Student Financial Services

Financial Aid & Overpayment Refunds

Refunds happen when the total amount of financial aid accepted and paid is greater than the amount billed resulting in a credit balance, or overpayment, or when UVM reduces or removes a charge after your bill has been paid.

Financial Aid Recipients

Refunds are common and typically happen when a student uses their financial aid to pay for indirect costs - items which do not appear on the bill (like books and off-campus housing). Financial aid offers are based on the total cost of attendance, which includes indirect costs. Financial aid, which includes federal, state, UVM, and outside loans, grants, and scholarships are first used to pay student account charges. To be eligible for a refund, all financial aid requirements must be complete and your actual enrollment must match the expected enrollment your financial aid offer is based upon.

Refund Procedure

For Actively Enrolled Students

All funds paid to the student account will be considered paid to support the student's enrollment at UVM. Any refund, or overpayment, will be issued to the direct deposit account on file. All enrolled students are required to enroll in direct deposit.

Two Exclusions Apply:

Federal Direct Parent PLUS Loan

Refunds will be made payable to the parent PLUS loan borrower (up to the amount of the PLUS loan), unless the parent authorized the refund to be issued to the student. This authorization is provided when the parent applies for a PLUS loan. Parent PLUS loan refunds are mailed to the parent borrower using the address submitted on the PLUS loan application. A parent PLUS loan borrower who wishes to change their decision allowing the refund to be issued via direct deposit should email SFS.

Credit Card Refunds

When charges that were paid by credit card have been waived/reversed/removed within 6 months from the date of payment, any resulting refund will be issued back to the credit card that was used for payment.

For Students No Longer Enrolled or Dropped to Part-Time

When a student drops some or all courses, or is no longer attending UVM due to withdrawal, leave of absence, dismissal, etc., tuition and fee adjustments are calculated using UVM's tuition refund schedule based on UVM's refund and bill adjustment policy.

UVM must return unearned federal aid and/or Active Duty/Veteran funds according to federal aid rules. Funds are earned proportionally during an enrollment period, with unearned funds returned based on the date a student stops attending.

Our office will attempt to refund personal payments back to the payer, but scholarships and third-party payments may need to be returned to the provider. We will attempt to return payments to the original payer when sufficient contact information is available. If we are unable to determine who the funds should be returned to, we will issue the refund to the direct deposit account on file. We do not return funds to a 529 plan directly.

Refund Timing

Refunds are not issued until financial aid disbursement has occurred and other forms of payment have been deposited and the funds have cleared. Federal aid disburses, or pays, no sooner than 10 days before the first day of classes each term.

For summer, this is 10 days before the student's first registered class.
For students studying abroad, this is 10 days prior to UVM's term start date, or the start date of their program abroad, whichever begins later.

We will not issue refunds any earlier than 10 days prior to the first day of classes, regardless of financial aid/payment sources. Typically, refunds are available once classes begin. For most of the term, our office processes refunds weekly. Some credit balances may require additional review, which may result in additional processing time.

Additional information for Larner College of Medicine Students

For medical students eligible to receive a refund, view the timing of refunds (provided all requested information has been submitted and reviewed).

Refund Methods

Direct Deposit Enrollment

Direct deposit enrollment is required. The bank account used for direct deposit can be any standard U.S. bank account/credit union account (checking or savings). The account owner can be the student or a parent/guardian/proxy. A strategy that has worked well for many families is to open a joint checking account between the student and parent/guardian/proxy and use this account for direct deposit. You may want to consult an advisor as to the effects of creating a joint account.

Current Student

Note: Direct deposit for payroll (positions held at UVM) are separate from direct deposits for refunds and UVM Human Resources should be contacted with any questions at 802-656-3150.

Former Student or Alumni

To set up direct deposit, students should have their bank account information handy (account and routing numbers), and set it up through their myUVM portal. Once logged in, students should select 'view account and billing activity' (found on the Student Account card). Once in the Student Information System, select 'Return to Account and Billing Information Menu' (found on the top right). Then on the Account and Billing Information Menu, select 'Set Up Direct Deposit for Student Refund'.

Refund by Mailed Check

When the refund procedure requires refunds to be issued to the payer on the account, a third party, or the Parent PLUS loan borrower, the refund will be issued by check and mailed. For parent PLUS loans, checks are issued to the borrower using the address submitted on the PLUS loan application. Checks are printed once a week, on Thursdays.

FAQs

I don't receive financial aid, do I need to set up direct deposit?

Yes! There are many instances where a non-aid student would still receive a refund, like for residential life adjustments or when courses are changed and a course fee is refunded. All enrolled UVM students are expected to enroll in direct deposit.

What if I don't have a bank account?

If you do not have a domestic U.S. bank account, please contact us.

Why haven't I received my refund?

There may be several reasons why you may not have received a refund yet:

You have not enrolled in direct deposit or there is a problem with your direct deposit account. Note: You would receive an email from us if we attempted to refund to your direct deposit account and it rejected.
You are not eligible for a refund because you still owe a balance on your student account.
Your financial aid has not been processed or paid to your student account. Make sure you complete any outstanding tasks, accept and/or decline your aid offers, complete any loan requirements, or take other steps to secure aid.
Our office has not received payment of your outside scholarship. Please confirm that your scholarship organization does not need a billing statement or copy of your transcript/proof of enrollment or other documentation to release the payment. Learn more about submitting an outside scholarship check.
Your refund via direct deposit may be in process. When we set up the refund, it can take 3-5 business days to be processed and direct deposited. Please monitor your bank account.

If none of the above reasons apply, and your account has a credit balance (overpayment), please allow our office 2 weeks for processing before contacting us.

I was issued a refund, so why do I still have a balance?

There are several reasons why students may be issued a refund and still have a balance on their student account. Students are responsible for paying any additional balance on their student account after receiving a refund.

Some types of aid can only be used to pay for certain types of charges. So you could receive a refund even if you have outstanding charges on your student account from the current term or a previous term.
Billing activity (registering for additional classes, newly incurred fees, or loss of aid) after your refund was issued.

Can my credit balance be applied towards a future semester?

If you have a credit balance that you would like held on your account for future semesters, please send an email from your UVM email account to request. You will receive an email response once your account has been updated to reflect your request.

How do refunds work when I have a monthly payment plan?

If the monthly plan payment, in combination with other resources, creates an overpayment on your student account, Student Financial Services will cancel the remainder of the payment plan and refund the credit balance to prevent continued overpayments to the student account.

Why did I receive my refund through Flywire?

Refunds will be returned through Flywire when the refund is a result of overpayment made via Flywire and the student has not set up direct deposit.

Unique Individual Circumstances / Variations to Procedure

There are multiple ways for a student's account to have a credit balance, some of which cannot be addressed in a broad procedure. The University reserves the right in its discretion to make different refund decisions from the procedure outlined above. By way of example only, if the refund is substantial or the University reasonably suspects money laundering or fraud, it may deviate from the procedures, or when other circumstances warrant using a different process in our professional opinion. The procedure we use in connection with refunds is also subject to applicable law and may be impacted by scholarship requirements.