Award notification

Delivery of aid

After the financial aid award is accepted and all requirements have been completed, available financial aid will be automatically credited to pay tuition and other PSU charges for enrolled students each term. Excess financial aid and other University refunds are then refunded to the student by the Portland State University Student Financial Services Office according to the refund preference that the student has established with the University. Website: www.pdx.edu/financial-services/student.

Federal Work-Study is earned on a monthly basis and paychecks are issued at the end of each month by the University’s payroll office. Students may authorize direct deposit of their Work-Study pay to their bank account, or pick up their paychecks from the cashier window in Neuberger Hall lobby. Program information can be found on the website: www.pdx.edu/finaid/apply.

Aid Disbursement Policy

Financial aid can be disbursed to a student’s Portland State University revolving charge account as early as ten days prior to the start of each term. Aid will only disburse at this time if a student’s enrollment level matches their award level for the term, and there are no outstanding requirements. Our ability to disburse aid prior to the beginning of a term means that we must have a “census date” that corresponds to a student’s official aid eligibility for a term. Census dates for the 2016-17 aid year and minimum enrollment requirements for the various sources of aid can be found on the Office of Student Financial Aid and Scholarships Web site at www.pdx.edu/finaid/eligibility. At the census date of each term, each student’s final enrollment is locked. Financial aid for that term is then adjusted, based on the enrollment level at that time. When a reduction in aid is required due to a student’s reduced enrollment level at the census date, the reduction can create a balance due on the student’s PSU account. If there is tuition refund because of dropped credits, the tuition refund will be used to reduce the balance due on the student’s account.

A student whose census date enrollment is less than half-time is not eligible for federal student loans. In these cases, the entire loan amount for the term will be returned to the Federal Student Loan program. The return of loan funds creates a bill on the student’s PSU account, but also reduces the outstanding principal balance due on the student loan. Any current term aid disbursed after the census date will be based on the student’s enrollment on the census date, or their actual number of credits enrolled at the time of disbursement, whichever is less. Credits added after the census date cannot be used to increase aid eligibility. Retroactive aid (aid for a term that has ended prior to disbursement) must be disbursed based on completed grades/credit hours, or census date registration, whichever is less. This includes retroactive grants and loans. Grades that are considered “complete” for disbursement purposes are: A, B, C, D, P, I or IP.

Withdrawals—Official/Unofficial

Please see the annual Registration Guide or visit www.pdx.edu/registration for the university policy regarding dropping classes and tuition refunds. Students who withdraw completely during the term and are receiving federal and/or state financial aid may have a percentage of their aid reversed, based upon a formula prescribed by the U.S. Department of Education. These students will have any unearned portion of their aid charged back to their PSU account, and may owe repayment directly to the U.S. Department of Education of any overpaid Federal grants. Federal student aid recipients who begin attending classes and who cease attending or performing academic activities prior to the end of the quarter are considered by the federal government to have Unofficially Withdrawn. A student receiving all X, M, NP, W or F grades for a term often reflect an unofficial withdrawal. If University records indicate that student did begin attending classes but subsequently unofficially withdrew, the University will consider the Unofficial Withdrawal date to be the midpoint of the quarter (unless documentation exists of an earlier or later date of attendance/academic activity by the student). If no attendance or academic activity can be documented, the Unofficial Withdrawal student must repay the entire amount of aid disbursed for that term. If University records show a federal student aid recipient never attended a class and/or performed an academically related activity for a quarter or term, then the recipient never established eligibility for any aid funds that may have been disbursed for that quarter or term. In addition, any student aid recipient who drops all classes or voids his/her schedule with an effective date prior to the first day of class for a quarter or term did not establish eligibility for any funds that may have been disbursed for that quarter or term.

In either case, the student aid recipient must repay the entire amount of aid disbursed for that quarter or term. Website: www.pdx.edu/finaid/withdrawing/