Return of Federal Student Aid
The Higher Education Act of 1965 (HEA, as amended) requires that the Financial Aid Office recalculates federal aid eligibility for a student who withdraws, begins a leave of absence, drops or otherwise stops attending 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.
Title IV aid includes:
- Pell Grant
- SEOG Grant
- TEACH Grant
- Direct (subsidized and unsubsidized) loans
- Direct Parent PLUS and Graduate PLUS loans
Of the federal student aid programs listed above, only the direct unsubsidized and Graduate PLUS loans are available to graduate students.
Veterans Educational benefits, Military Tuition Assistance and ROTC Scholarships are not Title IV aid programs and therefore are not affected by the Return to Title IV Calculation.
The recalculation of federal student aid is based on the percent of aid earned using the following formula: the number of days completed up to the withdrawal date (determined by the Financial Aid Office) divided by the total days in the academic period.
Federal financial aid is returned based on the percentage of unearned aid using the following formula: 100% minus the percent of aid earned, multiplied by the amount of aid disbursed for the term. Students who complete at least 60 percent of the term are considered to have earned 100 percent of their federal student aid.
Funds that could not have been disbursed at the time of withdrawal cannot be included in 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.
For loans not disbursed at the time of withdrawal, the student must notify the Financial Aid Office in writing if they wish to accept any post-withdrawal disbursement of loan funds. Students have 21 days from the date of the notice to accept a post-withdrawal disbursement of their loans.
In cases where a return of aid is required, students will be sent a notice regarding the amount of aid they are eligible to keep. The federal calculation will sometimes indicate that some aid must be returned by the school and a portion returned by the student. In cases when this occurs, UT will generally return all of the funds on the student's behalf so the student does not owe a repayment of federal student aid funds (which can affect aid eligibility at another school). When federal aid is returned, the student will owe a balance to the University. Students should contact the Bursar’s Office to make arrangements to pay the balance due.