I’m currently a rising senior at my university and I am graduating a semester early. (Fall 2017)
I have a full tuition and fee merit scholarship, so I do not apply for financial aid each year since I don’t receive a bill. (I’m a commuter student so I have no other costs owed directly to my school.) However, I received an additional merit scholarship from my major department which will be refunded to me since my school does not adjust my full merit award to account for additional aid. Additional merit aid is just applied on top of the existing funds.
The secondary scholarship was just posted to my account and split between the Fall 2017 and Spring 2018 semester, meaning that I will receive two refund checks - one in mid-September and one in early February. Is it possible to request that the entire scholarship be credited to the Fall semester since I will be graduating in December?
This is a bit more controversial: Would it perhaps be possible to have the secondary scholarship credited to the current semester so that it would be refunded to me immediately? I realize that this seems pretty greedy but I think it would be nice to have the money now because I was planning on enrolling in an LSAT prep course for the summer. I do not feel entitled to the money any earlier than what is standard procedure, I was just curious if this was at all a possibility.
Any insight is much appreciated.
@thumper1 I emailed the Bursar and am currently awaiting a response. I was just wondering if other people had any experience with this sort of thing. (i.e. requesting that aid be moved to different semesters)
It will depend on the provision of the specific scholarship. If it’s an award that can be used for one semester…they will move it. If it is an award that is to be divided amongst two terms…you will only get one terms worth…because you won’t be enrolled the second term.
@thumper1 Unfortunately the provisions of the scholarship are pretty vague. I think that it can be used for one semester because the scholarship itself says “funds will be credited to the student’s account for the fall semester.” I figured that the system just divides aid in half automatically. I received a different merit scholarship last year and it was refunded to me in one sum but online it says it was refunded to me in halves across two semesters.
I doubt it. Department scholarships support the students who are at the school for that semester. My daughter had one but when she didn’t go to school for the spring semester, the money just went back to the general fund.
@twoinanddone Do you know who makes that determination? The Department or the Bursar? The scholarship I was awarded had a 105 credit cap, meaning that it could be awarded to a student who was graduating in the fall. There was no stipulation that the student had to be enrolled in the spring to receive the full amount, just that they had to be returning for the fall.
Not sure if this makes a difference, but the department determines each year how to divvy up the funds depending on the applicant pool, sometimes they’ll divide the set amount amongst multiple winners - however, this year they decided to award me the full scholarship amount. I assume that maybe this means half would not be rescinded.
REally, how would I know? It’s your school and its funds. I’ve worked with the person applying the funds to my other daughter’s bill, and she follows the instructions from the financial aid office, the athletic department, the state programs. She’s in FA, and sends the info to the billing department. Some of daughter’s funds can be refunded to her, some cannot.
@twoinanddone Okay, thank you for your insight, it is much appreciated.
Once the Bursar replies, I’ll be sure to post the response to this thread for future reference of other CC users.
@preamble1776, Have you checked with your department? Perhaps they can request that the bursar apply it to one semester instead of two.
@austinmshauri Oh! That’s a very good idea. I’ll contact the faculty advisor for the scholarship. Thanks so much. 
Don’t forget to loop in the financial aid department … sometimes there are requirements to reduce your full tuition scholarship by the amount of the departmental scholarship (unfair, perhaps … but better to know this upfront!) … and if you have need based aid, it may have to be reduced by the amount of the scholarship.
It may depend on the scholarship not just the school. My D got several scholarships and a grant from the school. Only the nonrenewable departmental one gives her the option to be dispensed in one semester or splitter into two.
Hey everyone, I wanted to update this thread so people can reference it in the future.
I emailed the Bursar but did not receive a reply - initially, I figured I’d just go to campus and speak directly with the financial aid office, but instead, I sent an email to the Merit Scholarship Director and explained to him my situation. He moved all the funds to the fall semester so I’ll have the whole sum refunded to me in September. I didn’t ask about crediting it to the current semester because the S17 semester is over and I figured it’d be a little too complicated.
Thank you for all the advice.