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Withdrawal Form must be completed and submitted to the proper office before a student can be considered officially withdrawn.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semester, and never complete an Official Withdrawal Form are considered by the federal government to have Unofficially Withdrawn.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 an earlier or later date of attendance/academic activity by the student). If no attendance or academic activity can be documented, the Unofficial Withdrawal student must repay the entire amount of aid disbursed for that semester or term.
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 drops all classes or voids his/her schedule 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 withdraws with an effective date of first class day, he/she must repay the entire amount of aid disbursed for that semester or term, unless documentation of attendance and/or an academic activity of that first day can be provided by an academic official.
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.
Return of Title IV (Federal) Funds When a Student Withdraws:
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.)
Repayment of the Unearned Amount is calculated as follows:
School will return:
- the lesser of the amount of unearned Title IV aid or unearned Institutional Charges
Student will return
- the unearned amount of Title IV Grants
- the student's and parent's unearned portion of federal loan proceeds will not be returned, but is to be repaid to the loan holders according to the terms of the borrower’s promissory note.
Return of funds due by the school and the student and/or parent are charged back to the student's university student account and returned to the applicable student aid programs.
The Unearned Amount of Title IV aid must be returned to the applicable Title IV aid programs in the following order:
- Unsubsidized Stafford Loan
- Subsidized Stafford Loan
- Perkins Loan
- Plus Loan(Graduate Student)
- Plus Loan(Parent)
- Pell Grant
- ACG Grant
- National SMART Grant
- SEOG Grant
- TEACH Grant
- Other Title IV aid
Non-federal aid funds will be returned based on Institutional Refund Policy and returned in the following fund order: State, Institutional, then External funds.
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.
