The process of awarding financial aid for the Summer term will begin early May. You must:

• Have the new academic years FAFSA submitted prior to submitting your Summer aid application.
• Be registered for all of your Summer term classes prior to submitting your Summer aid application.
• Return to JMU Financial Aid on or after the start of Summer class enrollment to complete the JMU Summer Financial Aid Application, which will be available on this website.

After May 15^th, the average turnaround time from submission of your application to receiving the award notification is generally a week, excluding holidays.

If you are not meeting Satisfactory Academic Progress (SAP) or are selected for Verification, this can delay receipt of your financial aid award for the summer term. Be sure to check your To Do List in MyMadison and your dukes.jmu.edu email for timely notifications.

Summer aid funds will not be available until after you start your classes, so come prepared to cover your initial expenses. You should start the summer term 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.

It is possible for some students’ disbursements and refunds to be delayed until after JMU’s Fiscal Year Shutdown, which occurs from around the middle of June until shortly after July 1. No disbursements occur during this shutdown period.

Please note Federal Pell Grants will not be available until after July 1. Pell Grant eligibility will be based on enrollment as of July 1.

Receiving a Federal Pell Grant in the Summer term will not reduce your awards for the Fall and Spring 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 term will reduce your loan eligibility for the following Fall and Spring 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, Fall, and Spring terms. Therefore, any amount taken in summer will reduce fall and spring eligibility.

Yes. The JMU Summer 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 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 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. The deadlines to accept aid below apply for ANY session for the summer term and allow for processing by the last day of the summer term.

Undergraduate students

• Student loans: August 14, 2025
• Parent PLUS Loan Application: August 13, 2025

Graduate students

• Unsubsidized loans: August 14, 2025
• Graduate PLUS Loan Application: August 13, 2025

Summer aid funds will not be available until after you start your classes. Depending on the type of program you are attending, please see further information below:

JMU Short Term Programs: Your JMU bill will include tuition and fees, along with the program fee associated with your study abroad program. Any accepted anticipated aid will be used to pay towards these charges. Any charges/expenses outside of these items will need to be paid upfront, and your financial aid refund can be used as a reimbursement for these upfront costs.

External Study Abroad Programs: Payment will not be sent from JMU to the student’s host institution. There are several items that must be completed to receive financial aid. Once these items are completed, the financial aid funds will be disbursed and refunded to the student and/or the student’s parents after they have started classes at the host institution. These funds can be used to pay any charges with the host institution.

For any additional questions, please contact FinAid-Grants@jmu.edu.