Return of Title IV Funds Policy

The Office of Financial Aid is required by federal statute to recalculate federal financial aid eligibility for students who withdraw, drop out, are dismissed or take a leave of absence prior to completing 60% of a payment period or term.  The federal Title IV financial aid programs must be recalculated in the situations.  Federal Title IV programs include Federal Pell Grant, Federal Supplemental Education Opportunity Grants (SEOG), Federal Perkins Loans, Federal Direct Subsidized and Unsubsidized Loans, Graduate PLUS Loans and Federal Parent (PLUS) Loans.

If a student leaves the institution prior to completing 60% of the payment period the financial aid office recalculates eligibility for Title IV funds.  Recalculation is based on the percentage of aid earned using the following Return of

Title IV funds formula: 

Percentage of payment period completed = the of days completed up to the withdrawal date divided by the total days in the payment period.  (Any break of five or more days is not counted as of the days in the payment period.)

Funds are returned to the appropriate programs based on the percentage of unearned aid using the following formula: 

Federal Title IV aid to be returned = (100% of the aid that could be disbursed minus the percentage of earned aid) multiplied by the total amount of the aid that could be disbursed during the payment period.

If a student earned less aid than what was disbursed , the institution would be required to return a portion of the funds and the student would be required to a return a portion of the funds.  If the school is returning Title IV funds, the student may owe the balance to the institution.

If a student earned more aid than was disbursed to his/her account, the institution would owe the student a post-withdrawal disbursement which must be applied within 120 says of the student's withdrawal.

Refunds of Title IV aid are allocated in the following order:

Unsubsidized Federal Direct Loans

Subsidized Federal Direct Loans

Federal Perkins Loans

Federal Direct PLUS (Parent) Loans

Federal Pell Grants for which a return of funds is required

Federal Supplemental Opportunity Grants for which a return is required

Other assistance under Title IV for which a refund is required