Federal Refund Policy and Financial Aid Repayment

This policy applies to students who receive the Federal Pell Grant, Federal Supplemental Educational Opportunity Grant (SEOG), Federal Subsidized Stafford Loan, Federal Unsubsidized Stafford Loan, Federal Perkins Loans, or the Federal PLUS Loan for undergraduate students.  If a student is receiving a Minnesota State Grant, Minnesota Child Care Grant, or Supplemental Education Loan Funds (SELF) the calculations are processed under the Minnesota Higher Educations Services Office refund policy.

If after the first five days of class, any student who wishes to officially withdraw from all classes, on or before the 60% point in the semester, must contact the Registration Office.  Students who cannot physically appear in the Registration Office to do this, can notify the Registration Office by phone, e-mail, or by mail.  Contact with any other college office or employee will not be considered an official withdrawal.  Any student who stops attending and does not officially withdraw will be considered an unofficial withdrawal.

Student who are withdrawing from all classes must complete a drop/add form indicating the date of withdrawal.  All Financial Aid recipients are subject to the Federal Return of Title IV refund policy for any federal aid not earned.  For example, if a student withdraws after 4 weeks, 23% of their aid was earned and 77% was unearned.  The school will be required to return funds based on this calculation and the student will be billed for the unearned portion that would be returned by the college.

For students who unofficially withdraw, or receive all or a combination of F’s, NC’s or I’s during a semester, the Financial Aid Office will perform a 50% refund calculation. However, if a student can provide documentation from the instructors indicating that they were in class pass the 60% point of the semester no refund calculations would be required.  For students who can not provide documentation that they did attend pass the 60% of the semester will be required to repay 50% of their financial aid back to the college. 

Students may also be required to repay all or part of their financial aid awards if they register for late start classes that are cancelled due to low enrollment or if a student registers for one or more class and never attends.  The student’s financial aid must be recalculated and the student could owe a repayment of some or all of their financial aid.

The student is notified of their liability for the unearned portion of the Title IV aid refunded to the appropriate programs, and is billed for the student and school portion that was returned.  So that the College is in compliance with the Department of Education, repayments are made to the appropriate sources, including the student’s share of Pell Grant or SEOG.  If overpayments are not repaid by the students, they would then be turned over to the collection agency.