Find out more about what happens to your financial aid if you withdraw from school or fail to earn credit for any courses.
The Office of Scholarships & Financial Aid is required by the Higher Education Act of 1965, as amended in 1998, to determine the amount of financial aid that a student "earned" for an academic semester when the student does not complete at least one course within that semester.
Although financial aid is posted at the beginning of each semester, students earn the funds as they complete the period. If a student fully withdraws from the semester, the amount of the federal and state aid that has been earned up to that point is determined by a specific formula. This does not apply to single-course withdrawals, unless that course is the only one a student is currently taking.
Students who fail to earn any credit (for example, receiving all "F" grades) within an academic semester for which financial aid is received will be reviewed for a Return of Title IV Funds calculation. This includes students who officially or unofficially withdraw during a semester.
An official withdrawal is a student's formal notification of his or her intent to withdraw from all courses for a term. To officially withdraw, a student must follow the instructions for complete term withdrawal. An unofficial withdrawal occurs when a student stops attending classes without completing the official withdrawal process; considered "walking away."
The Return of Title IV Funds is based on the premise that students "earn" financial aid for each calendar day that they attend classes. For example, if a student attends 40 days of a semester that is 80 calendar days in length, the student will have earned 50% of the awarded financial aid. The student's withdrawal date determines the last date of attendance and the number used to calculate the percentage of aid earned. The withdrawal date is the date of the student's official or unofficial withdrawal.
Students who complete more than 60% of the semester are considered to have earned 100% of their financial aid.
Federal law specifies how we must determine the amount of Title IV (federal) funds that a student earns if he or she withdraws from school. The Title IV programs covered by this law are:
If a student receives excess Title IV program funds that must be returned, we must return a portion of the excess equal to the lesser of:
State aid from North Carolina is similarly recalculated and the unearned portion is returned to the state in accordance with the NCSEAA return policy (PDF).
Institutional aid is also recalculated and adjusted based on the University's Withdrawal Credit Schedule.
To find out how withdrawing from classes may impact your aid, please use our Financial Aid Withdrawal Calculator. This calculator is term specific and is updated at the start of each new term. Depending on a variety of circumstances, the amounts that are estimated in this calculation may not always be accurate. For additional guidance, please contact your Financial Aid Counselor.
To find out how withdrawing from classes may impact your Satisfactory Academic Progress (SAP), please visit our Keeping Your Aid page. As always, for additional guidance and questions, please contact your Financial Aid Counselor.