From: coomes@ccmail.nevada.edu
Date: Wed Jan 22 2003 - 17:48:24 EST
Cindy we had this same problem for quite a long time. What we do now is
that financial aid feeds all aid to the students account 10 days before
school begins. The last day to register before school begins is the
Friday before the semester begins. We do not allow students to register
over the weekend. Our financial aid office runs reports and determines
what students are no longer in compliance to receive excess funds from
their financial aid. We receive the information on Saturday morning. The
refund checks printed on Thursday night and was prepared for mailing. We
pull the checks that the students are ineligible for on Saturday and send
the rest to the post office. They receive their excess funds on the next
working day or the day after that.
With this process we do not have the issue of them dropping out and
getting the funds. We mail over 5000 checks on that Saturday. We pull
between 50 and 60 each term. I am trying to get the process changed to
mailing on Friday. The number that change on that last day is less than
10 checks, but our aid office is concerned about the students who we would
not process refunds on Friday who become eligible later in the day. That
number has got to be extremely low, but they have won that battle so far.
The first semester we did this we had quite a few students upset. Now it
is commonplace and we only had 1 student complain this semester. The
student transferred from a different school whose process was to give them
their refunds the week before school began. Our lines became so long with
picking up checks, that it was imperative that we mail these checks. We
have very few problems now. We have been doing this for 8 or 9 years.
Sharon Coomes
Bursar
University of Nevada, Las Vegas
Cindy Shelton <sheltonck@appstate.edu>
01/22/03 01:44 PM
To: bursar-l@virginia.edu
cc:
Subject: Financial Aid Refunds
Hello Fellow Bursars and Student Accounts Directors!
I hope you all are surviving the beginning of the spring term rush. I'm
having a little problem at my institution and would like to know if any
of you have the same issue. Currently, our Financial Aid Office feeds
any and all types of aid to students' accounts 10 days before the term
begins. We then have refunds available to students on Registration day,
which is two days before classes start. Recently, this has caused big
problems because students are dropping/adding hours, aid is being taken
away, meal options are being added for off-campus students, etc. during
the first week and a half of classes. Even worse, we are having
students pick up refund checks and then withdraw.
How many of you do what I described above and how many of you wait until
after the drop/add period to make refunds available? I would like to
change our refund policy but will need input from other institutions
before my administration will make a decision.
Thanks, in advance, for your responses!
Cindy Shelton
Director of Student Accounts
Appalachian State University
(4 year public)
Boone, NC
828-262-6420
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