Aid in Authorized, Pending, or Memo Status

In general, grants and scholarships administered by Macalester will be credited to your account by the time you receive your statement for the semester.

Financial aid from federal and state sources (e.g., Federal Pell Grants, Minnesota State Grants, Federal Direct Loans, etc.) cannot be applied to your account until ten days before the beginning of the semester. In most cases, you should see these forms of financial aid on your statement in “authorized” or “memo” status.

• Authorized:  If financial aid is in authorized status, it means that this financial aid is ready to be applied to your account but the disbursement date has not yet been reached. This status most commonly applies when Federal or state regulations prohibit delivery more than ten days before the beginning of the semester.
• Pending or Memo:  Financial aid in pending or memo status means that this type of financial aid is available but has not yet arrived (for example, scholarships from non-Macalester agencies) or there is something missing from your financial aid file. Please check the status of your financial aid application file by logging into 1600grand and clicking the Student Life tab or by contacting our office.

Special note about Federal Direct Loans and institutional loans: These loans will not appear anywhere on your statement until you have accepted them on 1600grand. Please visit our Loans and Financing page to review all of the necessary application steps for each type of loan you accept.

Accepted federal loans cannot be applied to your account more than ten days before the beginning of the semester, so they will be in authorized or memo status until then.

After aid is credited to your account, you must compare your financial aid package for the semester to the activity on your account to determine whether any financial aid remains to be credited. If you notice that some of your financial aid has not been credited and you are not aware of a reason for delay, please contact the Financial Aid Office.

You may review your current financial aid by logging in to 1600grand.macalester.edu and navigating to the Money Matters tab. You can also check to see if there are items missing from your financial aid file which may be preventing some or all of your financial aid from crediting to your account.