Withdrawal and Return of Title IV Funds

Withdrawal Procedures

To officially withdraw, students may drop their currently enrolled classes by notifying their Success Coach.  We strongly advise that, prior to taking an enrollment action, you discuss your options and the impacts of withdrawal with your Success Coach.

If you stop participating in all competency sets, do not officially withdraw, and fail to earn a passing grade in at least one competency set in a given subscription period, you may be considered an unofficial withdrawal. You may also be considered an unofficial withdrawal if you do not immediately resubscribe from one subscription period to the next.

At the end of each subscription period, the Student Financial Aid Office will identify students who have unofficially withdrawn. Students may be identified as unofficial withdrawals during a subscription period in progress if there is no evidence of educational activity and if they are unreachable by UW Flexible Option staff.

Students who withdraw officially or unofficially may have to repay some of the Federal Student Aid received.

Breaks/Deferment

If you choose to take a break or defer your subscription period, please contact your Success Coach to discuss how long you will defer and potential impacts from your decision.

If you take a break of one month or less, please work with your Success Coach to ensure that your break and intended return date are documented to avoid being considered as withdrawn. Breaks are documented for financial aid purposes through a student’s Academic Plan of Study.

If you plan to take more than one month off between subscription periods, you may be considered withdrawn and may have your financial aid eligibility recalculated. Upon your return, your financial aid will be reevaluated based on the return date and remaining program completion requirements.

Treatment of Federal Student Aid When a Student Withdraws

Title IV funds are Federal Student Aid (FSA) funds administered by the U.S. Department of Education. They include the Federal Pell Grant, Federal Supplemental Educational Opportunity Grant (FSEOG), Direct Loans (Subsidized, Unsubsidized and PLUS), and Perkins Loans. FSA funds are awarded under the assumption that you will be continuously enrolled and participating for the entire period for which funds are awarded.

The requirements for FSA funds when you withdraw are separate from the Tuition Refund Policy. Therefore, you may still owe to cover unpaid institutional charges. You may also be responsible for any remaining balances after required FSA funds are returned to the U.S. Department of Education.

Earning Federal Student Aid

If you withdraw during your payment period, the amount of FSA funds that you have earned up to that point is determined by a specific formula. If you received less funding than the amount that you earned, you may be able to receive those additional funds. If you received more funding than you earned, the excess funds must be returned by the school and/or you.

The amount of funding that you have earned is determined on a pro rata basis. For example, if you completed 30% of your payment period, you earn 30% of the funds you were originally scheduled to receive. Once you have completed more than 60% of the payment period, you earn all the funds that you were scheduled to receive for that period.

Since UW Flex programs are self-paced, nonterm programs, the Student Financial Aid Office will determine how much of the payment period has been completed based on your rate of progress demonstrated in the payment period as of the time you withdraw or cease attending.

EXAMPLE

To complete a financial aid payment period, you must successfully complete 12 credit hour equivalencies. At the time you withdraw, you have successfully earned 3 credit hour equivalencies during one subscription period. At this current pace of 3 credits earned every subscription period, you are projected to complete your twelfth credit in the fourth subscription period. The number of days you completed in the first subscription period is divided by the number of days in all four subscription periods to determine the percentage completed in the payment period based on your individual rate of progress.

90 days completed (1 subscription period) ÷ 364 days in the payment period (4 subscription periods) = 24.7%

Return of Federal Student Aid

If you (or your parent) receive excess FSA funds that must be returned, your school must return a portion of the excess equal to the lesser of:

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

Your school must return this amount even if it didn’t keep this amount of your FSA funds. If your school is not required to return all of the excess funds, you must return the remaining amount.

Loan funds: For any loan funds that you must return, you (or your parent for a Direct 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.

Grant funds: 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 or were scheduled to receive. You do not have to repay a grant overpayment if the original amount of the overpayment is $50 or less.

Post-Withdrawal Disbursements

If you did not receive all of the funds that you earned, you may be due a post-withdrawal disbursement.

Grant funds: All or a portion of grant funds in a post-withdrawal disbursement may automatically be applied to outstanding subscription fees and book charges. You must give permission to use post-withdrawal grant disbursement for all other charges. If you do not give your permission (some schools ask for this when you enroll), 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.

Loan funds: You must give permission before loan funds can be disbursed. You may choose to decline some or all of the loan funds so that you don’t incur additional debt.

In some cases certain Title IV funds that were previously awarded cannot be disbursed to you once you withdraw because of other eligibility requirements.