Office of Student Accounts

Return of Title IV Federal Student Aid

Effective Fall 2000

This requirement applies to you ONLY if:

1. You received federal student aid, and

2. You are withdrawing prior to completing 60 percent of the period for which the aid was provided.
 

The federal law requires aid recipients to "earn" most of the aid they receive by staying enrolled in college at least half time. Students who withdraw prior to completing 60 percent of the semester for which they received federal student aid may be required to return some of the aid they were awarded.
 

The law assumes that you used your Title IV student aid (e.g., Subsidized and Unsubsidized Stafford Loan, Parent (PLUS) Loan or Perkins Loans) to pay your institutional charges – tuition, fees, residence hall room and board, and certain other institutional charges – whether you did or not. Thus, if you withdraw prior to completing 60 percent of the semester for which you were awarded aid, the unearned portion of our aid must be returned to the federal government.
 

First, The College at Brockport will restore to the appropriate federal fund source its required share of institutional charges that you have paid. Second, if the amount returned by The College is not enough to repay the entire amount that you have not "earned" by the length of your enrollment, you will be required to return portions of amounts that you received to pay for non-institutional charges: books, supplies, off campus living expenses.
 

Amounts that must be returned to federal aid sources, whether by The College at Brockport or by you, will first be applied to your federal loans. With respect to any amount you owe after The College has paid back its share, you will be permitted to repay the loans based on the original terms of the loans – usually a 10-year repayment term after a grace period and deferments if you return to school. In addition, you may be required to restore portions of grants such as Pell and Supplemental Educational Opportunity Grants (SEOG) that you have received. In the case of "unearned" portions of federally funded grants or scholarships, you will be expected to pay 50 percent of the "unearned" portion immediately or to make satisfactory arrangements to repay that amount.
 

If you are entitled to a refund from the University of amounts you paid to cover institutional charges, any refund due you will first be applied to your obligation to return "unearned" aid before you receive money back. Thus, portions of institutional refunds may be applied on your behalf to your outstanding Stafford, PLUS or Perkins Loans or to the federal portions of your grant or scholarship and not actually refunded directly to you.
 

This policy is based on 34 CFR, Section 668.22 of Title IV of the Higher Education Act of 1965, as amended.
 

For examples of refund calculations, click on the options below. You will need Adobe Acrobat to access these .pdf files.

Click here for an example of a student who lives on campus who withdraws before 60 percent

Click here for an example of a student who lives off campus who withdraws before 60 percent

Click here for an example of a student who lives on campus who withdraws after 60 percent

Click here for an example of a student who lives off campus who withdraws after 60 percent

Last updated June 4, 2008.