Withdrawal Policy

Return of Title IV Funds (R2T4)

Official Withdraws

Students are awarded financial aid at the start of an academic year, but funds are ‘earned’ based on attendance and successful completion of courses. If a financial aid recipient withdraws during a semester, the student may not have earned the funds received, and the Office of Scholarships and Financial Aid must re-calculate aid eligibility based on the length of time the student attended. This is called a Return to Title IV Calculation, or R2T4. . The calculation is determined based on the number of calendar days the student attended, and divided by the total number of calendar days (including weekends, holidays, and breaks less than 5 days) for the semester. The total number of days for a semester may vary if the student is attending in modules instead of full semesters (example 7 week modules, 4-week modules, etc). Unearned funds must be returned to federal, state, and institutional financial aid programs, and in many cases, this will cause the student to owe a balance to the university.

Federal regulations determine the order in which funds are returned to government aid programs. Funds are returned in the following order:

Unsubsidized Loan
Subsidized Loan
PLUS Loan
Pell Grant
Iraq and Afghanistan Service Grants
Supplemental Educational Opportunity Grant
Other Federal Title IV Aid

A student is determined to be an official withdraw if all courses have been dropped or the student has been withdrawn from ALL courses for any given semester. The date used in the Return to Title IV calculation is the date that the student dropped or withdrew from all courses, or the last date of academically related activity if this is known to be different (example-medical withdraw, notification from faculty or advisor, military deployment).

Returning Funds

Funds will be returned to the Department of Education within 45 days of the withdraw date. If the student has a credit balance after the calculation of the return of funds, a refund will be issued to the student within 14 days of the date of return of funds calculation.

Amounts owed by the student: The return of funds calculation may require the student to pay back a portion of federal funding received. Federal grants which were overpaid to the student by more than 50% of what was earned will require repayment by the student (if this amount exceeds $50). Students will be notified by UW-Parkside how to make this repayment. Federal loan overpayments will follow repayment requirements as agreed upon via the students signed Master Promissory Note.

Post-Withdrawal Disbursement

If a student withdraws before receiving a financial aid disbursement, under certain circumstances, the student may be eligible for a post-withdrawal disbursement. The Financial Aid Office will contact the student (or parent in the case of a Parent PLUS Loan) to request permission to disburse these funds. If the signed authorization is not received in the timeframe indicated on the letter sent to the student, the funds will be cancelled.

Timeframes for a Post Withdrawal Disbursement
If the student is eligible for a post-withdrawal disbursement, the funds must be disbursed in the following timelines:

Grants: Within 45 days of the date of determination of the withdrawal
Loans: Within 30 days of the date of the determination of the withdrawal

Post withdrawal disbursements will first be applied to any outstanding institutional charges. If institutuional charges are fully covered, any credit created by the post withdrawal disbursement will be refunded to the student no later than 14 days after the funds are applied.

Unofficial Withdrawals

If a student stops attending without withdrawing from the courses, the student is considered an unofficial withdrawal, and a Return to Title IV (R2T4) calculation will be performed to determine the aid earned. When a student receives a course graded with an “F” grade, faculty are required to report a last week of attendance along with that failing grade. For example, an “F10” would indicate the student stopped attending in the 10th week of class. While this number doesn’t show on the transcript, The Office of Scholarships and Financial Aid will review these grades to determine the total length of time the student attended, and perform a return of title IV (R2T4) aid calculation based on this information. The date used for this calculation will be the last date of the highest numbered week associated with the students F grades. For such students that a date cannot be determined, the mid-point of the semester will be used as the last date of attendance. Students will be notified of changes in eligibility following the same process as ‘official’ withdraws.

Students Attending Module Courses

Courses which do not span the length of the semester are considered to be "module" courses. This includes 7 week courses during fall and spring terms and most courses attended during the summer. Students may be considered to have withdrawn, even if a module course is completed. If a student drops one or more courses and is no longer actively attending, the student may be considered withdrawn for financial aid purposes and aid may be adjusted accordingly. Students enrolled in future modules may be required to submit written confirmation they plan to attend those courses.

Timing

The Office of Scholarships and Financial Aid is notified bi-weekly of students who have dropped or withdrawn from all courses. For students who appear on this list, and have officially withdrawn, a Return to Title IV Aid calculation will be completed within 45 days from the date the withdraw occurred. For students who withdraw unofficially, a report will be processed after grades post each semester, and the Return to Title IV calculation will be completed within 45 days of that date.

Notification

The student will receive a paper letter and email notification from the Office of Scholarships and Financial Aid typically within one to three weeks after fully withdrawing from classes in any semester. This notification will inform the student what aid was returned and other pertinent information regarding loan repayment. The Cashier’s Office will mail a billing statement shortly after this to inform the student of any remaining balance to the institution or to the Department of Education.

Impact of Withdrawing

Future Semesters

According to our Satisfactory Academic Progress (SAP) policy, the university must keep track of the number of credits a student attempts versus the number of credits completed. Student who do not maintain at least a 67% completion rate are ineligible for aid for future semesters. All classes with a "W" grade are considered attempted credits. You can click here to read our full SAP policy for details.

Loan Repayment

Students are granted a 6 month grace period for Direct loans (subsidized and unsubsidized loans). When a student withdraws, the withdrawal date begins the calculation of the grace period. If the student is unable to or is not planning to return to school within the grace periods, the loans will enter repayment. If the student is planning to return to school at or near the end of the grace period, the student should anticipate receiving notifications of payments due and MAY be required to make one or more student loan payments before the loans return to an in-school deferred status. Students must also remember that to qualify for an in-school deferment, you MUST be attending at least “half time”. Students returning from a withdrawn status should continue to make payments until notified otherwise. Failure to make payments can have serious consequences on credit and future aid eligibility. Students can learn more about their loans by going to the Federal Student Aid Website.