<p>Hello! </p>
<p>I was curious if anyone else has ever heard of this practice. I have been in college for several years and have never heard of this....</p>
<p>So I took 2 years off school because of life. I came back to the college I was in prior to that and did everything I needed for financial aid. I ended up with a Pell Grant and both Unsub and Sub'd loans. Anyway, I called the school today to ask about disbursement / refund checks and was told that they give you a credit for the bookstore but don't release the rest of your funds until around Thanksgiving??? This is very troubling as school begins in August plus I normally buy my books used off Amazon (saves a lot of money) and I use the rest of the money for school supplies, projects, etc... For example, I am a photography major and sometimes there is equipment I have to buy. By the time Thanksgiving rolls around, the semester will be ending in two weeks.</p>
<p>So has anyone else heard of this? I'm kind of salty about having to pay for all my school expenses out of pocket for several months.</p>
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No it’s kinda late; but each school could have different policy on refund.</p>
<p>My kid’s school didn’t refund until the end of the term. Every school has a policy about this. Can you use summer earnings to buy books?</p>
<p>They’re going to give me a book store credit in August so I can buy books thankfully. I am actually a stay at home mom and my husband works. We aren’t poor but we aren’t rich either and sometimes photography projects and/or gear that I have to buy can be very expensive. For example, my camera (which I thankfully did buy out of pocket awhile back) was about $1000. They use to disburse your refund about a week before classes. Had I known they no longer do that, I may have gone to a different school since I can’t afford to be dishing out a hundred dollars here and there for school stuff throughout the semester. 
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<p>I think the school just want to make sure you use the money on academic expenses to protect you from overspending. It is still your money but not available for a few month months. Do they offer reimbursement in addition to bookstore credit?</p>
<p>Actually, the school wants to make sure the student is actually enrolled in the courses after the drop/add period. They do not want to disburse money to students who then drop the courses. It’s harder to get the students to repay than to just wait to disburse the money, and do refunds.</p>
<p>You are lucky. Where I work, they often don’t give out funds for books until October. The problem at my college is that a big name chain runs the bookstore, so there is no consideration for students who need help.</p>
<p>You also can look around for free pdfs from other countries, at least for the short term.</p>