My Summer

Summer has its own complexities—and is very different from the fall and spring semesters in terms of dates and deadlines for adding and dropping classes; how long you are in class depending on the term you decide to enroll; acquiring and qualifying for your financial aid; paying your bill; and receiving a refund.  Before you decide to attend summer – below explains the admission, academic records, financial aid, registration, and student account issues that you should be aware about if you decide to attend.

Admission

If you are a new student at Cleveland State University and are starting in summer—and have not attended anywhere else in the previous fall and spring semester—You want to be admitted two months before the semester starts to allow time for the following to process:

• From the time you submit your application and submit all transcripts required for your admission— an admission decision will take one week or up to 7 days to process;
• Depending on how many schools you previously attended, your Transfer Credit Evaluation will take as little as 3-5 days and up to two weeks to process;
• This will then give you a month before school starts to meet with your academic advisor for course selection;
• And then finalize your financial aid and allow time for processing if you are selected for Verification by the US Department of Education when your FAFSA comes in 48 hours after you are admitted— verification can take 2-4 weeks to process.

If you are currently attending Cleveland State University and 1) Changing your admission/career or 2) Transferring from another college/university where you are finishing your education in May at the end of spring semester, and then beginning in the summer-- there is only a one week break between when spring semester ends and summer semester starts for the 6W1, 8W1, 10W1, and 12W1 terms.  You must be aware that you are not leaving yourself enough time to then switch everything over from processing your new admission, registering for classes, getting your financial aid in order, and paying your bill or signing up for our payment plans.  If you identify in any of the categories below—and you decide to attend summer—you must be prepared that your registration, financial aid, and paying your bill timely may not occur.

• Graduating from High School and then immediately starting your Undergraduate career;
• Graduating with your Undergraduate degree and then immediately starting a Post-Baccalaureate or Graduate career;
• Changing your career from Undergraduate Non-Degree or Undergraduate Certificate to Undergraduate Degree Seeking or vice versa;
• Changing your career from Graduate Non-Degree or Graduate Certificate to Graduate Degree Seeking or Graduate Licensure Only or vice versa;

If you fall into either of these categories, we recommend that you only enroll in 6W2 classes or wait until fall; this will allow yourself time to be admitted, attend your orientation (if you are a new freshmen), your TCE processed, meet with your academic advisor, register for classes, process your financial aid, and then pay your bill.

Registration

When registering for courses, pay attention to the course schedule in Campusnet as there are 5 terms for the summer semester including Alternatively scheduled courses which don’t adhere to the normal dates within the term. The terms are listed below and specific dates are detailed on our Academic Calendar:

• 6W1- First Six Week Courses (Begins in May and ends at the end of June)
• 8W1- First Eight-Week Courses (Begins in May and ends mid-July)
• 10W1- First 10-Week Courses (Begins in May and ends in late-July)
• 12W1- First 12-Week Courses (Begins in May and ends in August)
• 6W2- Second 6-Week Courses (Begins in July and ends in August)
• ALT Courses (Beginning and end dates vary)

When searching for summer classes—you can click on “Session Options” and search by session to find a particular class by Term:

Each Term has its own Add/Drop dates including when you can add, late add, drop, and withdrawal— you must reference the Academic Calendar for the summer term to determine when you may complete these transactions.

Financial Aid

Summer is at the end of our FAFSA year which begins in the Fall semester.  When attending in the summer, you use the same FAFSA you completed that was used for the fall and spring semester.

Below is a list of the aid that can be used for the summer:

Scholarships- The University financial aid office and the Academic Colleges do not offer any scholarships for the summer.  If you have any of our 4-year renewable freshmen scholarships, 2-year transfer scholarships, or Academic college scholarships—they are not available in the summer.  The only scholarships available in the summer would come from an outside source to which you have applied separately.

Grants- The only grants available in the summer is the Federal Pell Grant; the Ohio College Opportunity Grant (OCOG), Supplemental Educational Opportunity Grant (SEOG0, and the University Grant (UG) are not available in the summer.

Whether you qualify for Pell depends on how many credits and how much you used in the fall and spring semester.

• If you attended full time in the fall and full time in the spring and received your full Pell award each semester; you must be registered for 6 credit hours in the summer to qualify for Pell; if you register less than 6 hours you will not receive the Pell grant
• If you attended part-time at any time in the fall or spring semester, only then will you qualify for Pell if you register for less than 6 hours

Your Pell grant is pro-rated based on the number of hours you enroll—please see the percentage chart below.

Loans- Loans are only available in the summer providing you have not utilized all of your eligibility based on your career (Undergraduate or Grad/Law); Dependency status (Dependent or Independent); and Grade level (Undergraduates only; i.e. Freshmen, Sophomore, Junior, or Senior). Please see the chart below:

• Dependent Undergraduate students who have utilized all of their loan eligibility can either have their Parents apply for a PLUS Loan; or if the PLUS Loan is denied—undergraduate dependent students can receive an additional $4000 or $5000 for the summer;
• Independent Undergraduate students can only apply for a Private Loan using our FastChoice tool;
• Graduate/Law students can only apply for a Grad PLUS Loan via StudentAid.gov or a Private Loan

Federal Work Study-  there is no Federal Work Study available in the summer; however, students can work during the summer if they attended in the spring semester and plan to continue in the fall.

Keeping Your Financial Aid

Because of all the various terms for summer (6W1, 8W1, 10W1, 12W1, 6W2, and ALT sessions)—and the varying dates on the Academic Calendar as to when you can add, drop, and withdraw--- when you initially register for summer and then decide to change your schedule and no longer take the amount of credits you originally intended—  it may cause you to lose financial aid to where it can be charged back on to your student account, and you could owe the University.

If you have registered for summer, your aid has already disbursed, and your refund has been issued—and you now wish to alter your schedule and drop or withdraw a course from your schedule—please call the Allin1 office at 216.687.5411 to discuss the ramifications of your financial aid.

Please note the difference between a “Drop” and a “Withdrawal”

You should keep the following in mind:

• PELL is pro-rated based on the number of hours you enroll; if you drop courses you may no longer be eligible for the amount of PELL we initially disbursed to you;
• Loans require you to be at 6 hours; if you drop below 6 credit hours you may no longer be eligible to receive your loans for the summer semester;
• For withdrawals, depending on whether you are withdrawing from some courses or all of your courses-- and when you withdrawal— aid may also be returned. 

Student Account

Paying your Summer Bill- Financial aid disburses 10 days before the start of the summer semester; Even if you are only taking 6W2 classes, you are required to pay your summer balance 5 days prior to the start of the summer semester or join a budget payment plan.

Budget Payment Plans- In the fall and spring semesters you have the option to join a 5-pay budget payment plan; however, for the summer because of the shortened time period—you only have the option to join a  4-pay Budget Payment Plan in the summer. Your first payment is due 5 days before the start of the 6W1, 8W1, 10W1, and 12W1 term.  The remaining three payment due dates are exactly 30 days apart from each other throughout the summer.

Refunds—Refunds throughout the summer vary based on the term (6W1, 8W1, 10W1, 12W1, 6W2, or ALT) – you must familiarize yourself with the Refund Policy Schedule of the University.

You should note that in the fall and spring semesters, you get 2 full weeks to drop a course and receive a 100% refund; however, there is a shortened time period you have to drop a course and still receive a 100% refund for the summer semester:

Academic Transcripts and Diplomas

We do not release Transcripts or Diplomas until the entire 12-week term is over.  Even if you only enroll in 6W1 summer courses and your grades are posted- you must wait until the entire 12-week term is over to order your transcript with final grades -- and if applicable-- receive your diploma.  Exceptions to the release of transcripts prior to the end of summer can only occur by permission of the University Registrar.  There are no exceptions granted for the release of diplomas.

There is no graduation ceremony in August at the end of summer.  Undergraduate students who graduate in August can either request a Commencement Exception to attend the ceremony in May; or wait until December to attend our fall ceremony. Graduate students apply for commencement exceptions via Starfish under their Student Tab in Campusnet.

Students who choose the May ceremony over December will not have their name printed in the commencement book; your name will appear in the commencement book in December.