COVID-19 Financial Aid FAQ

Duke's commitment to assisting students and families remains strong, and we invite current students and families experiencing income reductions to provide us their 2020 income tax information by March 1, 2021 to receive a reevaluation of your financial aid offer. You can email finaid@duke.edu to receive a secure document upload link to submit your 2020 returns. For more information, visit our special circumstances page.

If you are living off campus, we understand you will still have expenses for housing and meals.

• If you're a domestic student paying rent off campus, your aid will remain the same as if you were on campus. You won't be charged for housing and meals (which is usually over $8,000 a semester), so you can use that cost savings to pay rent, utilities and other living expenses for the term. 
• If you are a domestic student living at home, your aid will be adjusted to reflect your lower living costs but will still include consideration for the shared utility and meal expenses incurred by your family. You can expect your bill from Duke to be about $2,000 lower per term than if you were to reside on campus in an effort to assist with those costs.

Students living off campus whose aid is greater than their bill for tuition and fees will receive funds via direct deposit for their off-campus expenses. Those refunds are scheduled to be available in the latter part of the first week of classes.

Please fill out our survey here if both of the following apply to you: 1) you are living off campus (at home or renting off campus) for Spring 2021, and 2) you have had a change in your housing situation from Fall 2020 to Spring 2021 (example: switching from living at home to renting, or vice versa).

If you are living on campus in Spring 2021 or are moving from one rental arrangement to another, you don’t need to let us know.

Signing up for direct deposit through DukeHub is the quickest and safest way to receive money from the University. Funds will be deposited on or around the first day of classes.

If you have not established direct deposit and are due a refund, the University will issue a check and send it to the permanent address on file.

If you will be both 1) living off campus in Spring 2021 and 2) changing your housing situation between Fall 2020 and Spring 2021, fill out the housing change form so that we can ensure your aid is accurate.

If you are living on campus in Spring 2021, or if you are moving from one rental arrangement to another, you don't need to let us know.

Book costs are already factored into your financial aid, and families typically pay for these out of the family contribution. We are unable to offer additional grant aid for book costs. However, you may be eligible for loans to help you finance these costs. Please reach out to your financial aid counselor with questions.

You will see your account adjusted as soon as the Duke Cashiering Office receives the funds. The best place to view your live account balance is DukeHub>Bursar>Account Activity.

Please send checks to Duke University Cashiering Office, Box 90759, Durham NC 27708.

You can endorse the check and send it to the Cashiering office for deposit in your Duke student account. If you deposit the funds in your own bank account, please reach out to your financial aid counselor to let us know.

Yes, you will be eligible to receive a standard budgeted amount of aid to cover your living expenses while living at home.

Incoming undergraduates who do enroll in fall online classes and are outside of the U.S., Duke is only permitted to pay your tuition and mandatory fees, which includes tuition, health fee, 1st time registration fees, activity fee, and student service fee. This is due to tax and payroll policies.  What this means is that if you take classes this fall from outside of the U.S., you cannot receive the portion of your scholarship that would have paid your housing, meal plan, and any other non-mandatory fees. If you are still in the U.S., and plan to remain throughout the semester, this is not an issue.

If you are a returning student and are considering taking a leave and returning at a later time, you can take up to two semesters as a personal leave of absence if you meet the criteria listed in the policy found here https://trinity.duke.edu/undergraduate/academic-policies/leave-absence-personal. Your scholarship will be on hold for you until your return. If you are interested in discussing this option, please consult your Academic Dean. 

The Personal Leave of Absence (PLOA) deadline in Fall 2020 was August 14, 2020 at 5pm. It can be extended, allowing students to take a personal leave up until August 28th, but this means incurring financial charges. For specific information on financial charges, see the bursar’s website: https://finance.duke.edu/bursar. We do not currently have updated information regarding these policies for Fall 2021.

If you are an incoming student and considering enrolling in spring or next year you will need to contact the Undergraduate Admissions Office to discuss deferment options.  Your scholarship will be on hold for you until your return. The deadline for incoming students to apply for a gap year has been extended until August 16, 2020. Contact stephen.mclaughlin@duke.edu. We do not currently have updated information regarding these policies for Fall 2021.

You may be able to receive assistance for these expenses.  Please reach out to Crystal Weber at crystal.weber@duke.edu and Janice Coleman at janice.coleman@duke.edu. 

You may be able to receive assistance for these expenses.  Please reach out to Crystal Weber at crystal.weber@duke.edu and Janice Coleman at janice.coleman@duke.edu. 

If you are living off campus and paying rent, we understand you will still have expenses for housing and meals. We’ll base your aid on the cost of a standard on-campus room charge and the cost of meal plan D. Your charges from Duke will change, but your aid will still include consideration for your housing cost. 

When would these funds become available? 

Duke does not issue stipends for off-campus housing nor meals.  If your scholarship is more than your actual charges for the semester, the Bursar's Office provides a refund of the difference to pay for off-campus housing, and additional meals.  Refunds are issued by direct deposit to your bank account.  You will need to make sure you are signed up for direct deposit to ensure the refund reaches your bank account. 

Your financial scholarship funds are not released to students until the first day of class each term. If you qualify for a financial aid refund (i.e. your aid exceeds Duke's charges) and you will be using it to assist with your off-campus housing costs, please note that you will need to make arrangements on your own to cover your August and/or January rent costs if they are billed at the beginning of the month. Financial aid refunds cannot be released early and will not be available in time to make these payments, so students who choose to live off campus must plan accordingly. 

Yes. Students will be offered work study in their financial aid awards and will have the opportunity to apply for available positions as in previous years. Both in-person and remote work options are available. General information about work study is here.

Details and implications for hiring managers considering offering telework options will be forthcoming shortly.

Yes. If you are a domestic work-study student and would like a loan to help with your incidental expenses instead of a work-study offer, you can contact your financial aid counselor to request this change. Also, if you are not able to find a work-study position and need funding to assist with incidental expenses, you can contact your financial aid counselor to request a loan to cover your costs until a position becomes available.

Some remote positions may be available for undergraduates receiving work-study, including out-of-state students and international students living in the US.

Details and implications for hiring managers considering offering telework options will be forthcoming shortly.

Work-study verification paperwork will begin to be sent out in January for the spring term. If you have not received your work-study paperwork, log on to DukeHub and make sure that you have accepted your work-study financial aid award and that your to-do items are complete. You will receive a copy of the work-study paperwork in your email, and there will also be a copy in your DukeHub when available.

Here's a link to the most recent information on the impact for student loans: https://studentaid.gov/announcements-events/coronavirus#borrower-questions

Congress mandated the Department of Education (ED) suspend payments and interest accrual on federally-held student loans until Sept. 30, 2020. For updated news, please refer to Personal Finance@Duke. Loan servicers will be required to apply the benefits of the COVID-19 relief package retroactively to March 13, 2020, and to turn off automatic payments for borrowers who have recurring ACH transfers. ED also wrote that loan servicers can apply the interest borrowers paid on their loans after March 13 to their principal balance, or that borrowers can request a refund for those payments from their lender. Additionally, ED wrote that loan servicers must report all suspended payments as on-time payments to credit bureaus, so as to not negatively impact a borrower’s credit report.  

ED also updated its COVID-19 information web page with new guidance for borrowers questioning whether to stop making loan payments before changes are officially implemented. In response to a question about what will happen to auto-payments if a borrower takes no action, ED wrote that any auto-payments processed between March 13 and September 30 can be refunded upon request to loan servicers. 

One outstanding question was whether the legislation will apply to the loans of students who recently graduated and have not entered into repayment. Based on the instructions servicers received from ED, Trump's announcement to waive interest on all federally-held loans starting March 13, 2020, including loans for borrowers in school and in their grace period, is not to be altered by the CARES Act, except that it is to end Sept. 30, 2020.