1. Enrolling in Direct Deposit (Workday and my.uchicago.edu)

To ensure timely disbursal of university-sourced income, we recommend enrolling in direct deposit through both the Workday system and your my.uchicago.edu portal as soon as you have access to a US bank account. At this time, only US bank accounts can be added into Workday.

  • Types of payments issued through Workday: fellowship stipend income, assistanship income (research and teaching), reimbursements, awards, and other on-campus hourly roles.
  • Types of payments issued through my.uchicago.edu: emergency assistance from the Bursar (emergency loans/emergency grants, loan refunds, and student account refunds).

Updating Payment Elections

If you do not have access to a US bank account, you will receive university payments via paper check (if a US address is provided) or by wire transfer via Flywire (if no US address is provided; see below). It is your responsibility to ensure there is accurate address information in both your my.uchicago.edu portal and Workday record. Payments cannot be reissued via direct deposit for at least 10 days (and in some situations, up to 30 days—please contact gradhelp@uchicago.edu if you have not received a payment issued to you via check or wire transfer.

If you do not set up direct deposit in the relevant payment system and have a US address on file in Workday, your payment will be issued as a check and mailed to the address listed. Please ensure this is your correct address and you have access to mail sent to that location. If you do not provide an address on Workday, the system will default to the primary address listed on your my.uchicago.edu portal. We recommend students who are outside the United States and do not have a US bank account plan to receive funds via wire transfer. If you do not have a US bank account or US address to receive payments, your payment will disburse to you via international wire transfer through Flywire. This will incur a fee (typically 1.25-2.5%) which is taken from the payment itself. If you have questions about the process for receiving an international wire transfer, please contact gradhelp@uchicago.edu.

2. Checking Your Payslips in Workday

You can view a detailed records of all payments disbursed to you via Workday by reviewing your payslips. If you are looking to find out how much you received in funding during a calendar / tax year, check your final payslip from that year and look at the total amount in the column labelled YTD (year-to-date). Using payslips is especially helpful for declaring appropriate income amounts if you have no tax withholding associated with your pay.

3. Uploading Personal Documents to Workday

When you complete any paperwork associated with a payment from the University—whether this is for stipend payments, the completion of a W-9, or paperwork related with job onboarding—you will need to upload this paperwork into your Workday profile so it can be verified by Payroll/Financial Services.

4. Updating Your Primary Address

Review and/or update your address as soon as you have access to Workday, or when a change occurs, to make sure this information is accurate. Your student record must accurately reflect your physical location, and your tax responsibilities may depend on your location, so we recommend that you revise this information at least once per academic year.

If you are making an update to your address in Workday, please make sure you are also updating your address in your my.uchicago.edu profile. Tax forms are mailed to the primary address listed during the months of January and February—these forms may include a W-2, 1042-S, or a 1098-T. If you have questions about what forms you should be receiving from the university, did not receive forms you were expecting, or have general questions related to tax responsibilities, please contact gradhelp@uchicago.edu.

5. Updating Tax Withholdings (Federal and State)

Federal and state withholdings can be updated electronically in Workday, and you can make changes to this information at any time—you do not need to wait for a qualifying life event or the start of a new academic year. To make updates to your withholding elections, you will need information regarding your income, current rate of withholding, desired rate of withholding, effective date, and marital status.