If a student completely withdraws from all credits before the 60 percent point of the semester, his/her financial aid is subject to the “Federal Return to Title IV” refund policy. Under this policy, students earn financial aid in proportion to the time they are enrolled up to the 60 percent point. The unearned share of the federal financial aid must be returned to the program from which it was paid as prescribed by federal regulations in the following order:
- Federal Unsubsidized Direct Loan
- Federal Subsidized Direct Loan
- PLUS Loan
- Federal Pell Grant
- Iraq and Afghanistan Service Grant
- Federal SEOG
- TEACH
For example, if a student withdraws after completing 30% of the term, s/he is entitled to keep approximately 30% of his/her financial aid and must repay the remaining 70%. Percentages are determined by using the total number of days in the standard calendar payment period (or module within standard term) as the denominator and using the student’s withdrawal date as the numerator. The numerator is divided by the denominator and the result is the percentage of aid the student has earned for the term.
If the return to title IV calculation indicates the student has unearned aid previously disbursed, the university will return the unearned aid to the Department of Education on the student’s behalf which will create a balance due to the university. The student is responsible for repaying any unearned aid as a result and will be billed to inform them and initiate repayment. If any unearned aid was a determined to be, all or in part a loan disbursement, the institution-initiated return of these title IV funds will reduce the overall loan debt accordingly with the Department of Education. If the return does not completely reduce the student’s loan balance with the Department of Education, then the outstanding loan debt will be repaid to the Department of Education based on the terms of the student’s master promissory note.
After the 60 percent point of the semester, the student is considered to have earned all of the financial aid eligibility and no refund is required for withdrawal.
Official Withdrawal
When the student officially withdraws from all courses after the semester begins, the Financial Aid Office will use the withdrawal date to determine the portion of the Federal Title IV aid earned (or could have been earned) to be used to pay institutional charges (such as tuition and fees).
Unofficial Withdrawal
A student is said to be unofficially withdrawn if they stop attending and receive failing grades in all credits. For a student who has been determined to have unofficially withdrawn, the date of withdrawal for purposes of the Return of Title IV refund calculation is deemed to be the last date of attendance recorded by the faculty at grading.
Timeframe for R2T4 calculation
Federal regulation requires the university to calculate the Return to Title IV refunds within 45 days of determining an official or unofficial withdrawal date.
Credit Balances after Withdrawal
Title IV credit balances due to the student that are calculated as a result of R2T4 calculations will be disbursed to the student account within 14 days of the R2T4 calculation.
Post Withdrawal Disbursement
In some cases, a student may withdraw from all courses before aid has disbursed. A post withdrawal disbursement is done when a student shows they have withdrawn from all of their classes prior to financial aid disbursement but began attendance in all courses and are qualified for some (earned) aid.
For Pell grant eligibility only, the earned portion of the grant is disbursed to the student account and a letter is sent to student to notify them of their eligibility and right to return funds within 45 days on the date letter was issued.
For loan eligibility, a notice is sent to the student within 30 days of the date of the school’s determination that the student has withdrawn - before any funding will be processed. The student will be granted at least 14 days to respond to accept or decline the funds. If no response is received, the university will not release any loan funding. Post Withdrawal disbursements of Federal Direct Loans will be made within 180 days after the determination of the withdrawal. All PWD disbursements are applied to a student’s account balance first, and the resulting credit balance will be disbursed to the student within 14 days from the date of disbursement.