Freeze Dates

Students must be enrolled and attending at least half-time before they can receive a loan. However, because loans are now processed and disbursed differently with Direct Lending, hours added after the freeze date that bring the student to half-time enrollment can be used to determine loan eligibility at the time of disbursement.

In accordance with federal regulations, Clayton State University establishes a “freeze date” each semester to determine a student’s enrollment status for disbursing federal grants including the Federal Pell Grant and SEOG. Funds will only pay for courses that are required for your major and are added before the freeze date. Hours will be frozen at the end of the drop/add period. Students must be registered for all parts of term before the freeze date to receive federal grants for those classes. Federal grants will not be adjusted for classes added after hours have been frozen.

Students who are retroactively awarded federal aid (after the freeze date) will have hours frozen at the time the award is made and payment will be based on current enrollment at that time. Students who drop (not withdraw) a second session course will have their hours adjusted down. Students may not receive aid for a second session class for which they receive a 100% refund.

The freeze date applies only to federal grants. HOPE Scholarship, HOPE Grant, and ACCEL funds may be increased for additional classes when applicable.

Example 1 - Here’s an example of how the freeze date affects the amount of financial aid Bill received:

Bill Smith is receiving only federal grants. He started attending classes on January 11. Schedule adjustment period was January 11 through the 14. The financial aid freeze date occurred on January 15. Here is a history of when he enrolled in the courses:

As you can see, Bill is taking a total of 12 credits in the spring and he will be charged for 12 credits. However, his federal grant received is based on 9 credits and not 12, since this was the number of credits in which he was enrolled on the financial aid freeze date of January 15.

Example 2 - Here's an example of how the freeze date affects the amount of financial aid Mary received.

Mary Jones is receiving both federal grants and HOPE Scholarship. She started attending classes on January 11. Schedule adjustment period was January 11 through the 14. The financial aid freeze date occurred on January 15. Here is a history of when she enrolled in the courses:

As you can see, Mary is taking a total of 12 credits in the spring and she will be charged for 12 credits. Her federal grants received is based on 9 credits since this was the number of credits in which she was enrolled on the financial aid freeze date of January 15. However, because HOPE Scholarship is not a federal fund, Mary can receive HOPE Scholarship for 12 credit hours. (Mary may need to contact the Financial Aid Office or the Bursar’s Office in order to have those HOPE Scholarship funds applied since she is no longer able to click on “How Much Do I Owe” herself.) Please note that Mary’s federal grants such as Pell, SEOG, etc. is still paid based on 9 credit hours.