Return to Title IV Policy

The law specifies how the school must determine the amount of Title IV program assistance that you earn if you withdraw from school. The Title IV programs that are covered by this law are: Federal Pell Grants, Iraq Afghanistan Service Grants, Academic Competitiveness Grants, National SMART grants, TEACH Grants, Stafford Loans, PLUS Loans, Federal Supplemental Educational Opportunity Grants(FSEOGs), and Federal Perkins Loans.

 

When you withdraw during your payment period the amount of Title IV program assistance that you have earned up to that point is determined by a specific formula. If you received (or the school or your parent received on your behalf) less assistance than the amount that you earned, you may be able to receive those additional funds. If you received more assistance than you earned, the excess funds must be returned by the school and/or you. Funds are returned within 45 days from the date of determination in the following order - Unsubsidized Loans, Subsidized Loans, Parent Plus loans, Pell Grant. Unofficial withdrawals shall occur when a student has not contacted the school within 14 calendar days from the last date of attendance and is not on an approved leave of absence. Official cancellation or withdrawal shall occur on the earlier of the dates that:

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1. An applicant is not accepted by the school. The applicant is entitled to a refund of all monies paid.
2. A student (or legal guardian) cancels his/her enrollment in writing within three business days of signing the enrollment agreement. In this case all monies collected by the school shall be refunded, minus the $100.00 non-refundable application fee, regardless of whether or not the student has actually started classes.
3. A student cancels his/her enrollment after three business days of signing, but prior to starting classes.  In this case, he/she shall be entitled to a refund of all monies paid to the school less the $100.00 nonrefundable application fee.
4. A student notifies the institution of his/her withdrawal.
5. A student on an approved leave of absence notifies the school that he or she will not be returning.  The date of withdrawal shall be the earlier of the date of expiration of the leave of absence or the date the student notifies the institution that the student will not be returning.
6. A student does not continue past the Trial Enrollment Period. In this case, student is entitled to a refund of all money paid to the school less the $100.00 non-refundable application fee.
7. A student is terminated by the school.

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In situations 2-5 above, the cancellation date will be determined by the postmark on written notification, or the date said information is delivered to the school in person.

 

The amount of assistance that you have earned is determined on a prorate basis. For example, if you were scheduled to complete 30% of your payment period, you earn 30% of the assistance you were originally scheduled to receive. Once you are scheduled to complete more than 60% of the payment period, you earn all the assistance that you were scheduled to receive for that period. All programs at this school are clock-hour, therefore all refund calculations are based on scheduled hours in the current payment period.

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If you did not receive all of the funds that you earned, you may be due a Post-withdrawal disbursement (PWD). If your PWD includes loan funds, the school must get your permission before it can disburse them. You may choose to decline some or all of the loan funds so that you don't incur additional debt. The school will provide a notification of an eligible PWD of loans within 30 calendar days of the date of the school's determination that the student has withdrawn, and the student or parent will have 30 days to respond to accept or decline funds.

 

The school may automatically use all or a portion of your PWD of grant funds for tuition, and fees due to the school. The school needs your permission to use the PWD for all other school charges. If you do not give your permission, you will be offered the funds. However, it may be in your best interest to allow the school to keep the funds to reduce your debt at the school.  Any portion of PWD of grant funds that is not credited to the student's account to cover allowable charges will be disbursed to the student as soon as possible but no later than 45 days after the date of the school's determination that the student withdrew.

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All PWD's are applied to a student account first, and any resulting credit balance will be disbursed to the student or parent within 14 days of the disbursement.

 

There are some Title IV funds that you were scheduled to receive that cannot be disbursed to you once you withdraw because of other eligibility requirements. For example, if you have not completed the first 30 days of your program before you withdraw, you will not receive any Direct Loan funds that you would have received had you remained enrolled past the 30th day.

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If you receive (or the school or your parent received on your behalf) excess Title IV program
funds that must be returned, your school must return a portion of the excess equal to the lesser of:

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1. your institutional charges multiplied by the unearned percentage of your funds, or
2. the entire amount of excess funds.

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The school must return this amount even if it didn't keep this amount of your Title IV program funds.

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If the school is not required to return all of the excess funds, you must return the remaining amount. Any loan funds that you must return, you (or your parent for a PLUS Loan) repay in accordance with the terms of the promissory note. That is, you make scheduled payments to the holder of the loan over a period of time.

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Any amount of unearned grant funds that you must return is called an overpayment. The maximum amount of a grant overpayment that you must repay is half of the grant funds you received.

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You do not have to repay a grant overpayment if the original amount of the overpayment is $50 or less.  You must make arrangements with the school or the Department of Education to return the unearned grant funds.

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The requirements for Title IV program funds when you withdraw are separate from any refund policy that the school may have. Therefore, you may still owe funds to the school to cover unpaid institutional charges. The school may also charge you for any Title IV program funds that the school was required to return.  Any credit balance will be disbursed as soon as possible but no later than 14 days after the calculation of a R2T4.

 

The school's refund policy can be found on your contract and in pages 11-12 of the Catalog. The schools requirements and procedures for officially withdrawing from school can be found in the Catalog.

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If you have questions about your Title IV program funds, you can call the Federal Student Aid
Information Center at 1-800-4-FEDAID (1-800-433-3243). Information is also available on Student Aid on the Web at www.studentaid.gov.