Refund checks are not automatically issued. Students must officially request them. If not, the credit amount is applied to the next semester.

Student Accounts and the Customer Experience Initiative Team (C.E.I.T.) are pleased to announce the implementation of the first phase of an on-line refund request form, which you would access through your student portal at https://my.american.edu.

As part of the work of Student Accounts and C.E.I.T., and a major step in reducing the university's paper use, the on-line student refund request form enables you to send a refund request to Student Accounts for a refund check of any overpayment (your personal payments, financial aid, etc.) to your student account. The on-line form gives you the opportunity to request a full or partial refund, to have your refund check mailed or held for pick up, and it lets you include an address in a more streamlined manner than before. The new on-line refund application will also allow you to personally make changes to your request prior to the refund being processed. The process should eliminate duplicate/triple requests, and should also help to prevent lost requests.

If you have already submitted a Fall 2008 refund request prior to the availability of this new on-line request method, then you should not submit another request through this on-line method until your next expected refund (most likely for your Spring 2009 refund).

The last day to submit a refund request via paper form or e-mail was August 1, 2008. To apply for any future refunds you will need to utilize the new On-line Student Refund Request Form.

The on-line "Student Accounts Refund Request" form link can be found on your student portal at https://my.american.edu, under the "Finances" link.

As we are planning several future enhancements to the On-line Student Refund Request option, we encourage you to email us at studentaccounts@american.edu with any questions, comments or suggestions you may have about this new way of requesting your refunds.

Please note that refund checks will not be sent/mailed to campus addresses. These checks must be picked up at the cashier’s office in Asbury 300.

If a credit on the account is partially due to a PLUS loan, the borrower/parent also needs to request the refund in writing (i.e. giving the student permission to have access to the surplus funds resulting from the PLUS loan.) Faxed authorizations from the borrowing parent need to be signed and include a picture ID.
Parent Borrowers can fax their signed refund authorizations to (202) 885-1139, Attn: PLUS Loan Refund Processor.

Refund requests are usually processed within five to seven business days from the submission of the refund request form or the posting of the credit, whichever is later. If the refund results from overpayment made by a personal check, the refund check will not be processed for at least fifteen business days (i.e. to verify check payment has cleared your bank.) If the refund is the result of a Parent PLUS Loan, and the check is to be made payable to the student, Student Accounts must receive a letter from the borrower/parent giving permission for the student to receive the proceeds of the loan.

A credit on a student account for a current semester cannot be reimbursed after the payment due date for the following semester. For example, if an overpayment exists on the student account for the fall semester, it must be withdrawn before the payment due date for the spring semester. Credits not requested for refund will automatically go towards any new charges that may appear on the account. One exception, credits that are the result of Federal Loans can be reimbursed to the student to the extent of the credit or loan amount, whichever is lower (i.e. Federal Regulations).

Students may check if their refund check has been processed using the “Student Snapshot” on the student portal at https://my.american.edu. Refund checks will be mailed or available for pick up (depending on your requested delivery method in your refund request) after 2:00pm the day after they post to the student account for refunds that are processed after the start of classes for that semester. When picking up a refund check, you will be required to show a photo ID.