What is a college refund check?

College shorted me on my refund check??!?

• Ok, so I finally received my refund check in the mail but to my astonishment, the check was far less than I expected. I qualified for the maximum amount in a Pell grant, $5,550 to be exact. At my school, the awards are split into two separate disbursements, one a few days before the start of the semester, and the second in November. I started this semester at 10 units, which means I was at three quarter time, and not full time. My first refund arrived and was $1,041. EXACTLY as I had calculated it to be. Well, this aside, during the first week of school, I decided that I had to drop one of my 4 classes due to personal issues. I only attended this class ONCE during the first week of the semester and that was it, I dropped it that very day after class. Now according to my school, the drop dead line for these classes was on September 9th of the following month. I dropped a month earlier, so no worries I told myself. I was well aware of the fact that my next refund would be reduced, but only by about half and no less, as I calculated. Now here is where the issue starts, after dropping that class, which was worth 3 units, my status dropped to 7 units and put me at half time status, (6-8 units at this school). To put things into perspective, three quarters status as reflected by the first refund I received is as follows: 3/4 of $ 5,550 awarded Pell grant = $ 4,162.5 $ 4,162.5 slip into two equal payments of $2,081.25, this amount given in Fall semester and again in Spring semester. The $2,081 is again split in half into 2 equal disbursements for each semester. So, half of $2,081 = $1,040.625 Exactly as I had calculated even before I received it. $1,041 is EXACTLY the amount I received for my first refund. Ok, so my second disbursement should have been as followed according to my current status. 1/2 of $5,550 awarded Pell grant = $2,775 $ 2,775 split into two equal payments of $1,387.5, this amount given in Fall semester and again in Spring semester. The $1,387.5 is once more halved into 2 equal disbursements during each semester, respectively. For fall, in August and November. For Spring, in January and April. So, half of $1,387.5 = $693.75 This is how much I should have received for my second refund based on these calculations, but instead, I received only $347.00. This is absurd. I am at HALF TIME status. And considering I dropped that class long before the dead line, I don't see how this could be related. Even if it was, it would not reduce my total amount to only 347.00. I have bills I need to pay and this is really causing me problems. What do I need to do in order to solve this? Do I got to the Financial aid office? Call them? Do I need to bring my checks and registration of my class schedule? Please help.

• Answer:

  Yes of course you need to talk to your financial aid office. Call them or go in, whichever you choose. No one here can speculate anything about your account since we cannot see it directly.