Financial Aid & Your Student Account

Student Financial Services is responsible for posting financial aid awards to student accounts. Financial Aid that posts to a student account will typically pay off any outstanding charges that exist for the current term*. Any award that is more than the outstanding charges on the student account will result in a refund.

The Financial Aid office can provide details as to a student’s aid package.

*Some types of aid are prohibited from paying off certain charges (such as late fees). Additionally, many types of aid can only pay off charges for the current term, and not prior-term debt)

Anticipated Aid

Financial aid that has been awarded, but has yet to be posted to a student account, is considered “anticipated”.  Anticipated aid can include scholarships, loans, awards from outside donors, and other credits. Anticipated aid allows students to pay the amount due for tuition and fees, less the amount expected in aid. 

If anticipated aid is equal to, or greater than the total balance, no payment would be required. 

As aid is posted to a student’s account, the amount of anticipated aid is reduced.

Important: It is the student’s responsibility to monitor both their outstanding charges and anticipated aid for any changes, to ensure proper payments are made by posted deadlines (and to avoid having a registration hold).

Outside Awards

Scholarships or grants from outside donors must be reported to the Financial Aid Office. Outside awards reported will be included in your anticipated aid, and will reduce the amount of tuition and fees owed to the university.

Outside award checks should be mailed to Student Financial Services at the address below. Any check made payable to a student and CSUSM must be endorsed by the student to be processed. When this occurs, students should write on the back of the check, in the endorsement area, “For deposit only CSUSM”, along with their signature. If a check is made payable to student with an “and/or” CSUSM, no signature by the student is required.

Mail to:

 

Timing of Financial Aid Postings

Financial Aid typically posts a week prior to the start of each term. It is critical that students respond quickly to any requests from the Financial Aid Office. Any delays in responding to requests from the Financial Aid Office may result in aid not posting to a student account before the start of the term and/or payment deadline.