Return of Title IV Funds Policy

Federal regulation requires Title IV financial aid funds to be awarded under the assumption that a student will attend the institution for the whole period of enrollment in which federal assistance was awarded. When a student withdraws from all courses for any reason, the student may no longer be eligible for the full amount of Title IV funds that they were initially scheduled to receive. If a student receives Title IV grant or loan funds and withdraws from a school after beginning attendance, the amount of Title IV grant or loan assistance earned by the student must be determined by the school performing a R2T4 calculation.

Students who officially withdraw from Northshore Technical Community College on or before the last date of withdrawal for the semester will receive a grade of a “W” for each enrolled course. The course and grade of “W” will be posted to the student’s permanent record, but will not be included in the calculation of the semester cumulative grade point average.

For a student who discontinues their attendance without officially withdrawing, may remain on the class roster, and may be assigned a grade of “F” by the instructor. For unofficial withdrawals, the withdrawal date is defined as either the midpoint of the semester or the last documented date of attendance at an academically-related activity.

The Office of Student Financial Assistance must calculate the amount of financial aid a student earned prior to withdrawing. Any Title IV aid received in excess of the earned amount is considered unearned. Unearned aid must be returned to the corresponding Federal Aid program(s).

Earned Aid - A student has not earned 100% of their financial aid until the student has attended more than 60% of the term. If a financial aid recipient totally withdraws on or before the 60% point of the term, there is a portion of the aid that has not been earned. The percentage of earned aid is determined by taking the number of days attended divided by the total number of days in the term. For example:

Unearned Aid - The percentage of unearned aid is calculated by subtracting the earned percentage from 100%. The unearned aid in the previous example is determined by the following formula:

Once the earned and unearned aid percentages are determined, the next step is to calculate the dollar amount of total unearned aid that must be returned. The return of unearned aid amount is determined by multiplying the unearned aid percentage by the total of all Title IV aid disbursed or eligible to be disbursed. The unearned aid percentage of 58% would be multiplied by the student's total aid disbursed:

A school must return Title IV funds to the programs from which the student received aid during the payment period or period of enrollment as applicable, in the following order, up to the net amount disbursed from each source.

• Federal Pell Grants
• Federal Supplemental Educational Opportunity Grants (FSEOG)
• Iraq and Afghanistan Service Grant

Northshore Technical Community College must return unearned funds within 45 days of the date of determination of the withdrawal date. If aid disbursed is less than aid earned, the student may be due a post-withdrawal disbursement.

Post-Withdrawal Disbursements - If a student totally withdraws from a semester and receives less federal aid than the amount earned, then the student may be eligible for a post-withdrawal disbursement. The student must have met all of the conditions for a late disbursement prior to withdrawing. Grant funds will automatically be applied towards outstanding charges created by the withdrawal