Reductions in Charges and Financial Aid, including Federal Student Aid

The policies in this document are for federal aid eligible programs and are not applicable for non-eligible programs such as Professionals, Certificates, ESL, Non-Degree guest students, or programs delivered at foreign sites.

Semester reductions: not university withdrawals

Semester charges and aid (including federal aid) are adjusted according to the new semester credit load if courses are dropped or added before the student stops participating in semester courses, or if a student successfully completes semester credits totaling at least ½ time (6 credits for undergraduates / 4 credits for graduate programs), or completes one course which is more than 49% in length of the semester, or the student is graduating at the end of the semester.

Example: An undergraduate student enrolls for 18 semester credits and, while participating in scheduled courses, drops future courses totaling 12 credits:

Semester reductions: university withdrawal

If the above criteria are not met a university withdrawal must be implemented for that semester. The semester charges (tuition, fees, housing, and meals) are reduced or recalculated (as is financial aid, including federal aid) in proportion to the time attended.

Example: A student is scheduled to attend courses for the entire semester (120 days), but stops after 20 days (16%):

NOTE: The initial cash refund of $2,000 was received by the student for scheduled semester enrollment, however, the withdrawal causes a cancelation and reduction in loans resulting in only $400 earned semester refund. The student must return $1,600 of the cash received to MIU Student Accounts.

University withdrawal: ceasing participation

The university withdrawal process begins when a student ceases to attend a course before completing that course, and there is no written confirmation of the student’s intent to attend an additional course which starts within 45 days that semester or a student fails to begin attendance in a course for which the student was scheduled where there was no prior notification about changing the scheduled semester courses and credits. The Registrar’s Office monitors student attendance through regular reports by professors and course administrators for students who are scheduled to attend a course and are not present. Both the professor or course administrator and the Registrar official will attempt to contact the student about the student’s intent for that course and for the rest of that semester. Unless the student provides written intent to continue to attend a later course which starts within 45 days that semester, the student’s status becomes “university withdrawal:”

• The last date of participation is the official withdrawal date.
• The last date of participation must be documented by the University from its own records of any academic participation (a student’s statement of intent to withdraw or about the last date of attendance is not sufficient).

The Registrar official provides documentation, along with any relevant communication with the student and professor, to the Director of Financial Aid for the withdrawal calculation (potential reductions in charges and financial aid, including federal aid):

• The Director of Financial Aid determines the percentage of time completed, i.e., the number of days in the enrollment period divided by the number of days completed.
• The number of days in the enrollment period is determined by the student’s pre-semester portal view, which lists the semester courses, credits, dates, charges, and itemizes financial aid (including federal aid) for the semester.
• The days completed is determined as the number of calendar days from the start of the first course for that student in that semester to the last day completed (if multiple sequential blocks are started and stopped, those unattended days are also excluded).
• The semester charges (and financial aid, including federal aid; see below) are recalculated to be the percentage of time attended multiplied by the original semester charges (and financial aid; see below). After 60% there is no reduction.

Example: Student enrolls in four thirty-day blocks for one semester with no scheduled breaks of five or more days: 120 days in the semester. The student completes 20 days in the first block then stops and provides written confirmation of intent to skip the second block and attend the third block. After ten days of the third block, the student stops participating and provides no confirmation of intent to participate in the third block. The student attended 20 days in the first block and ten days in the third block for a total of 30 days completed out of a 120-day semester, or 25% of the semester.

Prior to calculation of reductions due to withdrawal

Reductions in Federal Pell Grants

Prior to the calculation of reduction of charges (or of financial aid, including federal aid), if a student has a Federal Pell Grant, it must be reduced to the earned amount as of the withdrawal point, based on the number of credits attempted.

Reductions in University Charges and Scholarship

The calculated percentage of completion is applied to the University charges and scholarship as they exist in the University’s accounting system at the time of withdrawal for the applicable enrollment period.

Reductions and Return of Federal Student Aid

The total amount of semester federal aid (except Federal Work-Study) that was disbursed or could have been disbursed (if all the requirements had been met) multiplied by the percent completed is equal to the earned federal aid, and the remainder is unearned.

If the earned federal aid was not disbursed at the time of withdrawal but could have been disbursed because all the requirements had been met, the University will contact the student to provide the opportunity for the student to approve the disbursement of the earned federal loans.

The quantity of disbursed federal aid that the University must reduce and return to the U.S. Department of Education is the lesser of the unearned federal aid vs. the unearned charges (the total amount of charges that were reduced). This reduction and return is prioritized as follows:

• Direct Unsubsidized first, then Direct Subsidized
• Direct PLUS loans next;
• Federal grants last: Pell first, then Federal Supplemental Educational Opportunity Grant (FSEOG)

This reduction may result in a balance due to the University by the student. If the student received a refund of federal student loans for personal expenses, the student is eligible to keep and repay those loan funds under the terms of the loan only if the disbursed unearned federal aid is less than the amount of federal aid returned by the college. The University will provide the student with a new award letter showing the recalculated charges and aid, including recalculated federal aid. The University will explain the subsequent actions required by the student.