Treatment of Title IV (Federal) Aid When a Student Withdraws

Federal law specifies how MACC must determine the amount of Title IV program assistance you earn if you withdraw from school. The Title IV programs that are covered by this law are: Federal Pell Grants, Iraq and Afghanistan Service Grants, Academic Competitiveness Grants, National SMART grants, TEACH Grants, Stafford Loans, PLUS Loans, and Federal Supplemental Educational Opportunity Grants (FSEOGs).

When you withdraw during your semester the amount of Title IV program assistance that you have earned up to that point is determined by a specific formula. If you, MACC or your parent received on your behalf, less assistance than the amount that you earned, you may be able to receive those additional funds. If you received more assistance than you earned, the excess funds must be returned by the school and/or you. The amount of assistance that you have earned is determined on a prorata basis. For example, if you completed 30% of your payment period or period of enrollment, you earn 30% of the assistance you were originally scheduled to receive. Once you have completed more than 60% of the semester, you earn all the assistance that you were scheduled to receive for that period.

If you do not receive all of the funds that you earned, you may be due a Post-withdrawal disbursement. If your Post-withdrawal disbursement includes loan funds, MACC must get your permission before Title IV Funds can be disbursed. You may choose to decline some or all of the loan funds so that you don’t incur additional debt. MACC may automatically use all or a portion of your Post-withdrawal disbursement of grant funds for tuition, fees, books and room and board charges (as contracted with MACC).

There are some Title IV funds that you may be scheduled to receive that cannot be disbursed to you once you withdraw because of other eligibility requirements. For example, if you are a first-time, first-year undergraduate student and you have not completed the first 30 days of your program before you withdraw, you will not receive any Direct Loan funds that you would have received had you remained enrolled past the 30th day.

If you receive (or MACC or your parent receives on your behalf) excess Title IV program funds that must be returned, MACC must return a portion of the excess equal to the lesser of:

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

MACC must return this amount even if it didn’t keep this amount of your Title IV program funds.

If MACC is not required to return all of the excess funds, you must return the remaining amount. Any loan funds that you must return, you, or your parent for a 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. 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. You must make arrangements with MACC or the Department of Education to return the unearned grant funds.

The requirements for Title IV program funds when you withdraw are separate from the MACC Tuition Refund Policy. Therefore, you may still owe funds to MACC to cover unpaid institutional charges. MACC will also charge you for any Title IV program funds that the school was required to return. If you don’t already know what MACC’s refund policy is, you can obtain a copy in the Business Office, Student Service Office, Financial Aid Office, at any off-campus location, or online at www.macc.edu. You may also obtain a copy of the requirements and procedures for officially withdrawing from any of the offices and resources listed above.

Satisfactory Academic Progress (SAP)

A student will be placed on Financial Aid Suspension if he or she withdrawals from all courses, either officially, unofficially or administratively, or earns all Fs, or finishes a semester with a combination of withdrawals and Fs. Students will be notified in writing if they are placed on Financial Aid Suspension.

If you have questions about your Title IV program funds, you can call the Financial Aid Office at 1-800-622-2070, extension 11301. You may also contact the Federal Student Aid Information Center at 1-800-4-FEDAID (1-800-433-3243). TTY users may call 1-800-730-8913. Information is also available on Student Aid on the Web at www.studentaid.ed.gov.

Other important links:

MACC’s Tuition Refund Policy

How to Officially Withdrawal from MACC

MACC Satisfactory Academic Progress Policy

60% Point Dates

Example:

Below is one example of how the process works, other examples, based on different scenarios, are available from the Financial Aid Office upon request.

Scenario:

Joe enrolled in four, sixteen-week, three-credit hour courses for the fall semester. Joe was charged $112 per credit hour, for a total of $1,344. The semester began on August 22 and ended on December 7; there were no breaks longer than five days, so there 108 days in the fall semester. Joe’s last date of attendance in all of his courses, according to his instructor’s records, was September 30th, which was the 40th day of the semester. Joe did not withdraw within the first two weeks of the semester, therefore he is not eligible for a tuition refund according MACC’s policy.