Once you are awarded aid, we’ll send you notification via email. Your award information is also instantly available online in your SOS account. Please note: Award information in SOS is based on full-time enrollment, i.e., being enrolled and attending 12 credit hours. If your enrollment changes, your refund will change as well.
If you're awarded prior to payment deadlines, tuition and fees may be charged directly to Grants, Direct Loans and some scholarships, up to your eligibility.
If you have financial aid remaining after tuition and fees have been deducted, you can charge your books and supplies on a schedule posted at the San Jac Bookstores. There is a 24-48 hour delay before those funds will be available in the bookstore account.
After all charges (including tuition, fees, books, and supplies) have been paid, or if your financial aid is posted after registration has ended, a refund will be sent to your San Jac Card.
When taking Part of Term (POT) classes, financial aid funds are authorized to cover charges until these classes begin. Once the POT classes begin, any financial aid fund balances are then processed for refund to your San Jac Card. In other words, refunds from POT classes can fall on different schedules than anticipated and/or be delayed until the start date of your future period of enrollment.
SJC has changed from a single disbursement to five disbursements per term for all students. As a reminder, authorized aid is available to charge tuition, fees, books, and supplies against. A disbursement is aid paid to your account. A refund is sent to your San Jac Card or bank account after all charges have been paid.
Please note: Students who are considered transient students are not eligible for aid with SJC. For example, if you are working towards a degree with another school and attend there in the fall and spring terms and only attend SJC in the summer for transfer, you are not eligible for an award with SJC.
Check your Scheduled Disbursement and Account Summary by Term to see the status of your account. You can access your financial aid information at any time.
Your enrollment status is determined by the number of semester hours you’re taking at San Jacinto College for a given semester. These hours exclude audit courses, transfer work, credit by exam, and Continuing and Professional Development classes.
| Full-time | 12 or more hours |
| Three-quarter time | 9-11 hours |
| Half-time | 6-8 hours |
| Less than half-time | 1-5 hours |
Pell Grants are based on full-time enrollment and are reduced if you’re taking fewer hours. If you enrolled full-time during the Fall and Spring terms, you may have Pell eligibility remaining for the summer term.
SEOG and TPEG awards require at least six hours.
TEOG requires at least six hours and adjusts based on your enrollment status.
Direct Loans require you to be enrolled and attending six credit hours or more. If you are registered for parts of term, your loan will not disburse until you reach six credit hours. If you received the maximum loans during the Fall and Spring terms, additional loans are not available unless you advanced a grade level.
Grants and Direct Loans may only pay for one repeat class if it was passed with a grade of D or better.
San Jacinto College reviews attendance after the census and middle of the semester. If you fail to attend any class meetings as of the census date, you will lose your Financial Aid eligibility for those classes. If you stop attending prior to the 60 percent point of the semester, you will lose part or all of your Financial Aid eligibility. If you manage to be successful for those classes, you can receive a retroactive disbursement at the end of the term for the classes in question. Otherwise, you will have to enroll in classes that start in later parts of term within the same semester to regain your Financial Aid eligibility.
You are required to attend your classes and complete your assignments, including assignments in Blackboard for online classes, throughout the semester. If you fail to meet this requirement, you will have your aid adjusted.
Attendance for online/distance learning classes is defined by the U.S. Department of Education as participating in class or being engaged in an academically related activity, such as contributing to the class online discussion board. Documenting that you have logged into an online class is not sufficient, by itself, to demonstrate academic attendance.
Sometimes plans change. You might receive financial aid, register for a term and then decide not to attend. It happens. That’s why we have a withdrawal process in place, so you don’t incur any unnecessary expense.
If you should find yourself in this situation, formally withdraw yourself from your courses before classes begin. That way you won’t receive any unintended grades that could impact your GPA. What’s more, you won’t get hit with financial aid charges.
Keep in mind if you fail to successfully complete at least one class due to non-attendance this is still considered a withdrawal. We call this an unofficial withdrawal. Classes meeting this circumstance should have a grade of FX submitted from your instructor at the end of the term.
Remember, if you’re uncertain about any of this, ask someone in the Financial Aid Office. That’s why we’re here.
Let’s say you’re receiving federal financial aid, but you have to withdraw for some reason before the semester is up. Well, the law says if you didn’t complete 60% of the term, you have to pay money back. But we make the process easy for you. After you have officially withdrawn, we’ll recalculate your aid and notify you if you owe anything. This law applies to:
Pell Grants
Federal Supplemental Education Opportunity Grant (SEOG)
Subsidized and Unsubsidized Stafford Loans and Parent Loans for Undergraduate Studies (PLUS).
Keep in mind if you fail to successfully complete at least one class due to non-attendance this is still considered a withdrawal. We call this an unofficial withdrawal. Classes meeting this circumstance should have a grade of FX submitted from your instructor with a last date of attendance. After all grades are posted at the end of the term, we will complete a return calculation. If we cannot determine an official date when you stopped attending, we will use the mid-point of your enrollment period. We will notify you of any debts. Notifications are sent to you at the address on file with the college.
Debts owed to San Jacinto College for the current term will be deducted from available financial aid before any refunds are processed.
Previous term and prior-year debts are usually paid from personal resources before you can register for additional classes or future semesters, but there are some exceptions. Debts from previous terms within the current school year, including Return of Title IV funds, may be paid from your current financial aid award. Prior-year debts (or debts occurring outside of the current school year) and non-institutional charges may be paid from current award year funds with written permission. The college cannot use your current award to pay more than $200 of prior year debts and/or non-institutional charges.
Funds owed to San Jacinto College are subject to collection procedures and will incur a 30% collection fee.
If you owe the Department of Education, your eligibility to receive federal aid at any school will be lost until the debt is repaid or acceptable repayment arrangements are made with the National Payment Center of the Department of Education. San Jacinto College will assign any debt due to the Department of Education for processing.