Withdrawals and Return of Title IV (Federal) Funds Policy

Federal regulations require that the Financial Aid Office recalculates federal* financial aid eligibility for a student who withdraws, drops out or is dismissed prior to the end of a term. This is called the Federal Return to Title IV Calculation. Title IV is the regulation under which federal student aid programs are administered.

Recalculation is based on the percent of aid earned using the following formula: the number of days completed up to the withdrawal date†, divided by the total days in the term.

Federal financial aid is returned based on the percentage of unearned aid using the following formula: 100%, minus the percent earned, multiplied by the amount of aid disbursed for the term. Students who complete at least 60 percent of the term are eligible to keep 100 percent of their federal aid for that term.

When aid is returned, the student may owe a balance to the University. The student should contact the Bursar’s Office to make arrangements to pay the balance.

Students will be sent a notice regarding the amount of aid they are eligible to keep. For loans not disbursed at the time of withdrawal, the student (or the parent-borrower of a Parent PLUS loan) must notify the Financial Aid Office in writing if they wish to accept the post-withdrawal disbursement of any loan funds. Students have 21 days from the date of the notice to accept a post-withdrawal disbursement of their loans.

Funds that could not have been disbursed at the time of withdrawal cannot be used as part of the calculation. This may include cases where master promissory note, loan entrance counseling, verification or other documents were not complete at the time of the withdrawal. This means a student may be eligible to keep less funds than expected because they did not meet the eligibility requirements to receive the funds at the time of the withdrawal.

*Federal financial aid includes the Pell Grant, SEOG Grant, TEACH Grant, Perkins Loan and Stafford, PLUS and Grad PLUS loans.

†Withdrawal date is defined as the date on which the student began the institution’s withdrawal process, the student’s last date of recorded attendance or academically related activity, or the midpoint of the semester if the aforementioned dates cannot be determined. The withdrawal date used is determined by the Financial Aid Office.