Award Notification

Delivery of Aid

After the financial aid award is accepted and all requirements have been completed, available financial aid will be credited to pay tuition and other billed charges for enrolled students each term. Financial aid that exceeds billed charges are then delivered to the student by the Portland State University Student Financial Services Office according to the preference that the student has established with the University. See www.pdx.edu/student-financial/hello-students for more information.

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 Federal Work-Study pay to their bank account. More information can be found at  www.pdx.edu/finaid/apply.

Aid Disbursement Policy

Financial aid can be disbursed to a student’s Portland State University revolving charge account up to 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 2019-2020 aid year and minimum enrollment requirements for the various financial aid programs can be found on the Office of Student Financial Aid and Scholarships website 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 may then be 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.

Students applying to borrow a federal student loan must be enrolled in a minimum of half time credit hours, have demonstrated need and/or eligible costs to receive a disbursement from the federal student loan programs.

Students who have received a disbursement of a federal student loan and then reduce enrollment below half-time will be required to complete federal student loan exit counseling as outlined in the federal student loan master promissory note. The PSU Registrar’s Office will report the less than half time enrollment status to the federal student loan servicer which will result in the loss of In School Deferment status. All prior federal student loans for a borrower who does not qualify for in school deferment will enter the grace period or repayment if a grace period was previously used.
Students who regain eligibility to borrow from the federal student loan programs by increasing enrollment after the census date for any term must notify the Office of Student Financial Aid by submitting an updated enrollment plan and request a reinstatement of their federal 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, F (if earned through course participation), 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 federal regulation. 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 then stop attending or stop performing academic activities prior to the end of the quarter are considered by the federal government to have unofficially withdrawn. For students who receive grades of X, M, NP, W or F in all of their classes, we must determine whether they they unofficially withdrew. 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 for 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 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. More information can be found at www.pdx.edu/finaid/withdrawing/.