Direct Deposit of Funds not needed for Tuition and Fees (a "Refund")
When the total amount of your financial aid (loans and scholarships) exceed the amount needed to pay for tuition and fees, CUA will refund the "excess" to you. You will receive your refund by one of two methods:
- (Recommended) Direct deposit to your personal bank account.
- Paper check
Below is described a four-step "refund" process:
- Approximately 10 days prior to the start of the fall semester one-half of your student aid funds (loans and scholarships) are posted to your CUA student account. The remaining half is posted to your account shortly after January 1 and are applicable to your spring semester.
- Following the posting, staff members in the Office of Enrollment Services review individual student accounts, and then "authorize" a refund, for funds not needed to meet the charges that are on your account on the day of the review. Typically, on the day of the review, your student account should include up-to-date charges for tuition, fees, and medical insurance.
- After your refund has been "authorized," this information is transmitted to a third-party vendor (Nelnet) who is responsible to deposit the refund amount to your personal bank account if you have arranged for direct deposit. If you have not arranged for direct deposit, your "refund request" is returned to CUA's Office of Enrollment Services (ES) upon which ES then executes the appropriate steps to have a refund check prepared for you.
- Within 5 days of the "authorization" date, direct deposit refunds typically appear in personal bank accounts. Paper checks typically are ready for pick up from ES within 7 days of the "authorization" date.
Summary: from the time funds are posted to your account (as early as 10 days prior to the start of the fall semester) until a refund is deposited to your personal bank account is approximately 15 days, on average.
Refund and direct-deposit policies and procedures are the responsibility of the Office of Enrollment Services. Accordingly the link below will take you to the Enrollment Services webpages where you will find more specific instructions about completing steps to set up direct deposit of your refunds.