Because summer session has a variety of course lengths and occurs at the end of the academic calendar year, summer financial aid has unique eligibility requirements.
Review the information below to learn more about summer financial aid.
Summer Financial Aid
Types of aid
Please speak with a financial aid counselor to find out what you might be eligible for or review the eligibility section on this page for more information
Students have a limited amount of Federal Direct Subsidized or Unsubsidized loan eligibility that they can borrow within each academic year. If a student has not used all of their annual loan eligibility in the fall or spring terms, then they may have some remaining loan eligibility for summer.
If a student has exhausted their annual loan eligibility during the fall and spring, they will not be able to receive those loans during the summer. Parent or Graduate PLUS loans, however, are generally available during the summer. Click here to learn more about these loan options.
In some cases you may be eligible to apply for a Private Student Loan.
Students who demonstrate financial need on the FAFSA may be eligible for summer grant aid. Limited funds are available. We strongly encourage you to reach out to our staff if you have any questions about summer grant eligibility.
The Federal Direct Pell Grant may be available to undergraduate students who are enrolled in at least 6 credits for summer and who meet eligibility criteria. Students who are enrolled less than half time for summer but did not use all of their Pell Grant eligibility in the fall/spring terms may still be eligible for some grant aid.
CSU Tuition Assistance Grant may be available on a limited basis, so we encourage students to finalize their summer registration as early as possible in order to be considered for all of the aid they may qualify for. The award amount varies from $500-$3,000 depending on demonstrated financial need, availability of funding, and enrollment status.
Students who qualify will be automatically considered for grant aid once they have enrolled in summer classes and have completed a 2024-2025 FAFSA. To qualify, students must be enrolled through the CSU Main Campus (this excludes students admitted to online programs) pursuing their first bachelor’s degree and meet all other eligibility criteria.
Student employment is an opportunity for students to work part time and earn wages to help pay for living expenses. Wages earned are paid directly to students biweekly via direct deposit. There are two different kinds of student employment- student hourly and work study.
Student hourly: to learn more about student employment, visit the student employment page. Students can explore employment opportunities through the CSU Career Center.
Work study: limited opportunities for summer work study exist. If you are eligible for work study and interested, ask your employer if they have summer work study availability.
Generally, scholarships awarded by CSU for fall and spring semesters are not available for Summer Session. Students should reach out to their College or Department for additional information on the availability of scholarships for summer courses or can review the Office of Financial Aid’s Scholarships page.
WUE scholarship
Students can receive WUE during the Summer Session. WUE students can use the WUE scholarship in the summer without having it count toward their total number of semesters that they can receive the scholarship. Summer grades will be calculated into the WUE cumulative GPA requirement of 3.0.
Outside scholarships
In instances when a scholarship is awarded by an outside agency (this does not apply to institutional awards) students may make a request to their scholarship provider to apply the scholarship to summer. Note that because the scholarship is awarded by an outside agency, the decision about whether or not you could receive the scholarship would be made solely by the outside provider/agency.
This form (below) is intended to assist students with the request process but does not guarantee scholarships may be applied.
Students may use the Summer Scholarship Exception Request Form for outside agency to request an exception to apply their scholarship in summer if:
- Summer is not listed as a term in which the scholarship can be applied, and/or
- The scholarship requires full-time (12 credits) enrollment however this is not realistic for, or needed by, the student in the summer term, and
- A student, along with the student’s Advisor or Academic Support Coordinator, agree that summer enrollment is important for the student’s academic progression and graduation goals.
Summer aid eligibility
Students must meet the general financial aid eligibility criteria to receive summer financial aid. The amount of aid a student might qualify for will depend on the number of credits they are enrolled in.
To be eligible for aid for the summer 2025 term, admitted students must
- be enrolled at least half time
- maintain satisfactory academic progress (SAP)– details below
- have a valid FAFSA or CASFA application for the 2024-2025 year
- aid application must be submitted by June 30, 2025.
We will send an email in the spring to students who are eligible to receive financial aid for Summer 2025. The email will direct students to view and/or accept their awards in RAMweb. Please contact us if you have questions about your eligibility or if you believe your financial aid offer does not reflect your current circumstances.
Satisfactory Academic Progress (SAP)
Students who do not meet SAP standards will be notified by email. For those who were enrolled in spring, summer financial aid will be not be released for students who are on Financial Aid Warning, Alert, or Probation status until spring grades have been reviewed and student continues to be eligible.
If you think you are not going to be meeting SAP by the end of the spring term, please chat with a financial aid counselor about your aid eligibility before enrolling in summer courses.
The deadline to submit a SAP appeal for summer is June 15th. For additional information about SAP, see Satisfactory Academic Progress guidelines.
Enrollment changes
Adjusting the number of credits in which you are enrolled can impact the amount of your financial aid award. Contact the Office of Financial Aid if you:
- Plan on dropping or withdrawing from a summer course(s)
- Add a course after you’ve been awarded summer aid to be reviewed for additional aid eligibility
Dates and deadlines
Tuition assessment deadlines can be found on the Summer Session website. More important dates are available on our important dates page.
Students who are enrolled at least half time in summer classes will receive award notifications toward the middle of April. You may check the status of your summer financial aid by logging into RAMweb and selecting “Summer Financial Aid Information” on your Financial Aid page.
The earliest we can disburse your summer financial aid is 10 days prior to the first day of the first summer session you attend, provided you meet all the disbursement and eligibility criteria.
June 10, 2025 will be the billing due date for summer university charges billed in mid-May.
The deadline to submit a SAP appeal for summer is June 15th.
For additional information about SAP, see Satisfactory Academic Progress guidelines.
Deadline to submit 2024-2025 FAFSA for Summer 2025.
Paying your bill
University charges for summer will be billed in mid-May and due on June 10th, 2025.
Students should pay their student account balance in full by the semester due date, unless they are actively enrolled in a summer payment plan. For more information about how to pay your bill, please visit our billing information webpage.
Individuals who are enrolled in a summer payment plan can disregard the June 10th, 2025 billing due date, as they will have withdrawals taken from their designated account on the 5th of each month instead of paying by the term billing due date. For more information about the payment plan, refer to our payment plan information page.