How Aid is Disbursed
Financial Aid is awarded and disbursed on a term-by-term basis. Students should expect one disbursement per term for each of their financial aid funds awarded for the academic year.
Any charges for which you are billed by Elmhurst University and are responsible for paying (tuition, fees, room and board, etc.) are reflected on your student account, which is accessible via TouchNet on the My Elmhurst Campus Portal. These charges can be paid in multiple ways, including through the use of financial aid.
If you are using financial aid to cover a portion of your balance, anticipated aid credits may be included on your bill. You can use these anticipated aid credits to determine how much you owe the University beyond financial aid. Depending upon your financial aid package, these anticipated aid credits can include:
- Institutional scholarship or grant aid
- Federal or state grant aid
- Federal or private student loan funds you are expected to receive for that term
- Outside scholarship funds that have been received and processed by the Office of Student Financial Services
The anticipated aid credits are automatically removed from your account when our office receives the actual aid funds.
After accounting for credits from financial aid or any credits from a previous term, your bill will indicate a remaining balance due for the term, and you will need to pay that balance directly to the Office of Student Financial Services. You are responsible for ensuring that your balance is paid in full by the due date stated on your bill.
If you are using financial aid, the funds will generally be disbursed to your student account. Disbursement refers to the paying out of scholarship, grant or loan aid.
Aid Applied to your Student Account
Some financial aid is disbursed directly to your student account in order to cover your charges, including:
Federal Title IV financial aid is disbursed directly to your student account and is automatically applied to certain charges on your account. These include charges for tuition, allowable fees, and room and board.
Other charges on your student account, which can include library fines, parking fines, room damage charges, and health service fees, may be covered by Federal Title IV financial aid if you authorize the University to use this aid to pay for all charges billed to your account. You may also limit your Title IV payments to tuition, allowable fees, and room and board charges. You can change this authorization at any time by notifying Student Financial Services.
All institutional scholarship and grant aid from Elmhurst University is disbursed directly to your student account.
You are required to forward outside scholarship checks to our office so that funds can be disbursed directly to your student account.
State of Illinois financial aid assistance, including the Illinois MAP Grant, is disbursed directly to your student account and is automatically applied to tuition and mandatory fees for undergraduate students. Eligibility for the Illinois MAP grant may reduce eligibility for other tuition-based awards.
Private student loans that are certified by our office with your lender are always disbursed directly to your student account.
If disbursement of the loan is received in a paper check made co-payable to the University and you as the student, you will be notified via email to come to SFS to endorse the check before it can be applied directly to your account.