The Census Date is the point at which your enrollment is locked for financial aid purposes. During the fall, winter, and spring terms, the census coincides with the last date you can drop classes for a full tuition refund at OSU. At this point in the term, credit hours are locked and financial aid for the term is adjusted to reflect the student's official enrolled credits.
For example, if the student received aid at the beginning of the term based on full-time enrollment and then dropped credits, aid is then revised to match their eligibility based on the number of credits enrolled in as of the Census Date and types of aid that were awarded.
If a student withdraws from all courses after the census date, further aid adjustments may be required.
Census Dates
2024-2025 Financial Aid Year:
| Term | Date |
|---|---|
| Summer 2024 | Friday, July 5th |
| Fall 2024 | Sunday, October 6th |
| Winter 2025 | Sunday, January 12th |
| Spring 2025 | Sunday, April 6th |
2023-2024 Financial Aid Year:
| Term | Date |
|---|---|
| Summer 2023 | Friday, July 7th |
| Fall 2023 | Sunday, October 8th |
| Winter 2024 | Sunday, January 14th |
| Spring 2024 | Sunday, April 7th |
During the summer term, the census coincides with the last date you can add courses in session one. Dropping courses after the summer Census Date may result in a reversal of your Pell Grant. You must participate all of your courses in order to earn the federal financial aid that is disbursed for that term. If you drop a course before that course began or if we are unable to verify your participation in a course, we are required to reverse any Pell Grant payments made for that course. Reversed Pell will be returned to the Department of Education. This reversal of aid may create a new bill on your OSU student billing account.
Credits added after the Census Date cannot be used towards Pell Grant and Oregon Opportunity Grant eligibility. There is an appeal process for cases where there was an administrative error or exceptional circumstance that prevented the student from being enrolled by the Census Date. Students should contact the Office of Financial Aid if they wish to pursue a Census Appeal.
If loans were reduced or canceled based on the census enrollment level, students may submit an Enrollment Revision Form to request the loans be restored based on the added credits.
A student whose Census Date enrollment is less-than-half-time is not eligible for any federal student loans. In this case, the entire loan amount for the term must be returned to the Department of Education. The return of loan funds may create an outstanding balance on a student's OSU account, but also reduces the outstanding principal balance of the student loan.
There are 4 main reasons why credits may be excluded from counting toward your aid eligibility:
- Graduate-level credits are not counted for Undergraduate federal financial aid eligibility. An exception is made for cases where your academic advisor has contacted the Office of Financial Aid to verify that those graduate-level credits will be counting towards your undergraduate degree.
- Federal aid may only be used to repeat a course one time after a passing grade (D- or better) is received. We are unable to make exceptions even in cases where the grade earned does not meet departmental requirements.
- In the Degree Partnership Program, credits are only aid eligible at OSU if they transfer to OSU and count towards your bachelor’s degree. For example, courses such as Life Skills and Welding will not count for financial aid purposes, because OSU does count these courses in any of our degree programs.
- For students in an aid-eligible certificate program, only courses that are required for the certificate program can be counted towards your enrollment status for aid purposes. Any other coursework must be excluded.
If a student drops all OSU courses before the census date, they will lose all financial aid eligibility at OSU for that term. This full reversal of aid will take place even if a student continues to be enrolled at their partner school.