Contact Financial Aid
Email: finaid@umgc.edu
Phone: 800-888-8682
Live phone support is available Monday–Friday, 8 a.m.–8 p.m. ET.
Urgent Requests:
Jay Tinsley, Assistant Vice President of Counseling, Financial Aid
Phone: 844-399-8682
Email: AsktheFADirector@umgc.edu
Find answers to frequently asked questions about financial aid.
These tips and frequently asked questions will help you navigate financial aid at University of Maryland Global Campus.
Tips for Current and New Students
Important factors regarding Federal loan funding:
- Enrollment: You must be enrolled in at least half-time status to be eligible for federal loan funding.
- Disbursements: Loan disbursements will be made no sooner than 10 days prior to the start of classes for the session in which you have reached half-time status.
- Federal Pell Grant updates: If you are eligible for a Federal Pell Grant, your grant award will be based on your active enrollment registration. Federal Pell Grants will be updated throughout the semester to reflect your enrollment.
FAQs: Financial Aid
The Financial Aid Office has loaded all 2025-2026 FAFSAs sent by the Department of Education. You can check if your 2025-2026 FAFSA was received in your MyUMGC Student portal. Continue to review the student portal for new information and to see if your FAFSA was received.
Due to the delay in FAFSA availability and receipt of processed FAFSA data, the processing timeline for financial aid awards has been impacted. We anticipate students will begin receiving financial aid offers in early/mid-May.
A review will occur within five to 10 business days after all of the items on your checklist have been completed.
Loan disbursements will be made no sooner than 10 days prior to the start of your active half-time enrollment for the semester. For example, you are an undergraduate student enrolled in two 3-credit courses. One class starts on August 22 and the other starts on October 24. Provided that all paperwork and checklist items have been completed, your loans should disburse 10 days prior to October 24, the official day that you become actively enrolled as a half-time student.
Your Federal Pell Grant will be updated throughout the semester, approximately a week after sessions begin. For example, you may find that your current Federal Pell Grant is based on half-time status, but you are registered full-time. Once your classes begin later in the semester, we will update your Federal Pell Grant to reflect your active enrollment status.
Federal Pell Grant disbursements occur about a week or two after the start of your class. Federal Pell Grant disbursements will automatically calculate after your classes have started to match your active enrollment.
For example, if you are awarded a Federal Pell Grant for half-time status and you are enrolled in one 3-credit class that begins on August 22 and a second 3-credit class that begins on September 12, your Federal Pell Grant will be calculated after the start of the August 22 class and 3 credits worth of funds will be disbursed. After the September 12 class begins, your Federal Pell Grant will be recalculated and another 3 credits worth of funds will be disbursed.
When students are selected for verification, the university is required to verify that the information on their Free Application for Federal Student Aid application matches their income tax, financial, and other household information. Please respond to any request on your MyUMGC to-do list in a timely manner. Read more information about UMGC’s Title IV verification policy.
Book vouchers are available; however, be advised that many UMGC courses will not require you to purchase books or other materials. Please check your class syllabi for information specific to your courses. Book voucher requests cannot be canceled. If you request a book voucher and only use a portion of the funds, UMGC must wait until the end of the semester to reconcile your account and refund the unused funds to you. You can apply for a book allowance using the Book Voucher Request, accessible from Finances in MyUMGC.
Once your financial aid disburses to your account and pays any outstanding tuition or fees, any funds in excess of your charges will be refunded to you. Financial aid credit balance refunds are subject to review by UMGC. Eligible refunds will be processed in accordance with Title IV regulations. Read more about refunds.
UMGC reviews all student records to determine who is eligible to apply for a scholarship and then invites those students to apply through a To Do in MyUMGC. Learn more about UMGC's eligibility requirements for scholarships.
Scholarship awarding will begin after the July 15 priority filing deadline and continue through the summer until all funds are exhausted. Please remember that applying for a scholarship does not guarantee you will receive one. If you are awarded a scholarship, you will receive a congratulatory letter via e-mail after you are awarded. All applicants will receive notification of the awarding decision by September 1.
For most Maryland Higher Education Commission scholarships and/or grants, the funds will disburse to your account on the first disbursement date after the start date of the course that fulfills the enrollment requirement for your award. For example, if you are an undergraduate student who receives a grant that requires full-time enrollment, and three of your courses (9 credits) begin on September 1, but your fourth course (3 credits) doesn’t begin until October 1, your grant will disburse on the first disbursement date after October 1.
Federal student aid is awarded under the assumption that you will be enrolled for a specified period of time, such as a semester, and successfully complete all of your scheduled classes. When you receive these funds but do not enroll or complete all of your classes as expected, the Financial Aid Office is required to determine your last day of participation and calculate the earned portion of the financial aid awarded to you. Read more about UMGC's R2T4 policy.
If you may be graduating at the end of the summer or fall semester, please contact Graduation Services to have your graduation date updated. Once the date is updated, you may submit a case through the Help Center to alert the Financial Aid Office of this recent update. We will then review your account and eligibility for aid.