Understanding Return of Federal Aid due to Withdrawals (R2T4)

You must officially withdraw from all your classes using the appropriate registration procedures, Dropping and Withdrawing from Classes. When you officially withdraw from all your classes our office is notified. If required, we will do the recalculation of aid for you. If you provided Enrollment Services a signed statement indicating the date you began the withdrawal process or called Enrollment Services and indicated your intent to withdraw, the earliest date will be using in performing the recalculation. This date will only be used for the aid recalculation; it will not be used in possible fee refund determination or recorded as your official withdrawal date by the campus.

We must recalculate your eligibility according to federal regulations for the aid you have received if you withdraw from all your classes.

The return of funds by the school is paid from University resources, which may create an obligation from you to the University. Any grant repayment you may owe will be payable to the campus. Any return of loan funds required of you will be in accordance with the terms of the promissory note.

If a fee refund is applicable these funds will first be used to cover any school return of funds, then student portion, with any remainder being issued to you.

If you owe a repayment, you will receive a billing notice from Student Account Services for the amount of funds for which you are not eligible. If you are eligible to receive additional funds, we will send you a notice explaining the process and your options.

Until you pay the balance in full: you will not be eligible for further federal financial aid and not be allowed to enroll in any future semesters or access University services (transcripts, etc.).

The first step is to determine the date you began the withdrawal process. Based on available information, we use the earliest date, which is established as described above.

Remember that this date is only for the purposes of the Federal aid recalculation. If you provide notification of intent to withdraw, the date of the notification will not be used in possible fee refund determination or recorded as your official withdrawal date by the campus.

Based on the date you began the withdrawal process we then determine the percentage of the semester you attended. This percentage is then applied to the aid disbursed or that could have been disbursed to determine the amount you earned. If the amount disbursed to you is less than the amount you earned, we will notify you of your eligibility and give you the opportunity to receive that aid. If the amount disbursed to you is greater than the amount you earned, then unearned funds have to be returned. This may include a return of funds by the school and repayment by you.

Aid will be returned in the following order (as required under regulation):

• Unsubsidized Federal Stafford Loan
• Subsidized Federal Stafford Loan
• PLUS Loan (Graduate Student)
• Federal PLUS Loan (Parent)
• Federal Pell Grant
• Federal Supplemental Educational Opportunity Grant (FSEOG)

How does the Financial Aid Office determine the withdrawal date for purposes of recalculating financial aid eligibility?

During the first two weeks of the term, we use the date you accessed MyCSULB and withdrew from all of your classes.  After this initial period we are required to use the earliest date that we became aware of your withdrawal. We will determine this date using the earliest of the following:

• The date you began the withdrawal process which is the date you obtained the appropriate form from the Enrollment Services website with the intent to withdraw from all registered classes. Since you can perform this action unmonitored (self-service) and the institution cannot determine whether your intent was a partial or full withdrawal, you must provide a signed statement as to this date if you wish to declare the date you began the process. The date you provided official notification to the institution of your intent to withdraw from all your classes by submitting an approved and completed withdrawal form to Enrollment Services. In the event of a medical withdrawal, the withdrawal date is the date indicated by the physician that you were unable to participate in academic activities.

And

• You have received a financial aid refund or financial aid has been applied to your account from any of the following federal programs:
  • Pell Grant
  • Federal Supplemental Educational Opportunity Grant (FSEOG)
  • Direct Subsidized or Unsubsidized Loan
  • Parent Loan for Students (PLUS)