Higher Ed Utah

There’s no doubt that getting the financial aid you applied for isn’t as quick and easy as withdrawing money from an ATM. Schools receive loan requests from hundreds, if not thousands of students at about the same time each semester. Normally, it takes up to three days after a lender sends the money for a school to receive the funds. In addition, it may take the school a few days to process the transaction and credit the funds to your account.

However, that doesn’t mean that you should have to wait any longer than necessary. Here are some things you can do to speed up the process once you’ve applied for financial aid:

• Check with your school to see if there are any holds on your student account and resolve them. Your school could hold your financial aid in limbo up to the last second and sometimes longer if you fail to resolve these issues.
• Pay any outstanding fines or fees. Even a parking ticket could cause delays.
• Be enrolled at least half-time (a minimum of 6 credit hours). You must be enrolled in school at least half-time in order to be eligible to receive federal financial aid. So don’t wait until the last minute to register for classes.