Federal Regulations prohibit the disbursement of Federal Student Aid to occur any earlier than 10 days prior to the start of the semester. Due to a separation of duties, once Financial Aid has disbursed the aid to Student Accounts, Student Accounts will undertake the process of issuing refund checks to students who have a credit balance. Students who have a credit balance on their account for living expenses will receive a refund within 14 days of financial aid being applied to their student account.