Treatment of Title IV Aid When a Student Withdraws
The law specifies how Bristol Community College 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, Iraq and Afghanistan Service Grants, TEACH Grants, Direct Loans, Direct PLUS Loans, and Federal Supplemental Educational Opportunity Grants (FSEOGs).
How Bristol determines your withdrawal date
Students are expected to follow Bristol's official withdrawal policy. The withdrawal policy requires students to officially withdraw from the college in writing by completing the College withdrawal form. For the purposes of calculating the return to Title IV, the College will use the date the students begins the withdrawal process or the date the student otherwise provides notification as the student's withdrawal date.
Students who do not follow the official withdrawal policy may be administratively withdrawn from the College if the college determines that they stopped attending all of their scheduled courses. For the purposes of calculating the return to Title IV, the College will determine the withdrawal date for students no later than 30 days after the end of the semester and in accordance with the College’s withdrawal policy.
The college will determine if a student who fails to follow the official withdrawal procedure has withdrawn from the institution.
A student who does not receive an earned grade of A, B, C, D, or F will be evaluated by the Registrar’s office at the end of each semester. Students in this category may receive an I – Incomplete as a result of not completing some of their coursework in a class. Students who do not complete coursework within the designated timeframe will receive a WF unless otherwise indicated by the faculty member on the Incomplete Grade Form. A WF grade indicates the student did not officially withdraw from the class, did not complete the coursework and failed the class. Students who did not officially withdraw from the course but who, in the opinion of the instructor, failed to provide sufficient evidence for evaluation of academic performance are awarded a grade of “WF.” A student whose transcript reflects a combination of all W and/or WF grades for a semester will be reviewed by the registrar's office to determine if they have totally withdrawn from the college. Students determined to have fully withdrawn will be processed as a total withdrawal effective as of either the midpoint of the semester or the last date of an academically related activity in which the student participated, as documented by a school official or faculty member. For more information, please review the college's withdrawal policy.
Timeframe for the return of Title IV funds
Per federal regulations, Bristol must return unearned funds for which it is responsible as soon as possible but no later than 45 days from the determination of a student’s withdrawal.
Explanation of the calculation
Though your aid is posted to your account at the start of each period, you earn the funds as you complete the period. If you withdraw during the semester, the amount of Title IV program assistance that you have earned up to that point is determined by a specific formula.
If you received (or Bristol 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.
Funds Earned
The amount of assistance you have earned is determined on a pro rata basis. For example if you completed 30% of the semester, you earn 30% of the assistance that you were originally scheduled to receive. Once you have completed more than 60% of the semester, you earn all the assistance 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.
The amount of title IV grant or loan assistance that is earned by the student is calculated by determining the percentage of title IV grant or loan assistance that has been earned by the student, and applying this percentage to the total amount of title IV grant or loan assistance that was disbursed (and that could have been disbursed, to the student, or on the student's behalf, for the payment period as of the student's withdrawal date.
The percentage of title IV grant or loan assistance that has been earned by the student is equal to the percentage of the payment period that the student completed as of the student's withdrawal date, if this date occurs on or before completion of 60 percent of the payment period or 100 percent, if the student's withdrawal date occurs after completion of 60 percent of the payment period for a program that is measured in credit hours.
Post Withdrawal Disbursements
If your post-withdrawal disbursement includes loan funds, Bristol Community College 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. Bristol Community College 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 institutional charges. If you do not give your permission (some schools ask for this when you enroll), you will be offered the funds. However, it may be in your best interest to allow the school to keep the funds to reduce your debt at the school.
There are some Title IV funds that you were 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.
Funds Returned
The percentage of title IV grant or loan assistance that has not been earned by the student is calculated by determining the complement of the percentage of title IV grant or loan assistance earned by the student. The unearned amount of title IV assistance to be returned is calculated by subtracting the amount of title IV assistance earned by the student from the amount of title IV aid that was disbursed to the student as of the date of the institution's determination that the student withdrew.
Unearned funds returned by the institution or the student, as appropriate, must be credited to outstanding balances on title IV loans made to the student or on behalf of the student for the payment period for which a return of funds is required.
Those funds must be credited to outstanding balances for the payment period or period of enrollment for which a return of funds is required in the following order:
- Unsubsidized Federal Direct Stafford loans
- Subsidized Federal Direct Stafford loans
- Federal Direct PLUS received on behalf of the student
If unearned funds remain to be returned after repayment of all outstanding loan amounts, the remaining excess must be credited to any amount awarded for the payment period for which a return of funds is required in the following order:
- Federal Pell Grants
- Iraq and Afghanistan Service Grants
- FSEOG Program aid
- TEACH Grants
If you receive (or Bristol Community College or your parent receive on your behalf) excess Title IV program funds that must be returned, Bristol Community College 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.
The school must return this amount even if it didn’t keep this amount of your Title IV program funds.
If Bristol Community College is not required to return all of the excess funds, you must return the remaining amount.
For any loan funds that you must return, you (or your parent for a Direct 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 Bristol Community College or the Department of Education to return the unearned grant funds.
The requirements for Title IV program funds when you withdraw are separate from Bristol’s refund policy. Please refer to the refund policy for information about how your charges are handled when you withdraw. Therefore, you may still owe funds to the school to cover unpaid institutional charges.
Bristol Community College may also charge you for any Title IV program funds that the school was required to return. If you don’t already know Bristol Community College’s refund policy, you should ask for a copy. Bristol Community College can also provide you with the requirements and procedures for officially withdrawing from school.
For questions please contact the Bristol Community College Financial Aid Office at financialaid@bristolcc.edu or by phone at 774-357-2515.
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 https://studentaid.ed.gov/sa/.