Tuition and Financial Aid

Year-Round Loan Distribution

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Year-Round Loan Distribution

Most students are awarded financial aid for fall and spring as their academic year, but at UC Online our online students are able to get financial aid distributed year-round. Loans are most often affected by year-round attendance.

Distribution of Direct Loan Funds

Direct Loans, like other aid, are often awarded for fall and spring. Since this is the academic year that most students follow and plan to attend, funding is split evenly between fall and spring. Students attending only fall and spring will not see a change in their loan distribution.

In cases where students plan to be enrolled at least half-time in the fall, spring, and summer semesters, their Direct Loans can be evenly divided over all three terms. It will mean slightly smaller loan funds each term, but it will also mean that the student benefits from loan assistance throughout their entire enrollment.

Enrollment Plan Reporting

Students can submit their enrollment plans when they are attending year-round. These reported plans are used to give students an appropriate aid eligibility budget as well as determine if the Direct Loans are redistributed over all three terms.

Students planning on attending all three terms have costs for each term. Having the Direct Loans distributed over all three terms helps you to anticipate meeting more of your costs throughout the year.

It is important that students accurately report their enrollment plans. Doing so will maximize your aid eligibility over the course of the year and for future years.

Any changes in your enrollment plans should be reported to Student Financial Aid.

NOTE: Students who change plans and are no longer planning to attend summer must inform Student Financial Aid at least two weeks prior to spring exam week in order to receive any of the planned summer loan allotments.

Year-Round Aid Redistribution

Year-round attendance most dramatically affects Direct Loans. At the same time, other aid sources can be more properly maximized through accurate reporting of year-round attendance.

Scholarships: Scholarships are generally limited to full-time, in-class terms. Students attending year-round and eligible for renewable scholarships can use an additional term of funding toward their four-year equivalency.

Grants: The Federal Pell Grant will post for fall and spring. Pell-eligible students are only eligible for summer Pell if they did not receive their annual allotment in fall and spring (either through non-attendance or attending part-time). State grant programs such as OCOG work similarly with restrictions on summer. Other grant programs including Federal SEOG will only carry over to summer if you are on co-op in fall or spring.

Loans: As noted, Federal Direct Subsidized, Unsubsidized, and PLUS Loans are processed over the terms of enrollment (including summer when a student is in class or on co-op). Annual Subsidized and Unsubsidized Loan amounts are divided into equal thirds when a student is enrolled over summer as well as fall and spring. Some students, based on mid-year class progression to sophomore or junior status, could seek a loan increase at the time of the advanced grade level. The Federal Perkins Loan is only available for fall and spring (unless a student co-ops when the funding will shift to the appropriate in-class terms). Alternative educational loans are processed based on the request of the student and encouraged overall terms of enrollment for any given academic year.

If you have questions about specific aid due to year-round attendance, please call or email One Stop (513-556-1000 or [email protected]).

Student Financial Aid works with you to align your aid with your enrollment plans.

You can always alert the Student Financial Aid Office of your plans or a change in them via email. Simply use “Enrollment Change” as the subject in an email to [email protected], and we will make any appropriate changes to your aid award.

Note: Email requests should include your name and student ID and should originate from your UConnect email account.