Award Letter

If you withdraw from the university and have received financial aid, any refundable amount of your institutional charges (tuition and fees and/or university housing costs) may be returned to the appropriate financial aid sources. You may be expected to repay the “unearned” portion of your financial aid if you withdraw from school or receive any combination of Y/W grades in all courses in a particular term.

Below are two examples of the calculations used to determine the amount of unearned aid a student would be expected to repay based on the reported last day of attendance of the term from which a student withdraws:

Example 1

Donald Duck stopped attending classes on January 26 and contacted Academic Advising to withdraw from the university. The term began on January 5 and is 75 days long. Donald has attended 22 days and has earned 29.3% of his financial aid. (22 days divided by 75 days = 29.3%) 

1. The amount of federal aid earned by the student is 29.3% x $3667=$1074.43
2. The total federal aid unearned is $3667 - $1074.43=$2592.57
3. The second calculation determines percentage of amount unearned based on school charges for tuition and on campus room and board. Donald was charged on his student billing account $1843 in tuition and did not live in the dorms. Percentage of unearned aid for this second calculation is 100%-29.3%=70.7%, therefore based on the tuition charges for the term $1843 x 70.7% = $1303.
4. The amount to be returned in federal aid is the lesser of number 2 or number 3, which for this example is $1303. This is the amount that must be returned from Donald’s federal financial aid. 
5. Federal guidelines determine the order of aid types to be reduced: Stafford Loans, Parent PLUS Loans, and then Pell Grant for Donald until $1303 has been repaid. Therefore Donald’s aid will be reduced to:

The total returned amount reflects the amount to be billed to Donald’s student billing account from his financial aid. Any refunds from tuition that are determined and applied to his account may affect the amount that Donald owes for winter term. Please review related topic links below.

Example 2

Daisy Duck stopped attending classes on January 10 and contacted Academic Advising to do a complete withdraw. The term began on January 5 and is 75 days long. Daisy has attended 6 days and has earned 8% of her financial aid. (6 days divided by 75 days = 8.0%)

1. The amount of federal aid earned by the student is 8.0% x $3212=$256.96
2. The total federal aid to be unearned is $3212 - $256.96=$2955.04
3. The second calculation determines percentage of amount unearned based on school charges for tuition and on campus room and board. Daisy was charged on her student billing account $1843 in tuition and $2298 for living in the dorms. Percentage of unearned aid is 100%-8.0%=92.0% therefore based on the charges for the term $4141 x 92.0% = $3809.72
4. The amount to be returned in federal aid is the lesser of number 2 or number 3, which for this example is $2955.04. This is the amount that must be returned from Daisy’s federal financial aid. 
5. Federal guidelines determine the order of aid types to be reduced: Stafford Loans, Perkins Loan, and then Pell Grant for Daisy until $2955 has been repaid. Therefore Daisy’s aid will be reduced to:
   
   

   Federal Stafford Loan	$862	- $862	= $0
   Perkins Loan	$1000	- $1000	= $0
   Pell Grant	$1350	- $1093	= $257
   Total aid winter term		$2955

   
   
   The total returned amount reflects the amount to be billed to Daisy’s student billing account from her financial aid. Any refunds from tuition that are determined and applied to her account may affect the amount that Daisy owes for winter term. Please review related topic links below.
   

Related topics linked: Refund Schedules, Academic Advising, Satisfactory Academic Progress information.

To receive and maintain eligibility for aid, you must make satisfactory academic progress toward your degree. This means that you must earn a minimum number of credits each term. Credit is earned for A, B, C, D and P. Credit is not earned for W, I, Y, N, AU and F. 

The minimum number of credits required is based upon the enrollment level used to determe your aid eligibility.

At the end of summer, fall and winter terms, the number of credits you have earned is compared to your minimum credit requirement. Depending on the number of credits earned, your are then set to either Satisfactory, Warning, Probation or Hold.

Once on hold you are not eligible for aid until you either complete the equivalent of a full time term without aid or successfully petition to have the aid released. Aid is defined as all federal, state, institutional and in most cases, private funds.

If you are on warning or probation you are still eligible for aid. However, you are required to make up all deficient credits by the end of spring term. At that time, your minimum credit requirement for summer, fall, winter and spring are combined. If you are deficient any number of credits, further aid is placed on hold.

Since satisfactory academic progress is cumulative, you can be placed on hold prior to the end of spring term if you complete so few credits in summer, fall, and winter that we cannot reasonably expect those credits to be made up by the end of spring.

Petition Process

Complete and submit a Satisfactory Academic Progress Petition. Forms are available in the Office of Student Financial Aid. Petitions for reinstatement are approved only if you can document extenuating circumstances and if there appears to be reasonable evidence that you will make satisfactory progress in the future.