The Office of Financial Aid can offer eligible students certain types of aid during the summer term. Below are important items you need to know about summer aid:
1. Apply for Aid
- Summer Term 2026 aid requires a 2026-27 FAFSA application as summer is the start of the new school year for financial aid purposes.
- Students will receive a 2026-27 financial aid offer based on their FAFSA information. However, the offer will only include fall, winter, and spring terms by default. After receiving a 2026-27 aid offer, students must update their expected enrollment level on the Offer tab of their OSU Financial Aid Self-Service Portal.
- After receiving a student's updated enrollment information and being able to confirm they have registered for summer term classes, the Office of Financial Aid will update their aid offer to include the summer term. Processing will likely start in mid-May. After processing begins, newly submitted forms will typically take up to two weeks.
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2. Aid May Be Limited
Summer financial aid is limited due to funding constraints and loan program limits.
- Students expecting to attend for four terms can anticipate their federal student loan funds to be redistributed over the four terms of enrollment. Full-time annual loan limits remain the same regardless of the number of terms you attend.
- Students awarded Federal Work-Study and enrolled half-time or more in the summer term may begin working after July 1.
- Students eligible for the Federal Pell Grant may receive these funds for all four terms including summer.
- Tuition and fees for summer term may be found on the OSU Finance and Administration Budget and Resource Planning webpage.
3. Enrollment Requirements for Aid
Enrollment levels are NOT different in summer.
| Enrollment Level | Undergraduate or Post-Bacc | Graduate or Professional |
|---|---|---|
| Full-Time | 12 or more credits | 9 or more credits |
| Three-Quarter Time | 9-11 credits | N/A |
| Half-Time | 6-8 credits | 5-8 credits |
| Less Than Half-Time | 1-5 credits | 1-4 credits |
4. Changes in Enrollment
- During the summer term, the Census Date coincides with the last date students can add a course in session one.
- Dropping courses after the summer Census Date may result in a reversal of the Pell Grant. Students must participate in all their courses to earn federal financial aid for that term. If students drop a course before that course began or if we are unable to verify your participation in a course, we are required to reverse and return any Pell Grant payments made for that course to the U.S. Department of Education. This reversal of aid may create a new bill on students’ OSU account.
- Students are paid federal financial aid based on all the sessions (entire payment period) they are registered for at the time of aid disbursement. If they do not complete all those sessions, a return of federal funds may be required.
- Students must monitor their OSU student email throughout the summer. If they drop, withdraw from, or do not fully complete the current sessions, students may be considered withdrawn from the term, even if they are still enrolled in a future session. In this case, we may email a student to request confirmation of intent to participate in future sessions.
- If students do not reply to that email, a return of federal aid may be required.
5. Summer Aid Disbursements
- Summer term disbursements of some types of financial aid will begin shortly before the start of Session 1.
- SEOG and many scholarships awarded for summer cannot be disbursed until the beginning of the new fiscal year on July 1st.
- Remember, textbooks cannot be charged to OSU student accounts. Proper planning for textbook purchases before the disbursement of financial aid is strongly encouraged.