Award Disbursement

Payments                   Refunds               Withdrawals

Payments 

Financial aid award funds are disbursed ten (10) days prior to the beginning of each academic term (with the exception of work-study, which is paid biweekly). All grant, scholarships and institutional loan funds are credited first to your tuition and fee account before Stafford Loan funds are received. Any funds in excess of tuition and fees are disbursed in a refund check and mailed to the student within four weeks from date of disbursement.

Federal Stafford and Alternative loan disbursements are processed differently than all other financial aid award funds. Proceeds of the loan funds are sent to the Student Accounts Office by the lending institution by EFT funds transfer or by paper check. If you authorized the University to receive your proceeds by electronic funds transfer(EFT), then your account will be credited for tuition and fees and the remaining proceeds, if any, will be available ten (10) days prior to the beginning of the semester. If you choose to have your lender send a paper check in the mail, you will have to sign the check when it arrives at the Student Accounts Office. Refunds from paper checks will have a twenty-four (24) hour processing time before students will receive the remaining proceeds.

Note: Award disbursement and student account summary information is available on the "SURFS" student information system website.

Refunds
Students who drop credits, who are reclassified as Maryland residents for tuition purposes, or who officially withdraw from the university may be entitled to a refund of tuition and fees for the semester. The refund schedule is published by the Registrar's Office. If financial aid has been credited or otherwise disbursed to a student who is subsequently due a refund, part or all of the refunds may be reclaimed and redeposited in the appropriate aid account. The refund policy is published in each school catalog.

Withdrawals
Students who withdraw from the college before 60% of the semester has been completed, will have their financial aid recalculated based on the period of time in attendance for the term. Federal regulations require that a percentage of federal Title IV financial aid funds be returned as repayment for non-completion of the semester. The Student Accounts office calculates the amount of funds to be returned based on Department of Education’s repayment formula. Copy of the Title IV Refund/Repayment formula calculation is available on the financial aid website.