During the fall and spring terms, half-time is considered 6 hours for undergraduates and 5 hours for graduates. During the summer term, the Provost has determined that 6 hours will be considered full-time and 3 hours will be considered half-time.
If you register during early registration, you are required to pay all charges on your account by the Bursar Office's due date unless you have anticipated aid. If your anticipated aid is not enough to cover all of your charges, you need to pay the difference by the due date. If you register during drop/add registration, you usually have 72 hours to settle your account. Please contact the Bursar's Office at 502-597-6278 or at bursarmail@kysu.edu for your due date.
Financial Aid from most federal and state aid programs is based on a student's enrollment as of the census date each semester. For fall and spring, the census date is the day following the last day to drop at 100% tuition credit. Waitlisted courses are not included in a students enrolled hours. After the published census date, aid adjustments are made for the term, and no other adjustments will be made for subsequent enrollment changes. Exceptions are listed under the Pell Grant heading in Section 5. To ensure proper posting of your financial aid awards, please be sure you are registered for the correct number of hours as of the census date. There are no exceptions to the census date rule, especially for the Federal Pell Grant. In addition, if you are enrolled in courses during the fall and spring term and the classes starts later than the regular schedule term start date (for example, you are enrolled in a special or second-half course) your financial aid will not be disbursed to your account until you begin attendance in at least one class.
Most financial aid awards credit to your student account at the Bursar's Office in the following order: 1. All grants, 2. External scholarships, 3. Institutional scholarships, 4. Federal and Alternative Loans. Disbursement of Federal Work-Study funds will be by check payable to you or by direct deposit into your bank account. Federal Work-Study funds will be disbursed on a bi-monthly payroll basis for the hours submitted on your timesheet once you have been properly set up on payroll. Outside scholarship checks may require your endorsement before they can be applied to your account. Alternative loans may or may not require endorsement before being applied to your account. You will receive notification either way from the Office of the Bursar or the Cashier's Office indicating your check is available for your endorsement, the funds have been applied to your student account, or when a check is available for pick-up in the Bursar's Office.
If you have accepted a federal loan, you will need to follow the procedures outlined online on the Loans Programs page.
In all cases, you are responsible for paying the balance due after financial aid has been disbursed. Disbursed financial aid that exceeds your balance owed to the university is considered excess funds (residual funds). Residual funds that include an institutional scholarship will be adjusted as institutional scholarships cannot generate a refund to you. KSU has contracted with a company, HigherOne, to handle all student refund services. If you are a new student, you will receive a mailing from KSU and HigherOne outlining the steps necessary to process your refund. This will include a debit card that you will need to activate your account. You must select an option for receipt of your excess funds. The options are to transfer excess funds to your bank account, to a free HigherOne account or to receive a paper check. For more on HigherOne, visit the Bursar's Office webpage.
If your award is for more than one semester, you will likely be issued your aid at the beginning of each semester after the University's Census date. Your award notification shows the amounts that will be disbursed to you each semester.