Loan Disbursement and Budgeting Refunds

Tuition at the graduate school is billed by the credit hour, so charges vary by semester depending on your course load. Loans, on the other hand, are typically divided evenly over the period of enrollment. Equal loan disbursements applied to unequal charges can make for variable refunds throughout the year, and we want you to be prepared for this possibility.

After receiving your financial aid offer we encourage you to download and complete the budget worksheet below. It is a tool to help you estimate charges and financial aid credits, and it will calculate your estimated account balance in each semester. A positive balance indicates an amount due; a negative balance indicates the account is overpaid and a refund will be generated. Keep in mind that your actual charges, credits, and refund/balance due in each semester are subject to change based on your registration.

As a student your focus should be on academics, not finances. With this information we hope you will plan ahead and create a personal budget so that you can successfully manage your money throughout the year.

BUDGET WORKSHEET

To complete the worksheet you will need to refer to your 2024-25 financial aid offer in Self-Service (log into WebAdvisor, select the link for Financial Aid Self-Service, and navigate to My Awards), tuition cost information for the Graduate School of Education and Counseling, and either a course sequence sheet for your program or your individual 2024-25 academic plan.

After completing the worksheet and deciding how much to borrow, follow the prompts in Financial Aid Self-Service > My Awards to accept or decline your loans. Additional processing steps will appear in your Loan Requirements checklist. Graduate PLUS Loan borrowers must submit a new PLUS Loan Application every year to authorize a credit check; please be aware that this step will not be marked as complete in your checklist until the loan has been originated.

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Loan Disbursement/Refund Timeline

Finalize your Summer schedule as early as possible; registration will be reviewed when your loans are originated to determine the disbursement date for the Summer semester.

Semester or Session	Loan Disbursement / Refund Timeline
Summer Session 1	Loan disbursement and refund timeline is TBD due to substantial delays in FAFSA processing for the 2024-25 academic year.
Summer Session 2	Summer loans will be scheduled to disburse on/after June 3, 2024. Refunds from financial aid will be available no earlier than the first day of classes in the session: June 10, 2024.
Summer Session 3	Summer loans will be scheduled to disburse on/after July 8, 2024. Refunds from financial aid will be available no earlier than the first day of classes in the session: July 15, 2024.
Fall	Fall loans will be scheduled to disburse on/after August 26, 2024. Refunds from financial aid will be available no earlier than the first day of Fall classes: September 3, 2024.
Spring	Spring loans will be scheduled to disburse on/after January 2, 2025. Refunds from financial aid will be available no earlier than the first day of Spring classes: January 6, 2025.

 

Please note that the timeline above shows the earliest possible dates for loan disbursement and for the release of any resulting refund. If your enrollment begins after the first week of the semester, you can expect your refund no earlier than the week of your first class.

If you will receive refunds from financial aid in 2024-25, budget carefully over the entire academic year! As explained above, refund amounts can vary by semester. Therefore, you may need to set aside a portion of your refund from one semester to address expenses in a future semester.