Semester Disbursement and Refunds
For the Spring 2025 semester, financial aid, which includes student loans, cannot be disbursed to a student’s account until the college can confirm enrollment for the semester. This is a Federal/State financial aid requirement. The reason behind this requirement is that certain aid eligibility is based on the number of courses/units a student is registered for during the semester. Therefore, we must wait until after the Add/Drop period for course adjustments has ended and the Spring semester schedules are finalized before we can disburse aid. We anticipate this process will take place on or around February 19, 2025.
After the aid has been disbursed to the student’s account and the term bill has been paid, the Office of Student Accounts will process any credits on the account as a refund. Traditionally, it takes 14 days for the College to process a refund. For questions on the refund process or about direct deposit information, please visit the Student Accounts website: https://studentaccounts.tcnj.edu/
Newly Admitted Fall 2025/Spring 2026 students:
Estimated financial aid award notifications will go out at the end of March 2025. Once awards are available for review, notices will be sent to the email address used by the student on the Common Application.
Please continue to monitor this website for further updates.
2025/2026 Official Award Notifications
Official financial aid award emails for the 2025/2026 academic year are sent to your TCNJ email address starting in July of 2025. Only complete FAFSA records will receive a notification. You will be able to log into PAWS at that time and view your 2025 Fall and 2026 Spring financial aid. Please make sure your FAFSA is completed as soon as possible and that there are no outstanding items on your To Do list in PAWS.
Fall bills will be sent by the Student Accounts Office in July as well, please reach out to that office with all your billing/payment questions.
2025/2026 General FAFSA Information
The FAFSA, available on December 1, 2024, has undergone changes and updates. You can read more about the changes here: General FAFSA Information
Incomplete Files/Missing Documents
We highly recommend students monitor their “To Do” list in PAWS on a weekly basis for any missing documentation. When submitting documents to the office, please make sure that they are legible, accurate, and signed (if required) and that all requested pages are submitted. Incomplete documentation will result in delays in processing your aid. Any/all requested documents will have instructions for submission.
