Withdrawal from School

Students who choose to withdraw from the University prior to the end of an enrollment period (semester) should follow the University's guidelines for withdrawing from school. An Official Withdrawal Form must be completed and submitted to the proper office before a student can be considered officially withdrawn. Information concerning the details of withdrawal procedures can be found in the University Catalog or by contacting the University Registrar.

Federal student aid recipients who begin attending classes during a semester and who cease attending or performing academic activities prior to the end of the semester, and never complete an Official Withdrawal Form are considered by the federal government to have Unofficially Withdrawn. If University records indicate that a student did begin attending classes but subsequently unofficially withdrew, the University will consider the Unofficial Withdrawal date to be the midpoint of the semester (unless documentation exists of a later date of academic activity by the student).

When a federal student aid recipient withdraws, officially or unofficially, after attending at least the first class day, the University will return, and the student aid recipient will be required to repay, a prorated portion of funds received based upon a federally required calculation (see Return of Title IV Funds section below).

If University records show a federal student aid recipient never attended a class and/or never performed an academically related activity for a semester or term, then the recipient never established eligibility for any aid funds that may have been disbursed for that semester or term. In addition, any student aid recipient who withdraws, drops all classes, or voids his/her schedule, etc., with an effective date prior to the first day of class for a semester or term did not establish eligibility for any aid funds that may have been disbursed for that semester or term. In either case, the student aid recipient must repay the entire amount of aid disbursed for that semester or term.

If a student did not receive any federal student aid but did receive other types of aid funds, and subsequently officially withdraws, refunds and repayments will be based upon the University's refund schedule which can be found in the University catalog.

Under the Higher Education Amendments of 1998, the amount of aid a student has earned for the enrollment period, is based on the length of time the student remains enrolled for that period. Therefore, the percentage of the enrollment period completed is also the percentage of aid the student has earned.

• If a student withdraws on or before the 60% point of the enrollment period, the percentage of aid earned is equal to the percentage of time completed. (Conversely, the percentage of aid unearned, is equal to the percentage of time not completed, up to the 60% point.)
• A student who remains enrolled beyond the 60% point of the enrollment period, has earned 100% of the aid for that period. (There would be no unearned aid.)

School will return the lesser of:
• total amount of unearned aid or
• institutional charges multiplied by unearned percent

Student will return
• remaining balance of unearned aid plus any amount the school returned that exceeds the amount of institutional charges that are credited back to the withdrawing student based upon the Institutional Refund Policy calculation.

The Unearned Amount of aid must be returned to the applicable Title IV aid programs in the following order:

Unsubsidized Stafford Loan

Subsidized Stafford Loan

Federal Perkins Loan

Federal Plus Loan

Federal Pell Grant

Federal SEOG

Other Title IV aid

With the exception of any amount owed to the school, students and/or parents who are required to return a portion or all of their loan proceeds, are allowed to repay the unearned amount according to the terms of the loan.

If a student withdraws from the fall semester prior to the last 30 days of the term and received a Federal Stafford Loan that was certified for both the fall and spring semesters, the student will have to re-apply for their spring semester loan by submitting the online Financial Aid Change Request Form which can be found under the MyBanner Financial Aid Main Menu. A new loan will be certified for the spring only enrollment period.

If a parent borrowed a Federal Plus Loan on behalf of the student and the loan was certified for both the fall and spring semesters and the student withdraws from the fall semester prior to the last 30 days of the term, the parent will have to re-apply for the spring semester loan by completing another Plus Information Request Form. A new loan will be certified for the spring only enrollment period.

Examples of Return of Funds calculations are available in the Department of Financial Aid and Scholarships.

Note: The information contained in this section is subject to change, without notice, in order to comply with federal, state, or university requirements.