Financial Aid Withdrawal Policy
The law specifies how Western Connecticut
State University must determine the amount of Title IV program
assistance that you earn if you withdraw from school. The Title IV
programs that are covered by this law are: Federal Pell Grants,
Academic Competitiveness Grants, National SMART grants, TEACH
Grants, Stafford Loans, PLUS Loans, Federal Supplemental Educational
Opportunity Grants (SEOG), and Federal Perkins Loans. WCSU uses the
same law to determine the earned portion of Connecticut Aid Public
University (CAPS) and Connecticut State University Grant (CSUG).
When you withdraw during your payment
period (semester) or period of enrollment the amount of Title IV
program assistance that you have earned up to that point is
determined by a specific formula. If you the student, Western 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 Western Connecticut State University and/or you.
The amount of financial aid assistance
that you have earned is determined on a pro-rata basis. For example,
if you completed 30% of your semester 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 payment period
(semester) or period of enrollment, you earn all the assistance that
you were scheduled to receive for that period.
If you did 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, Western must
get your permission before it can disburse them. You may choose to
decline some or all of the loan funds so that you don't incur
additional debt. Western Connecticut State University may
automatically use all or a portion of your Post-withdrawal
disbursement of grant funds for tuition, fees, and room and board
charges (as contracted with the school). The school needs your
permission to use the Post-withdrawal grant disbursement for all
other school charges. If you do not give your permission you will be
offered the funds. However, it may be in your best interest to allow
Western to keep the funds to reduce your debt at the school.
There are some Title IV funds that you
may have been scheduled to receive that cannot be disbursed to you
once you withdraw because of other eligibility requirements. An
example would be, 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 FFEL or Direct loan
funds that you would have received had you remained enrolled past
the 30th day. (Note this is currently not applicable to Western
because of our low student loan default rate)
If you receive (or Western or a parent
receives on your behalf) excess Title IV program funds that must be
returned, Western 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
If Western 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)
must 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 over payment is $50
or less. You must make arrangements with Western Connecticut State
University or the Department of Education to return the unearned
grant funds.
The requirements for Title IV program
funds when you withdraw are separate from Western Connecticut State
University tuition refund policy. Therefore, you may still owe funds
to Western Connecticut State University to cover unpaid
institutional charges. Western Connecticut State University may also
charge you for any Title IV program funds that the school was
required to return.
If you have questions about your Title IV
program funds, you can call 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.
