Withdrawing & Financial Aid

A student who leaves the University of Denver during any term must follow certain withdrawal procedures. Please refer to the Office of Registrar website at http://www.du.edu/registrar/regbill/reg_withdrawal.html for information on how to withdraw from the University.

All students must meet with an advisor in the Office of Financial Aid if they have or have had any form of financial assistance at DU for an exit interview.

Any student who begins classes at DU, applies for financial aid, completes all of the requirements to obtain aid, and then withdraws from classes may have his or her financial aid adjusted according to federal, state, and institutional regulations.

Students who withdraw during the 100% refund period (drop/add) for any term will have all of their aid for that term canceled and returned. Students who drop below the number of hours reflected in their financial aid budget during drop/add will have their budget adjusted to reflect the new hours and the aid adjusted accordingly.

Federal Regulations Regarding Withdrawals

Title IV Funds Included

For the purposes of this discussion, the following funds are included in the calculations described below:

• Federal Stafford Loans (Unsubsidized)
• Federal Stafford Loans (Subsidized)
• Federal Perkins Loans
• Federal Parent Loan for Undergraduate Students (PLUS)
• Federal Pell Grants
• Federal SEOG Grants

Earned Title IV Aid

Title IV funds are awarded to students under the assumption they will attend school for the entire period for which the aid is awarded. Upon withdrawing from the University of Denver, a student may no longer be eligible for the entire amount of Title IV aid her or she was awarded and/or received. The University of Denver Office of Financial Aid is required to calculate how much of the Title IV aid the student is eligible.

Federal regulations state that a student earns Title IV aid based on the period of time he or she remains enrolled for a particular term:

Enrolled Days
------------------------------- = % of Title IV Aid Earned
Days in the Enrollment Period

If the student remains enrolled beyond the 60% point, they have earned all of their Title IV aid for that period.

Any student who begins classes at DU, applies for financial aid, completes all of the requirements to obtain aid, and then fails to receive at least one passing grade for the term (or fails to complete the withdrawal process listed above) may have the financial aid adjusted according to federal, state, and institutional regulations. (All regulations below also apply to these students.) Students in this situation will have their Title IV withdrawal calculated at the 50% point unless a last date of attendance is recorded by the student’s instructor in the DU computer system. Please note that an Incomplete is not considered, according to Federal regulations, to be a passing grade.

If the amount disbursed is less than the amount the student is eligible to receive, the student will receive a post-withdrawal disbursement to his or her tuition account at the University of Denver. If this post-withdrawal disbursement contains loan funds, the student may elect to decline these funds so he or she does not incur additional debt. The student will be notified of any post-withdrawal disbursements he or she will receive via email at their DU account. The University of Denver may automatically use all or a portion of a post-withdrawal disbursement (including accepted loan funds) for tuition, fees, or room and board charges. For all other charges on the student's account, the student must authorize the school to use the post-withdrawal disbursement to cover them by completing a Title IV Authorization Form. If the student does not authorize the school to use these funds, they will be refunded to the student and the student will be responsible for the balance due.

There are some types of Title IV aid students may be scheduled to receive that they cannot earn once they have withdrawn because of other eligibility requirements. For example, a first-time, first-year undergraduate student who has not completed the first 30 days of his or her program before withdrawing will not earn any Stafford loan funds her or she would have received had the student remained enrolled past the 30th day.

Repayment of Unearned Aid

If the amount of aid disbursed to the student is greater than the amount he or she is eligible to receive, the amount over must be returned. If a balance is created on the student's DU tuition account, the student will be billed and is responsible for these charges. This means that the student may be required to return all or a portion of a refund check he or she has received from the University of Denver.

The unearned portion of a student's aid must be returned to the lender/guarantor/servicer/Dept. of Ed. as appropriate. The responsibility to repay this aid is shared by the student and the University of Denver. The University of Denver's share is the lesser of:

• the total amount of unearned aid or
• the institutional charges for the term multiplied by the percentage of unearned aid.

If the unearned aid is greater than the percentage of unearned instituational charges, the student is responsible for returning the difference between these amounts. Any loan amounts that must be returned (either the student's loan or the parent's PLUS loan) must be repaid in accordance with the terms of that loan's promissory note (i.e. the student will make scheduled payments to the holder of the loan over a period of time).

Any unearned grant funds that the student must repay is called an overpayment. The amount that the student must repay is equal to half of the unearned amount. The University of Denver will return any grant funds required on the student's behalf, and the amounts paid on the student's behalf will be charged to the student's tuition account. The student must make arrangements with DU to pay back the unearned grant funds.

Questions

Students with questions about this process can call the Office of Financial Aid (303.871.4020) or the Federal Student Aid Information Center (800.4.FEDAID). The Office of Financial Aid is open from 8am-4:30pm M-F (MST) and the Federal Student Aid Information Center is open from 8am-Midnight (EST) 7 days/week. TTY users may call the Federal Student Aid Information Center at 800.730.8913. The Center also has information online at www.studentaid.ed.gov.

State & Institutional Regulations Regarding Withdrawals

All state and institutional grants for the withdrawal term will be reduced if they exceed the student's tuition charges for that term. If the student withdrew and all of the tuition is not refunded to him or her, any state or institutional grants received for that term can be used to help cover this expense, not to exceed tuition.

If the student has taken out a private loan for the withdrawal term and the student has a credit on his or her account after all other aid has been returned according to the regulations listed above, the University of Denver will return private loan funds to the student's lender. The amount returned will be the lesser of the credit amount on the student's tuition account or the total amount of the private loan for the term. Any remaining credit will be sent to the student in the form of a check from the Bursar's Office.