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INSTITUTIONAL REFUND POLICY
Every student who completes the enrollment process is indebted for the total semester’s tuition, fees, room, and board (if applicable). However, those students who withdraw from college before attending the first day of class will have their student accounts credited by the policy stated below. This may result in a refund. To receive any refund for room and board, the student must withdraw from college prior to attending the first day of class (e.g., moving off campus in the middle of the semester is not grounds for a refund.) There are no exceptions to this policy even if withdrawal is deemed by the student to be for reasons outside of his or her control. Students must begin the official withdrawal process at the Registrar’s Office by picking up an official form and securing written approval from the student’s advisor and the student’s instructor(s) of the course(s) from which the student is withdrawing. The student completes the official withdrawal process by returning the completed form to the Registrar and securing the Registrar’s signature. The withdrawal does not become official until the Registrar signs the form.
The withdrawal date will be the day the Registrar receives and signs the completed official form from the student ,or in the case of an unofficial withdrawal, the date the of student’s last class attendance. This date will be used to determine the amount of the refund of tuition according to the following schedules:
Day Program Refunds |
Time of Withdrawal |
100% |
On or before the first day of class |
| 75% |
On or before completion of the first week of class |
| 50% |
On or before completion of the second week of class |
| 0% |
After completion of the second week of class |
AIM Program Refunds |
Time of Withdrawal |
100% |
On or before the first day of class |
75% |
On or before completion of the second regularly scheduled class |
50% |
On or before completion of the third week of class |
0% |
After completion of the third regularly scheduled class |
RETURN OF TITLE IV FUNDS POLICY
The law specifies how your school must determine the amount of Title IV program assistance that you can earn if you withdraw from school. The Title IV programs covered by this law include Federal Pell Grants, Academic Competitive Grants, SEOG Grants, Federal Stafford Loans, and Federal PLUS Loans.
When you withdraw during your payment period, the amount of Title IV program assistance that you have earned up to that point is determined by a specific formula. If you received (or your school or parent received on your behalf) less assistance than the amount you earned, you may be able to receive those additional funds. If you received more assistance than you earned, the excess funds must be returned by the school and/or you.
The amount of assistance that you have earned is determined on a prorata basis. For example, if you completed 30% of your payment period of enrollment, you earn 30% of the assistance you were originally scheduled to receive. Once you have completed more than 60% percent of the payment period, you earn all the assistance that you were scheduled to receive for that period.
If you did not receive all of the funds that you earned, you may be due a post-withdrawal disbursement. If your post-withdrawal disbursement includes loan funds, your school must get your permission before it can disburse them. You may choose to decline some or all of the loan funds so that you don’t incur additional debt. Your school may automatically use all or a portion of your post-withdrawal disbursement of grant funds for tuition, fees, and room and board charges (as contracted with the school). The school needs your permission to use the post-withdrawal grant disbursement for all other school charges. If you do not give your permission (some schools ask for this when you enroll), you will be offered the funds. However, it may be in your best interest to allow the school to keep the funds to reduce your debt at the school.
There are some federal financial aid funds that you were scheduled to receive that cannot be disbursed to you once you withdraw because of other eligibility requirements. For example, if you are a first-time, first-year undergraduate student and you have not completed the first 30 days of your program before you withdraw, you will not receive any FFEL loan funds that you would have received had you remained enrolled past the 30th day.
If you receive (or your school or parent receives on your behalf) excess Title IV program funds that must be returned, your school must return a portion of the excess equal to the lesser of:
- your institutional charges multiplied by the unearned percentage of your funds, or
- the entire amount of excess funds.
The school must return this amount even if it didn’t keep this amount of your Title IV program funds.
If your school is not required to return all of the excess funds, you must return the remaining amount. Any loan funds that you must return, you (or your parent for a PLUS Loan) must repay in accordance with the terms of the promissory note. That is, you make scheduled payments to the holder of the loan over a period of time.
Any amount of unearned grant funds that you must return is called an overpayment. The maximum amount of a grant overpayment that you must repay is half of the grant funds you received or were scheduled to receive. You must make arrangements with your school or the Department of Education to return the unearned grant funds.
The requirements for Title IV program funds when you withdraw are separate from any refund policy that your school may have. Therefore, you may still owe funds to the school to cover unpaid institutional charges. Your school may also charge you for any Title IV program funds that the school was required to return.
Withdrawal date for Title IV purposes is defined as the date the student began the institution’s withdrawal process, the student’s last date of recorded attendance, or the midpoint of the semester for a student who leaves without notifying the institution if the last date of attendance cannot be established.
The Return of Title IV Funds policy does not apply to AIM students who have completed at least one course in a semester. For AIM students who totally withdraw from a semester before completing at least one course, this policy applies. The period of enrollment is considered to be the entire semester. If an AIM student has a Pell Grant, the modules not yet begun will be discounted, and the Pell Grant will be reduced to the lower enrollment status before calculating the aid to be returned.
Refund Policy for Dismissal
When a student is dismissed from the college, the student will still owe the college for any unpaid tuition, room, board, and fees that were charged to his account.
Appeal Process
Students and/or parents who feel individual financial circumstances warrant exceptions from published policy may make a written appeal to the Vice President of Finance, 1360 Grandview Drive, Florissant, MO 63033.
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