Financial Aid Eligibility

​​​​Students’ eligibility for Federal Student Aid is in accordance with Federal Student Aid regulations and is based on a first-come-first-severed basis and availability of funding. Students must meet the required standards for maintaining eligibility for Federal Student Aid which are described in the Financial Aid Satisfactory Academic Progress (SAP) Standards.

Effects of Withdrawing, Dropping, or Failing

Who is affected?​

Federal financial aid recipients who withdraw, drop or fail all of their courses in a term before completing more than 60% of the term are subject to repayment of some of the federal aid they received. Federal aid includes Pell Grant, FSEOG, and Federal Direct Loans.

Determination of Withdrawal

The date of withdrawal is based on the official records of the college in accordance with federal regulations. The federal repayment calculation is called R2T4 (Return to Title IV) and the amount to be repaid is based on a comparison of the amount the student actually received in federal aid to the length of time enrolled for the term. If a student stays enrolled for more than 60% of the term then the student is considered to have earned all of the aid received.

Repaying the Debt

You will be notified if you are required to repay a portion of your aid and will have 45 days to repay in full. Determination of repayment and allocation of aid to be refunded back to its source is done in the reverse order of awarding and in the following order: Direct Unsubsidized Loan, Direct Subsidized Loan, FSEOG, Pell Grant. If the amount owed is not repaid within those 45 days the debt will be referred to the U.S. Department of Education, and you will not be eligible to receive any additional federal financial aid at any school until the amount due is repaid in full, or satisfactory payment arrangements have been made with the U.S. Department of Education.

Federal Student Aid Ombudsman​

The Federal Student Aid Ombudsman, with the U.S. Department of Education, can be contacted by e-mail at fsaombudsman@ed.gov or by phone at 202. 377.3800 or toll free at 877.557.2575.