Texas A&M University's Financial Aid - Division of Enrollment and Academic Services

A: Financial Aid disbursement (when your financial aid awards pay to your student bill) occurs 10 days before the start of the semester. Here are the dates for Undergraduate Students, Graduate Students, and Professional Students.

A: Oftentimes, when a student’s financial aid has not disbursed it is because they have outstanding requirements in their financial aid portal that are causing a disbursement hold. The first thing you should do is check that you have completed all requirements in your portal:

1. Sign into howdy.tamu.edu.
2. Click on the Financial Aid Portal icon
3. Select the 2020-2021 Award Year from the drop-down menu
4. Navigate to the Status Page
5. Make sure you have no outstanding requirements under the “To Do” section

A: Your financial aid may not disburse immediately after completing certain requirements. If you have just completed your last requirement wait at least two (2) business days for our processes to run and your financial aid to disburse.

A: Please submit documentation to our office via fax, postal mail, or uploaded to the Financial Aid Portal with a UIN on all documents.
A: Scholarship checks should be mailed to Scholarships and Financial Aid. You may find the address on our website.
A: Due to security and privacy reasons, our office does not accept any emailed documents. Any receipt of personally identifiable information (ex: SSN) to this email account is considered a data breach and will be permanently deleted.

A: To apply for Financial Aid you must submit a financial aid application. To determine what application is right for you, select your classification: Undergraduate Student, Graduate Student, Professional Student.

A: You can learn more about student employment by visiting the Jobs for Aggies website.
A: Questions about the Work Study Program and Community Service Program can be directed to workstudy@tamu.edu.
A: Questions about general student employment or the Jobs for Aggies Job Board can be directed to jobsforaggies@tamu.edu.
 

Below are the anticipated awarding timelines for 2021-2022. Please check the Status tab of your Financial Aid portal for the 2021-2022 academic year to make sure there are no incomplete requirements on your account that will delay awarding and/or disbursement of your financial aid.

Undergraduate Students

• New Freshman (College Station and Galveston): Awarding begins late January
• New Transfer students (College Station and Galveston): Awarding begins Mid-February
• Continuing Undergraduate students (College Station and Galveston): Awarding begins June
• Upper-level Public Health Undergraduates: Awarding begins early July

Graduate Students

• New Graduate students (College Station and Galveston): Awarding begins early to mid-April
• Continuing Graduate students (College Station and Galveston): Awarding begins June
• Nursing Graduate students: Awarding begins early July
• Public Health Graduate students: Awarding begins early July

Professional Students

• 1st year Law students: Awarding begins early April
• 2nd and 3rd year Law students: Awarding begins Mid-June

• 4th Year Pharmacy students: Awarding begins late May
• 1st, 2nd, and 3rd year Pharmacy students: Awarding begins early June

• Dental professional students (DDS): Awarding begins mid to late April

• 4th Year Medicine students: Awarding begins late May
• 1st, 2nd, and 3rd year Medical students: Awarding begins early June

• 4th year Veterinary students: Awarding begins Early- April
• 1st, 2nd, and 3rd year Veterinary students: Awarding begins Mid-June

For 2020-2021, all student groups are awarded on Tuesday and Thursday evenings.
 

A: If you are experiencing a financial emergency you may complete an Emergency Aid Application to be considered for limited institutional funding. You can find the steps to complete the Emergency Aid Application further in this FAQ.
A: In addition to the Emergency Aid Application, Texas A&M has additional resources available for students experiencing temporary financial hardship. Short Term Loans and the Emergency Tuition and Fees Loan are available to help students pay for specific educational or educationally related expenses. Short Term Loans cannot be used to pay tuition and required fees, but can be used for optional fees and other expenses, like rent, food, and books. The Emergency Tuition and Fees Loan (ETFL) is available to help students pay their Texas A&M University tuition and required fees. This loan will be applied directly to the student’s tuition and fee account. Students can apply for either loan on the application site.
 

A: To date, Texas A&M has distributed $19,795,718 of Emergency Financial Aid Grants to students under Section 18004(a)(1) of the CARES Act. At this time, all funding that Texas A&M has received from the CARES Act has been exhausted. If additional legislation is passed by Congress allocating more funding to TAMU, we will advise students on how they may apply for those additional funds.
You can read more about the specifics of the CARES Act funding and how Texas A&M awarded this funding to students on our COVID-19 webpage http://financialaid.tamu.edu/COVID.
There are some Emergency Aid Applications that were submitted after the CARES funding had been exhausted. Students with these pending applications will be reviewed for state and institutional funding. Students will be notified via email if they have been awarded funding or if they are ineligible for the available awards.

A: The Emergency Aid Application is available for any student who is experiencing temporary financial hardship. The current application is for students requesting emergency aid for Fall 2020.

1. Sign into howdy.tamu.edu
2. Click on the Financial Aid Portal icon
3. Select the 2020-2021 Award Year from the drop-down menu
4. Under Helpful Links you will find the Emergency Aid Application

A: If you have accepted more financial aid than you have expenses on your student bill, the remaining amount will be refunded to your bank account. For example, if you accepted $12,000 in financial aid, but your tuition and fees are only $10,000 then you will be refunded $2,000.
Scholarships & Financial Aid encourages students to use their refund for educational expenses (books, supplies, off-campus rent, food, utilities, etc.)

A: All refunds are processed through Student Business Services (SBS). We will attempt to answer the most common questions here, but for more specific questions about your personal account or refund issue, it is recommended that you reach out to SBS directly.
A: If you have been awarded more financial aid than you have expenses on your student bill, the remaining amount will be refunded to you. After your student bill has been paid, SBS will process the refund and send it to Heartland ECSI within 2 business days. Once the refund is sent to Heartland/ECSI for disbursement, an email will be sent to your TAMU email address informing you of the refund amount and method of delivery. You must set up direct deposit through Heartland ECSI to receive your refund.
A: If you are expecting a refund and have not received it, check to make sure your financial aid has disbursed (paid to your bill). Refunds cannot be processed until your aid has paid to your bill. You can then navigate to your student bill and view your refund under “current activity”. While refunds are issued each business day it is common for there to be a 2-business day delay before you receive your refund. If it has been more than 2 business days, your aid has paid to your bill, and you have set up your direct deposit account with Heartland ECSI but you have not received your refund contact Student Business Services.

A: Heartland ECSI disburses your refund to the bank account you have on file. Direct deposit is currently the only method for refund available. To set up direct deposit with Heartland ECSI follow the steps below:

1. Login to https://heartland.ecsi.net/index.main.html#/access/signIn. We recommend you use Google Chrome as your browser.
2. Register by creating your own profile. Make sure you set up a unique login and password.
3. Set up the account you want your refund to go to using your unique Heartland Key to connect your account with the university.

*SBS has answers to frequently asked questions about Heartland and the Heartland Key.
 
A: Refunds will not be generated for students who have not provided their bank account information for direct deposit. Any credit balances will remain on your student account until either the information is provided or additional charges are assessed on your student account to which the credit can be applied.
 

A: Confirming your enrollment allows us to determine if your financial aid and cost of attendance should be adjusted based on your current enrollment. To locate the Confirm Your Enrollment Questionnaire:

1. Sign into howdy.tamu.edu.
2. Click on the Financial Aid Portal icon
3. Select the 2020-2021 Award Year from the drop-down menu
4. Under the Status Page, click on the Confirm Your Enrollment link
5. Do one of the following:
   • Confirm your enrollment if it is correct as it appears at the top of the page. Your financial aid will be adjusted, if needed, and your disbursement hold will be removed.
   • Confirm your current enrollment is not correct and will change. Your financial aid will remain on hold. After you have added more courses or changed your degree plan, you MUST return the following day to confirm your enrollment in order for your financial aid to disburse.

A: Students may only receive federal financial aid for eligible courses that count towards their program of study. If one or more of your courses are not ‘counting’ for federal aid this might mean that these courses are not listed on your degree evaluation that is on file with the Registrar. To add a course to your degree evaluation or confirm that the course is listed there, you must to contact your Academic Advisor. Your Academic Advisor can then submit changes to your degree evaluation to the Office of the Registrar. If the Registrar approves the change (which can take up to 2 weeks), the new plan will be communicated to our office, and your course(s) can begin ‘counting’.

If you’re not certain how to contact your advisor, you may find them here: http://uac.tamu.edu/advising/find-an-advisor

A: If you have changed your schedule and added or removed classes, our system may need time to register those changes. Many of our processes run overnight, so it is best to return to the Confirm Your Enrollment Questionnaire the following day after you make course adjustments. If you made adjustments that result in you becoming full-time with “courses that count” then the Questionnaire will clear overnight. Do not be alarmed if you return the following day and it is no longer a requirement.