Baruch Collge

Bursar
Office of the Vice President for Administration and Finance

Refunds

There are two ways that students are issued refunds, by check or by a credit to the student’s credit card.

 

Refunds by check are created bi-monthly, this ensures that students will never have to wait more than six weeks to receive their refund. Checks are mailed to the address on record. In certain circumstances, a refund check can be created before the next month arrives. We cannot create refund checks during registration periods (January, June and August). For additional questions related to the status of your refund, you can contact Howard Bard at 646-312-1289.


If you have questions about deductions for tuition and fees from your financial aid awards, you can contact the Bursar Office. Since CUNY mails the financial aid checks directly to the student, there are cases where the checks are lost. To have Baruch trace what happened to the lost check you must go to the financial aid office. A staff member there will give you the check information to bring to the Controller's Office (located at 137 east 22nd street) where you would speak to a Controller's Office staff member. The student will sign a document stating that the student never received the check and a trace will be placed on the check to determine what happened to the check. Currently, the trace takes about 1 month because CUNY owns the checks and we have to ask them for the information. CUNY is working on a system that will reduce the turnaround time on this process. To avoid your financial aid checks being lost in the mail, you can have you refunds deposited electronically. The applications are available in the Financial Aid and Bursar Offices.

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Refunds for students who used credit card to pay their tuition are handled differently. The Bursar Office does not issue a check refund for students who have paid by credit card. In addition, the credit will not be processed automatically. The student can come in person to the Bursar Office to have their credit card account credited immediately or mail a request to have the card of their choice credited. The address for students who wish to mail in their request should use:

Bursar Office
Room H-810,
151 East 25th Street,
New York, N.Y., 10010,
ATTN: Joel Freilich

Note: When using a credit card in person, the Bursar Office will only accept the card if the person who signed the back of the card is present.

When a student pays his tuition by credit card the card information is not stored. Any paper documents with a student's credit card information is also destroyed or stored in a secure area. In addition, many students do not want their refund credited to the same card that was used or the original card is no longer active. The Bursar Office will send E-mail (to students who have one on file) or a mailer informing them of a possible credit card refund they may be entitled to, Baruch College is very concerned about student's financial information and believe that this procedure is a prudent approach to the issue. Based on the need to secure student information the Bursar Office does not accept credit card payments by fax or phone.

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Issues related to the Refund Process
Students at Baruch may receive a refund of payments or financial aid payments that are greater than what a student may owe, and then receive a bill for outstanding tuition at a later date. Most of the time this happens, because the status of a student's financial aid has changed or the status of the student's registration has changed. Baruch is required to make sure every student receives all his or her financial aid in a timely fashion. However, when Baruch disburses a payment to a student, it is based on a financial aid award that is usually an estimate (especially in the case of TAP). This means that we may be giving a student a payment based on a financial aid award that changes at a later date. In addition, changes that are made by various offices (Registrar, Admissions, etc.) at Baruch can change what the student may owe. A bill can be mailed out to a student that will have a different outstanding balance from what a student may actually owe. In addition, a student can become ineligible for financial aid after financial aid payments have been made to the student or the college. Bills are sent to serve as a “notification” that a student may have an outstanding balance. The amount of the bill is always subject to change when financial aid is used to pay a student's tuition and fees. If you receive a bill, you can check E-SIMS to verify if you still owe. The information on E-SIMS is always more accurate than the bill that was sent. You can always contact the Bursar Office for more information.

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