Financial Aid Process

If you withdraw from your courses, either officially or unofficially, we will determine how much of your Federal Title IV aid has been earned. This is called a Return of Title IV aid calculation and it enables us to determine how much of the federal funding was earned at the time of the withdrawal. Withdrawing may also affect your Satisfactory Academic Progress and may jeopardize future financial aid eligibility. To make sure you understand the possible impact on your financial aid, you should contact Flyer Student Services (fss@udayton.edu) in St. Mary’s Hall, Room 108, before you withdraw from the University.

Federal Title IV aid includes:

• Federal Pell Grant
• Federal Supplemental Educational Opportunity Grant (SEOG)
• Teacher Education Assistance for College and Higher Education (TEACH) Grant
• Federal Direct Loans
• Federal PLUS Loans

Students who withdraw from all of their classes in a term may only keep the federal aid earned up to the point of withdrawal. Federal Title IV funds that were disbursed in excess of the earned amount must be returned. The result may be money owed to the University, the federal government or both. In some instances, this can result in an amount that needs to be returned by the student in excess of the amount returned by the school. This financial aid that you initially received were funds that were intended to pay your education-related expenses throughout the entire term. Since you are no longer enrolled through the entire term, your eligibility may be revised.

The amount to be returned to the Federal Government will be calculated based on the date that you officially withdrew from classes. If the withdrawal was unofficial, then the last date you were involved in an academically related activity will be used. An unofficial withdrawal is when a student stops attending classes, but does not withdraw from those classes or notify the University (eventually receiving F grades for all courses he/she is enrolled in). To determine the date of an unofficial withdrawal, each professor will be asked to provide the last date of attendance.

Earned aid is determined based on the number of calendar days the student attended classes (i.e. the number of days in the term prior to the date of withdrawal) divided by the total number of calendar days in the term. The result is a percentage of federal aid funds that the student is entitled to keep. For example, a student who attends 20% of the term has earned approximately 20% of the total aid value that was disbursed to their bill. Federal financial aid will be returned in the order listed below.

The date of the withdrawal will be used to determine the percentage of the term that you attended. This percentage is then used to determine the amount of aid that you are eligible to continue receiving. Once a student has attended 60% or more of the term, 100% of federal aid has been earned and no adjustments will be made to the awarded funds. Any aid that must be returned to the government will be returned within 45 days of the date we determined your withdrawal. Federal financial aid will be returned in the following order:

1. Unsubsidized Direct Loan
2. Subsidized Direct Loan
3. Direct Parent Loan (PLUS)
4. Direct Grad Plus
5. Pell Grant
6. Supplemental Educational Opportunity Grant
7. TEACH Grant

Normally a student’s Federal Title IV aid has posted while the student is still enrolled. However, in some cases, students may qualify for a disbursement of federal Title IV aid after completing the withdrawal process if the amount of aid they received was less than the amount they earned based on the return of Title IV calculation. This process is known as a “post-withdrawal disbursement.” If a student is determined to be eligible for a post-withdrawal disbursement of either federal grants or federal loans, the Office of the Financial Aid will email the student to notify them of their eligibility.

Students eligible for grant funds via post-withdrawal disbursement will automatically have those grant funds applied to their bill without needing to take any additional actions. Grant funds will be disbursed no later than 45 days. Students who are eligible for a post-withdrawal loan disbursement will be notified of eligibility within 30 days and have 14 days to respond in writing that they wish to receive the loans. Instructions for this response will be included in the email notification. You may choose to accept only an amount for the balance due to the University or, if eligible, to accept a larger amount that will result in excess funds being returned to you.

Students eligible for a post-withdrawal disbursement will have their funds applied in a specified manner. First, we will use the post-withdrawal disbursement to cover any charges on the bill related to tuition, housing, or other institutional charges prior to issuing funds to the student. A credit refund will only be issued if there is a credit balance on the student’s account after the charges have been paid. Credit refunds will be disbursed to the student within 14 days after the withdrawal calculation.

For all programs offered in modules (courses offered over a portion of a term, but not the whole term), you are considered to have withdrawn if you cease attendance at any point prior to completing the semester or term, unless you provide written (email) confirmation at the time of the withdrawal that you will enroll in a course that begins later in the same semester or term.

In addition to the scenario above, the following scenarios are also considered a withdrawal and may impact financial aid eligibility.

• Completing a course in the first session of the term, but failing to return for any future courses that begin later in the same term.
• Completing all courses in the first session of the term and dropping courses that begin later in the term.

If you are enrolled in a course offered as a module and are considering dropping classes, you are encouraged to contact Flyer Student Services (fss@udayton.edu) to discuss the potential impact to your financial aid.