Federal law requires that loans be disbursed in two equal portions. You can find an updated table with 20-21 school year disbursement dates here. Because tuition out of pocket costs are automatically taken out of your loan before any refunds are processed, if the first disbursement does not fully cover your out of pocket costs for the semester, you will have to wait until the second disbursement to receive a refund if you took out more than your out of pocket costs.
For example:
A student has an out of pocket fall term cost of $1000.
- Student takes out a loan for $1400.
- The first disbursement of the loan is half of their request ($700), which leaves the student with a balance of $300.
- The second disbursement is also $700, and brings the student’s account to a $400 credit balance.
- About 2-3 business days after this second disbursement, the student will receive a credit refund preference selection email.
- 1-2 business days later, the student will receive their refund based on their preference selected.
- The default method is a check sent to the address on record.
- Direct deposit to an active bank account is available as well.