient credits to cover your charges, you will receive a bill from Student Financial Services for the balance due.

Questions?

If you have questions about your financial aid disbursement to your student account, please contact the Office of Financial Aid. If you have questions about our refund process, please contact the Bursar's Office.