Census Policy

Census is the point in time that the financial aid office evaluates students' official enrollment status for financial aid purposes. The actual time that Census occurs is determined by the Registrar's office each semester and is the end of the 6th day of class for both fall and spring semesters.

Please contact the Office of Financial Aid (606-783-2011 or finaid@moreheadstate.edu) and the Office of Accounting and Financial Services (606-783-2019 or billing@moreheadstate.edu) with questions regarding complete withdrawal from the semester. Each student's situation will be different based on the time of withdrawal from the semester and the types of financial aid received by the student.

All financial aid offers to the student will be canceled. Please contact the Office of Accounting and Financial Services (606-783-2019 or billing@moreheadstate.edu) for questions regarding your student bill.

If a student adds a class after the Census Date for the semester, the student's Federal Pell grant will not be increased.  Classes added after the Census Date will not be eligible to be counted for Federal Pell grant eligibility purposes, although they may be counted for Federal Direct Loan eligibility purposes.

A Federal Pell grant offer made at the beginning of the semester is based on full-time entitlement. Full-time entitlement means you are enrolled in at least 12 credit hours. The Office of Financial Aid will adjust student accounts after the census date to match student entitlement based on enrolled hours.

A Direct Subsidized/Unsubsidized & PLUS Loan offer(s) made at the beginning of the semester assumes you will be enrolled for at least six credit hours. Federal Regulations require that students are enrolled for at least six credit hours to be eligible to receive Direct Subsidized and Direct Unsubsidized loans.

Direct Subsidized/Unsubsidized and PLUS loan funds may be adjusted after the census date if a student increases their enrollment.

Example: If a student is initially registered for three credits and loans are not offered, but the student adds an additional three credits after the census, the student could receive loan funds (if they make that request to the financial aid office). However, if a student has six credits as of the census but then withdraws or drops a course, they fall below six credits. If their Direct Subsidized/Unsubsidized loan funds have not been disbursed, the student will no longer be eligible to receive the funds.

If you know that you will not be enrolled full-time as of the census date, you may email finaid@moreheadstate.edu to receive a more accurate offer of your term entitlement. You are strongly encouraged to inform Financial Aid of your less than full-time enrollment. If you do not report your less than full-time enrollment, your financial aid offers (which may include Federal and State aid) will not be adjusted until on or after the census date. 

If a student already received a financial aid offer letter, any class(es) enrolled in after the census date will not be counted toward financial aid enrollment status for the semester for all types of aid except loans. If a student plans to enroll in any class(es), please do so before the census date. No exceptions will be made.

If a student enrolls in only second-nine-week class(es) then the Census Date for this student will be the start date of the second-nine-week class(es).

If you drop classes before the census, your future financial aid will not be affected.

If you drop classes after the census date, you may have future financial aid eligibility issues. Please review the Satisfactory Academic Progress Policy for more information on the requirements to maintain financial aid eligibility.