Paying For College: Spring Loan Disbursements

Federal law requires student loans that are issued to students who begin their academic year during the spring term to be released in two equal installments.

This rule is complicated and can be confusing for new students, so we’d like to provide a brief overview of how it works.

• This rule only applies to students who begin their academic year during the spring term. If you started your academic year in the fall term, this does not apply to you.
• This rule only applies to student loans. It does not apply to grants or scholarships.
• Students must be actively participating in 6 or more credit hours to receive student loan money. This means your classes must be in-progress and that you are working on coursework for 6 credit hours’ worth of classes. Note:  If you stagger your start dates at the beginning of the term, you will not be eligible to receive loan money until you have ramped up to at least 6 active credit hours.
• If you start the term with 6 or more credits, in most cases you will receive your first loan installment during the third week of class. If you are a first time borrower, you will not receive your loan money until after a 30-day delay required by the federal government.
• In almost all cases, your second installment will be released at the midpoint of your semester block.

We encourage students to use the financial aid disbursement calculator to estimate the date when they will receive their financial aid money.