Enrollment & Lock Date

Financial aid offers are typically created based on anticipated full-time enrollment. To avoid delays in aid disbursement, please notify the Financial Aid Department if you will be enrolled less than full time.

*Undergraduate coursework taken by graduate students must be reviewed by Financial Aid to determine whether such coursework can be funded through federal student aid programs.

Note: Do not register for courses that you do not intend to complete for purposes of qualifying for aid. 

The "lock" or census date is used for determining eligibility for certain federal, state, and institutional aid programs, and some scholarship programs. This date corresponds with the Registrar's posted quarterly deadline as the last day to add or drop a class without incurring late add/drop fees and the last day to withdraw before incurring a W on the official transcript.

Students should review eligibility requirements to understand how enrollment and the quarterly lock date affects federal, state, and institutional grants.

​​​​​​​If you receive a disbursement of financial aid at the beginning of the quarter based on a higher enrollment status than your enrollment status at the lock date, your aid may need to be reduced to correspond to your locked enrollment status. In this situation, you may owe a repayment.

You may change your enrollment status prior to the lock date, but your financial aid may need to be revised. The quickest way to make this change is to notify our office as soon as you know what your enrollment status will be. If you add courses after your aid has been disbursed, be sure to pay any additional tuition charges by the tuition payment due date to avoid late payment fees.

Students may send an email from their official WWU email account with their clearly stated enrollment plans or use the Enrollment Revision Form available on the Forms section of our website.