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Financial Aid Payments

We apply financial aid (scholarships, grants and loans) equally across the fall and spring terms unless the scholarship donor specifies a certain term.

Financial aid funds, including outside scholarships, will pay toward student account charges the week before classes start (Aid Disbursement Schedule) If an outside scholarship payment is received after classes start, it will be posted toward charges when it is received.

Please follow the steps below to make sure you have been approved for and accepted financial aid:

  • Log in to your ConnectCarolina Student Center pages and click on your “Financial Aid” tab. If additional information and/or documents are required from you before your financial aid eligibility can be determined and an award made, these requirements will be displayed under your “To-Do” list.
  • Click each “to-do” item listed and follow the instructions provided for each item. Learn how to take action on your loans.

Extend Due Date

Students expecting financial aid, departmental funding or other third-party support may defer the due date of the first bill of the semester to allow time for the funding to disburse to the student account.

A deferment must be submitted after the July bill for Fall and the December bill for Spring is generated, and there are no additional deferments after the original deferment period ends.

This option is only available to students!

To DEFER your bill once you receive an email about the billing statement:

  1. Log in to ConnectCarolina and click on the Student Center tile.
  2. In the Student Financials section, look for Other Financial, and then select Request Deferment from the drop down box.
  3. Click/check the box for Financial Aid Deferment AND the Statement of Understanding and then click submit.
  4. There will be a confirmation screen after you hit submit, click OK. You must request the deferment before the due date on the billing statement.
    • The new due date will be displayed under Charges/Bills in the Student Financials drop down list section of the Student Center.
    • Once the new due date is less than 30 days away, the balance will show as DUE NOW instead of FUTURE DUE.

Please note: Campus Health charges, library fines, and charges from a prior semester cannot be deferred.

Applying Aid to Other Charges

Federal Financial Aid is subject to strict guidelines as described below.  This aid is intended to pay current tuition, fees, and certain other costs of attendance.  Students must explicitly grant permission for the Cashier’s Office to apply federal financial aid to these other charges, like campus health charges, library fines, etc.

Instructions: Log in to the Student Center through Self Service in ConnectCarolina, select “View Permissions” from the drop-down menu in the Student Financials section. Click on “Grant Permission” then follow the instructions.

Title IV Federal Financial Aid Restrictions

The U.S. Department of Education (DOE) requires all institutions to follow certain guidelines if a student’s Title IV funds create a credit on the student’s Cashier’s account. Title IV funds include Federal Pell Grants, Federal Supplemental Educational Opportunity Grants, Federal Direct Subsidized Loans, Federal Direct Unsubsidized Loans, Federal Perkins Loans and Federal Grad PLUS loans.  When a school applies Title IV funds to a student’s account and determines that the amount of funds exceeds the charges for that term, the school must pay the credit balance directly to the student (or to the parent if it is a PLUS Loan) if Title IV funds create a credit.

Federal student financial aid can only cover “institutional charges” as defined by the DOE. This definition includes current year charges for tuition and fees, as well as on-campus room and board. Unless authorization is received, federal financial aid cannot be used to cover non-institutional charges such as: Campus Health charges, library fines, damage fees, returned check fees, lost key fees or any other charges not directly tied to taking a class. In addition, institutions are allowed to apply up to, but no more than $200 of current year federal financial aid to prior year allowable charges. While UNC-Chapel Hill reserves the right to do this, students should be aware that this is a manual exception process and is not done automatically.

Students receiving funding from sources outside of the University (i.e. entities other than the Office of Scholarships & Student Aid (OSSA), University Departments and the North Carolina State Education Assistance Authority (NCSEAA) should complete the Outside Scholarships & Resources Reporting Form and return it to OSSA. The Scholarship Provider should make check(s) payable to UNC-Chapel Hill, and send them to the mailing address below. Please include the student’s full name and UNC-Chapel Hill PID, the full name of the scholarship and the terms to which the funds should be applied. If the check is made co-payable to a student and UNC-Chapel Hill, then the student will be required to endorse the check in our office before the funds can be applied to the student’s account.

Mailing Address

Outside Scholarships
c/o University Cashier’s Office
450 Ridge Road
Suite 2215, Campus Box 1400
Chapel Hill, NC 27599