Refund Policy and Procedures

Federal Title IV Refunds

Students who are entitled to a refund for withdrawal and are receiving student financial aid (SFA) are subject to having all or part of the refund returned to the appropriate financial aid programs. For those students who withdrew prior to 60% of the enrolled period elapsing , a pro-rata schedule is used to determine how much SFA funds were earned at the time of withdrawal. The university must return to SFA Programs the lesser of:

The amount of SFA Program funds that the students do not earn; or
The amount of institutional costs that students incurred for the period of enrollment multiplied by the percentage of funds that was not earned.

However, students are not required to return 50% of the grant assistance received.

SFA funds must be returned in the following order:

Unsubsidized Stafford Loans
Subsidized Stafford Loans
Perkins Loans
Federal Plus loans
Federal Pell Grants
Federal Supplement Educational Opportunity Grants
State Scholarships

If more aid is received that could have been reasonably spent for non-institutional costs (excluding Federal Stafford Loan Programs), the unearned portion must be returned to SFA Programs.

HOPE-Only Refund

If a refund is due and the student received HOPE funds only (no federal aid), then such amounts must be refunded to HOPE, rounded to the nearest dollar, by applying the institution's refund policy to the student's original HOPE award for the tuition and HOPE-approved mandatory fees. The book allowance is not part of the refund calculation.

Title IV and HOPE Refund

If the student received federal Title IV funds in addition to HOPE funds, the school must follow the Title IV return of funds policy for any federal aid received. To determine the refund to HOPE, the school must then follow their
institutional refund policy, if different from Title IV Return of Funds. If all or part of the student's Title IV Aid was
disbursed directly to the student , the school may not have funds on hand to refund HOPE. In this case, the school must bill the student for the refund. The school must notify the Authority of the amount of refund due HOPE and the authority will put a refund due on the student's record. This will prevent the student from receiving any additional scholarships or grants from the Authority until the refund is paid.