March 27th is the first day you can register for your Summer classes and submit your JMU Summer School Financial Aid Application. The process of awarding financial aid for the Summer term will begin early May. You must:

• Have your 2023-24 FAFSA submitted prior to submitting your Summer aid application.
• Be registered for all of your Summer school classes prior to submitting your Summer school application.
• Return to www.jmu.edu/financialaid on or after March 27 to complete the JMU Summer School Financial Aid Application, which will be available on this website.

Summer aid funds will not be available until after you start your classes, so come prepared to cover your initial expenses. You should start summer school with enough money to cover all of your expenses as there are some cases where financial aid funds may not be available until your summer classes are over.

Refer to the Fiscal Year Shutdown section of our website for information regarding potential delays.

Receiving a Federal Pell Grant in the Summer 2023 term will not reduce your awards for the Fall 2023 and Spring 2024 terms. The exception to this is if you’ve reached your lifetime limit on receiving Federal Pell Grants. You can see more about this in the JMU Summer Financial Aid video. Taking Subsidized or Unsubsidized Direct Loan money in summer school will reduce your loan eligibility for the following Fall 2023 and Spring 2024 terms.

For example, a dependent student with 80 credit hours has an annual Direct Loan eligibility of $7,500. This means $7,500 is the most the student can receive between the Summer 2023, Fall 2023, and Spring 2024 terms. Therefore, any amount taken in summer will reduce fall and spring eligibility.

Yes. The JMU Summer School Financial Aid Application is required to determine a student's summer financial aid eligibility, and this includes private education loans; failure to submit the application may cause significant delays in the processing of your private loan certification. 

All students who apply for summer aid will have a registration hold placed on their account. You will not be able to adjust your summer school registration without first consulting the Office of Financial Aid & Scholarships.This hold will not impact your ability to register for the fall term. It only affects your ability to make changes to your summer registration.

This hold is being placed in order to protect you, as it necessitates a discussion with the Office of Financial Aid & Scholarships prior to changing your registration. This provides our office the opportunity to advise you of how the potential changes can impact your aid so you are not surprised with a bill later in the summer if/when aid is reduced.

As a result of the summer registration hold, you will need to speak with the Office of Financial Aid & Scholarships prior to the hold being removed so you can adjust your schedule. For this reason, it is important to have your summer registration finalized prior to submitting your JMU Summer School Financial Aid Application. Should you need the summer registration hold temporarily removed, please complete the Summer Course Change Request Form and we will notify you via JMU email once we process your request.

Please note: During peak registration times (drop/add), it may take a full business day before your hold is lifted. Any form received after 3PM (M-Th or 10AM on Friday) may not be processed until the following business day.

Per regulations, all loans must be processed by the end of the loan period. This means for undergraduate students, the deadline for processing loans for ANY session of summer school is August 9, 2023, which will allow processing by the last day of the summer term. For graduate students, the deadline for processing loans for ANY session of summer school is August 9, 2023, which will allow processing by the last day of the summer term.

Summer aid funds will not be available until after you start your classes, so be prepared to cover your initial expenses. If you are in a short-term program, you may have to cover all of your expenses prior to your financial aid refund being available. We strongly encourage you to sign up for direct deposit prior to your trip departure. If you do this, the University Business Office will deposit your refund (when available) into your bank account while you are away, giving you access to the funds as quickly as possible.