Dear Students,Please be aware that classes begin one week later this year than in years past. This means that classes won’t begin until February 2, and as a result, financial aid refund checks will not be released to you until on or after February 2. Federal regulations prohibit us from releasing any financial aid to you until after the first official day of classes.

We understand that this may present a hardship for you as you plan to pay your expenses for January and February. We wanted to notify you of this now, so you can plan accordingly.

Some things for you to be aware of as you budget yourself in the coming
months:

1. If you take a winter (J-Term ) class, your funds will be released to you at the beginning of your J-Term course, not in February. Because we do not have a formal Winter semester, the J-Term courses are considered, for financial aid purposes, as an early start to the Spring semester. Therefore, provided that you register for all of your Spring courses, as well as the J-term course, we are able to release all of your spring aid to you in early January. In most cases, you will not be billed additional tuition for a J-Term course, unless there are additional program fees (i.e. flights, room deposits, etc.) If for any reason, you do not want your Spring aid disbursed early, please notify us in writing
(finaid@miis.edu) if you have not already done so.

2. If you do not take a J-Term class and you are worried about paying rent for January and/or February, please come see us in the financial aid office. We can review your file with you to see if any additional aid can be released for you during the Fall semester. We also have a “Landlord Letter” that we can write for you to give to your landlord, which explains the availability of your financial aid, as well as the date your refund check will be made available to you.

We are happy to work with you so that you do not need to worry about money. Please come see us so we can review your options with you.

Sincerely,
Regina, Rafael, and Jennifer
Office of Student Financial Planning