Section 5: Financial Aid:

Financial Aid Disbursement Process

Minnesota GI Bill® (MGIB) financial aid recipients who do not complete the required MGIB period of instruction may not be entitled to keep the full amount of MGIB financial aid disbursed to them. Please refer to the State Aid Refund Policies for more information.

*GI Bill® is a registered trademark of the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA). More information about education benefits offered by VA is available at the official U.S. government website at http://www.benefits.va.gov/gibill.

Walden’s financial aid defined academic year for federal student aid in Tempo Learning® programs is defined as follows:

Please note that the Graduate Certificate in Applied Project Management is not listed since it is not approved by the U.S. Department of Education for Title IV funds.

The academic year is also the loan period. The loan period is then divided into two equal payment periods. The first payment period ends when the student successfully completes half the credit equivalencies and half the weeks in the academic year. The second payment period ends when the student completes the remaining credit equivalencies and weeks in the academic year. If the payment period weeks have elapsed and the student has not successfully completed the required credit equivalencies, additional financial aid will not be reviewed for disbursement until the required credit equivalencies are completed. Likewise, if a student completes the required credit equivalencies in the payment period before the required weeks have elapsed, additional financial aid will not be reviewed for disbursement until the required number of weeks have elapsed.

The loan amount for the loan period is divided equally between the two payment periods. Each payment period is then broken into two disbursements designed to align with the student’s 3-month subscription periods. Therefore, in most cases, financial aid is disbursed in four equal payments over the academic loan period. Federal Student Aid disbursements will be used to pay for any outstanding tuition and fee charges for subscriptions that are included in the academic year/loan period.

All disbursements require that the student has submitted a Customized Learning Plan (CLP) by Day 14 of each 3-month subscription period which confirms that they will attempt the full-time credit equivalency for that period. All disbursements also require the student to meet all federal financial aid eligibility requirements and all Satisfactory Academic Progress requirements. Students who are eligible for disbursements at the beginning of a subscription period will have their federal funds posted to their Walden student account after the 2-week CLP/agree-to-credits deadline date.

Disbursements at the start of the payment period (with the exception of the first disbursement of the program) require that the student has earned half the semester credit equivalencies and has completed half the weeks in their financial aid academic year. Disbursements at the midpoint of the payment period require that the student has completed half the weeks in the payment period.

This disbursement schedule is designed to align with the student’s subscription billing period. It is important to note that a student’s pace or transfer from a prior school may result in payment periods and disbursement dates that do not fully align with the subscription billing periods.

If a student’s remaining credit equivalencies at the start of an academic year are less than the defined credits in an academic year for their program, it is possible for the academic year to be less than 52 weeks.

Likewise, if a student transfers to Walden with an overlapping enrollment from a prior school, this could also result in an academic year to be less than 52 weeks. Consequently, there may only be one payment period or one disbursement in the payment period. In these cases, the disbursement dates may not align with the subscription billing due dates.

Students in good standing may have any excess balance in their account returned to them to pay for indirect education expenses. Any time financial aid proceeds credited to a student’s account exceed direct charges, the Office of the Bursar will automatically forward the credit balance directly to the student, no later than 14 calendar days after the credit balance occurs.

Student are required to accept their offered loan amounts on their myFinAid portal and confirm that they will enroll at least half time over the Direct Loan Period on their myFinAid portal prior to funds disbursing. If a student requests or is offered additional loan amounts within the award year, they must log back into their myFinAid portal and accept the new loan amount before the additional loan funds can be disbursed.

Students are responsible for payment of tuition and fees incurred after a full credit balance refund has been released. Credit balance refund distributions are made in accordance with applicable federal guidelines. Any outstanding debt to the university as a result of a required credit balance refund is the responsibility of the student.