If you are a college student who has a financial aid overage pending, the primary question on your mind is probably, "When will I get my money?" Financial aid offices can be very bureaucratic, so you must first be sure that you have taken care of their requirements. After this comes the sometimes torturous wait for a deposit to your checking account.
First and foremost, your lender (or the government in the case of a grant) must release the financial aid funds to the school. Nothing can be done until the school receives the funds its own account. Be sure that you have handled every bit of paperwork that your lender requires to release money in your name. You should stay in constant contact with your lender during the period before your upcoming semester to assure that all requirements have been met.
The next step to having your financial aid overage released to your checking account is making sure that all of your school paperwork is taken care of. Most financial aid offices will require you to fill out various release and verification forms in order to receive funding. Of course, you will also need to tell them your checking account information if you want them to directly deposit your funds.
If this requirement is not met before school starts (school financial aid offices will usually open a week or two before classes begin) there could be a delay in receiving financial aid refunds to your checking account.
The most intense period of time for a college student who is receiving financial aid is the first few weeks of school. These are the days that books must be purchased, bills need to be paid and supplies need to be purchased. So the most pressing issue on a student's mind is when he will finally receive his financial aid refund after all the paperwork has been completed and the funds have been received from the lender.
The answer to this question varies based on the school. Some school financial aid offices are on top of their business, care about the student's needs, and work overtime to get financial aid refunds into the student's hands as soon as possible. So if you have handled all of your business, and your school's financial aid office is on top of its game, you should be able to get a financial aid overage deposited to your checking account within the first few weeks of school. Keep in mind that some schools will wait until the add/drop period is over to assure that you will not be dropping from your classes.
On the other hand, some schools have financial aid offices that are ill-equipped to deal with the immediate needs of students. They are either understaffed or overwhelmed with paperwork. In this case, you may have to wait much longer to receive your overage deposited to your checking account.
You should stay on top of your financial aid situation regularly, regardless of how long school has been in session. But if you find yourself going into your second month of school and still no financial aid refund has been deposited to your checking account, it's time to start getting serious with your financial aid office. Visit them every day if necessary.
If you're not getting anywhere with your financial aid counselor, go to your student affairs counselor to tell them the issues you are having. If you have a close professor, administrator, or other mentor at the school, seek advice and help from them in getting the money that is due to you. In a last case scenario, you may have to report the school's financial aid office to your local consumer affairs office. Call your state's Attorney General office for further guidance on who to contact about your money. All in all, being that a school semester only lasts for about three or four months, you should not have to wait longer than three months to receive a financial aid refund to your checking account.
Nowadays, with everything being done electronically, the financial aid refund process should be fairly quick.