If your financial aid exceeds your student account balance, you may be eligible to use your aid to pay for books or supplies during this time. To be eligible, you must complete all financial aid steps. For example:

• Documents submitted
• Completed loan acceptance in WebRunner (if applicable)
• Completed entrance counseling and master promissory note (if applicable)

You must also register for the number of credits required for your funding (i.e., a minimum of half-time enrollment is required for Direct Loans). Credit balance amounts will vary by student and depend on your aid eligibility.

If you meet these requirements, you may purchase books or supplies through the Campus Store during this time.

This is the last day to add a class for financial aid or drop classes and still receive a tuition refund for 11-week courses. Short-term classes must be dropped earlier, and the dates vary. 

The census date is the point at which enrollment is locked for financial aid purposes. Each term, the census is taken at the end of the last day a student can drop classes for a full refund. Our census date is the Monday of the second week of each term, unless Monday is a holiday and then the census date will move to the Tuesday of the second week of the term. Financial aid is based on the degree-eligible credits you are registered for at midnight on the census date.

Students who are eligible for financial aid will have their aid disbursed on this date. This process will continue weekly thereafter for the remainder of the term. Federal regulations allow three business days to complete this process. Financial aid refunds are created by the Business Office, and it has up to 14 days to issue the refund once a credit has occurred on the student's account.

If all of your classes begin in the second five-week session of the term, financial aid disbursement will be after those classes have begun and instructors have verified attendance. Disbursement dates may vary. If you do not begin attendance in a second five-week course, your aid may need to be revised, and you could owe money back to the college.

Students who have never had a federal student loan before, or do not currently have a federal loan balance, will have a delay on their first loan disbursement. Loans will be disbursed 30 days after the start of the first term in school.

If you have a one-term-only loan, the second disbursement will be disbursed on this date. For one-term-only loans, the funds are divided in half and released in two disbursements; the second disbursement will be on or after the midpoint of the term. This also applies to one-term-only PLUS loans.

Financial aid administrators have the authority, through Section 480(d)(7) of the Higher Education Act, to change a student’s status from dependent to independent in cases involving unusual circumstances.

The US Department of Education has given guidance regarding situations that do or do not qualify as unusual circumstances that may merit an override. In particular, the following circumstances do not merit a dependency override, either alone or in combination:

• Parents refuse to contribute to the student’s education;
• Parents are unwilling to provide information on the application or for verification;
• Parents do not claim the student as a dependent for income tax purposes;
• Parents live away from student (out-of-state) or in a foreign country;
• Student demonstrates total self-sufficiency.

However, we acknowledge that sometimes there are additional circumstances that occur separate of or in conjunction with these circumstances (above) that do merit a dependency override. These can include:

• an abusive family environment (e.g., sexual, physical, or mental abuse or other forms of domestic violence)
• abandonment by parents
• incarceration or institutionalization of both parents
• parents lacking the physical or mental capacity to raise the child
• parents whereabouts unknown or parents cannot be located
• parents hospitalized for an extended period
• an unsuitable household (e.g., child removed from the household and placed in foster care)
• married student’s spouse dies or student gets divorced

If you do not meet the criteria above, you are considered a dependent student per the Department of Education eligibility criteria and must provide parental information on the FAFSA to be considered for all federal and state aid eligibility.

In rare cases, it may be advised for you to consider appealing for financial aid without parental information on the FAFSA. This request, if approved, results in Federal Direct Unsubsidized Loan eligibility only. Please consider this option carefully and review with a financial aid advisor if you have questions.

Who qualifies for this request?

A dependent student whose parent(s) refuse to complete the parent data on the FAFSA and whose parent(s) do not financially support them. This includes personal expenses, housing, health insurance, etc. The student must be 100% responsible for their personal, medical, and educational expenses.

What is required to be considered?

Complete the Unsubsidized Loan Request Without Parental Data on FAFSA and submit it to us (see contact information above). This includes a signed statement from your parent(s)' regarding their refusal to complete the FAFSA and that they no longer financially support you.