Return of Title IV Funds Policy

Title IV funds (federal aid programs except Federal Work-Study) are awarded to a student under the assumption that the student will attend school for which the assistance is awarded. When a student withdraws, he/she may no longer be eligible for the full amount of Title IV funds originally awarded. Therefore, the university will return certain Title IV funds on behalf of students who withdraw, drop out or are dismissed before completing 60% of the semester for which Title IV funds have been disbursed. The policy also applies to students who cease to attend classes without withdrawing and earn all “F” grades. The funds will be returned within forty five (45) days after determining the withdrawal date and/or the last day of class attendance.

The Title IV Refund Policy as authorized by the Higher Education Amendments of 1998 will be used to determine student refunds.

The institution must perform the following steps to return Title IV funds:

  • Determine the percentage of the days in the enrollment period the student completed based on the student’s last date of attendance.
  • Apply this same percentage to the total awarded Title IV aid for which the student established eligibility before withdrawing. (This gives the amount of earned aid.) If the percentage of earned aid is greater than 60%, the student does not have to return Title IV aid.
  • Subtract earned aid from disbursed aid. This gives the amount of unearned aid which must be returned to the Title IV programs.
  • Distribute responsibility for returning unearned aid by the school and the student. The amount of Title IV funds that must be returned to the Title IV Program is calculated by multiplying the total institutional cost by the percentage of unearned aid.
  • Allocate unearned aid back to the Title IV Program in the following order:
     
  1. Federal Unsubsidized Stafford Loan
  2. Federal Subsidized Stafford Loan
  3. Federal PLUS Loan
  4. Federal Pell Grant
  5. Federal SEOG
  6. Other Title IV Assistance

OVERPAYMENT (REPAYMENT) OF FEDERAL AID

An overpayment is the difference between the amount of cash disbursement given to a student for non-institutional costs and the amount of non-institutional costs that could reasonably have been incurred (based on the cost of attendance) for the period of time that a student was enrolled and attended classes. The overpayment amount is returned to the appropriate agency and the same amount is charged to the student’s account. The student is notified of the balance due to the university. Requests for an academic transcript will not be honored until the debt is paid in full.

Repayments are allocated to the student aid programs according to statutory and regulatory requirements in the following specific order:

  1. Federal Pell Grant Program
  2. Federal SEOG Program
  3. Other student financial aid programs
  4. Other federal, state, private, or institutional sources of aid

 * For information on financial aid refunds, please see the Financial Aid Tuition & Fees page.