Refunds and Withdrawl Questions
When will the financial aid be released to my student account?
Financial aid will not be credited to your account more than 10 days prior to the start of classes, as required by financial aid regulations. Before your financial aid can post to your university account, you must be registered for sufficient class hours to be considered eligible for the aid. For example, if the amount of the Pell you were offered requires that you be enrolled in classes full time (12 hours) and you register for 6 hours, your financial aid will not post to your university account until your enrollment has been reviewed, and the Pell Grant amount has been adjusted to the amount allowed to students enrolled half time.
When will I receive my refund?
You can expect to receive a refund check 7-10 days after your account balance goes into credit status.
I'm thinking of dropping a class. How will that impact my financial aid?
Depending on whether you withdraw during the normal refund
period, whether you withdraw before or after your financial
aid has been credited to your account, and whether dropping
the class causes you to change enrollment status (full-time,
half-time, etc.) your financial aid may need to be reduced
or cancelled. Failure to successfully complete all classes
for which you initially registered may also result in a
failure to meet UMSL satisfactory academic progress standards.
This in turn may cause you to lose eligibility for financial
aid for future semesters until your academic performance
improves (see SAP).
I received a refund check in the
mail, and soon after I received a bill from the university.
Why does that happen?
The university is required to issue the amount of financial aid in excess of university charges to the student within 14 days after the account was credited. We are not allowed to hold financial aid proceeds to pay of future charges without written permission from the student.