Withdrawal From the University (R2T4 Policy)

We hope you don’t have to leave, but if you do there may be adjustments to your financial aid. We encourage you to speak with a financial aid counselor if you are planning to withdraw.

Financial aid may be adjusted based on verification of attendance and duration of academic participation. After a student withdraws, funds may be returned or additional aid may be disbursed (if eligible) based upon federal guidelines.

Official Withdrawals

To officially withdraw from Colorado State University, a regularly admitted student during the fall and spring terms must withdraw through the University Withdrawal process on their RAMweb. Students only enrolled in courses through the Division of Continuing Education will be withdrawn by that office or through their RAMweb. Regularly admitted students enrolled in the summer term will be considered withdrawn at the point in time they drop their last class for that term through RAMweb. The University is not required by an outside entity to take attendance, nor does the University have its own requirement to do so. Therefore, the University will use the date of withdrawal notification to process the student’s withdrawal.

The tuition and fee assessment will be according to the University’s published withdrawal assessment chart. University housing and food, if applicable, is calculated on a daily rate until the student officially moves out. Prior to census, an adjustment of tuition and fees is allowed during the scheduled change period. Before processing a withdrawal, the assessment may be reduced by dropping all courses and credits down to the last or lowest course credit. This makes the student’s assessment as small as possible. The tuition assessment at the point-in-time of the withdrawal is used in the federal calculation. The institutions tuition refund and housing refund policies do not affect the input to this calculation.

The courses a student is registered for on the day they begin the withdrawal process will be used to confirm that the student began attendance. Enrollment for Pell will be recalculated based on confirmed attendance. A student who remains enrolled beyond the 60% point earns all federal aid for the period. No adjustments to aid will be made with the possible exception for institutional or private aid unless we cannot document the student began attendance in their course(s). The adjustment to institutional and private aid will not exceed the credit in the student’s account.

The Return to Title IV software module provided in Banner will be used to process federal return calculations to determine what, if any, funds must be returned.

In programs offered in modules the student will be considered to have withdrawn if the student ceases attendance and is not scheduled to begin another course within a payment period or period of enrollment for more than 45 calendar days after the end of the module the student ceased attending. The student will not be considered to have withdrawn if they meet one of the following exemptions:

• If student completes 49% or more of the countable days of the period or a combination of modules that when combined contain 49% or more of the countable days in the period; or
• If the student successfully completed coursework equal to or greater than the school’s definition of a half-time student (completes 6 credits as an undergraduate degree, 5 credits as a graduate or professional degree).

The University does not utilize a R2T4 freeze date for programs offered in modules. Due to this, the University will identify days a student was scheduled to complete within modules in one of the two following ways:

• If the student is only eligible for Pell Grant and/or Iraq-Afghanistan Service Grant funds during the period, the days in a module/course must be included in the denominator of the R2T4 calculation only if the student actually attends the module/course.
• If the student is eligible for Direct Loan or FSEOG funds during the period (regardless of eligibility for other Title IV programs), the days in a module/course must be included in the R2T4 calculation if the student was enrolled in the module/course on the first day of the period or enrolled in the module/course at any time during the period. This is because a student’s cost of attendance for these programs is affected by the student’s enrollment in all modules/courses during the period. Please note that “eligible” for Direct Loan funds means that the funds can be included in the disbursed or could have been disbursed column in the R2T4 calculation.

Unofficial Withdrawals

Recipients of federal aid who never begin attendance or who unofficially withdraw from the university will have federal aid adjusted based on the date of the latest verified academic event in which the student participated. If no academic event can be documented, 100% of federal aid will be cancelled because the student never began attendance. The date of withdrawal will be determined by these factors:

Students who receive only grades of “F”, “U”, “I” and/or “W” for a semester will be reviewed to determine if aid received needs to be cancelled or reduced. These students will be reviewed to confirm:

• If they began attendance, and
• What is the date of their last academic activity
  • Documentation received that marks the last academic activity during the last week of scheduled classes will be considered as having completed the term and no R2T4 calculation will be completed.

  No adjustment will be made to a student’s tuition and fee assessment as part of this process. If the student subsequently completes the official university withdrawal process, any adjustments to tuition and fees or financial aid will fall under the regular University withdrawal policy.

  Recalculation Process

  The University calculates the number of days the student was enrolled before they withdrew, dropped, or stopped participating, and compares that to the number of days in their scheduled enrollment for the period. The student earns Federal Financial Aid in proportion to the number of days completed in the period.

  Number of calendar days completed in the period
  ÷
  Total number of days scheduled to complete in the period

  The number of calendar days in the numerator and denominator includes all days within the session or term, except for institutionally scheduled breaks of five or more consecutive days. Weekends are included in the calculation except where a break coinciding with a weekend exceeds five days.

  Once the earned percentage has been calculated, it is then subtracted from 100 to get the unearned percentage. The unearned percentage is then multiplied by the Federal Financial Aid received or eligible to receive to determine the amount of Federal Financial Aid aid that is unearned and must be returned.

  Earned and Unearned Federal Financial Aid and the Return of Funds

  There are two types of unearned aid: unearned aid by the University and unearned aid by the student.

  Unearned Aid by the University represents the unearned aid applied toward institutional charges and is returned within 45 days of the institution’s knowledge that the student withdrew.

  Unearned Aid by the Student represents the total unearned aid less the amount unearned by the University. Because the student is no longer attending University, loans are to be repaid according to the terms of the student’s promissory note. The regulations limit the amount a student must repay to the amount by which the original overpayment amount exceeds 50% of the total grant funds disbursed to or that could have been disbursed to the student for the period. This means half of the grant is protected and excluded from the calculation.

  The student will not be required to return any grant funds if the amount is $50 or less. Any grant funds the student is required to return are automatically returned to the federal programs by the University. The student is then billed for the amounts returned. Because the University returns the funds, the student does not have an overpayment and is eligible to receive Federal Financial Aid in future terms.

  Based on the R2T4 calculation, funds will be returned in the following order:

  • Unsubsidized Direct Loans (other than Direct PLUS Loans)
  • Subsidized Direct Loans
  • Direct PLUS Loans
  • Federal Pell Grant
  • Iraq and Afghanistan Service Grant
  • FSEOG

  R2T4 Conditions

  R2T4 calculations, for an official withdrawal will be completed within 30 days of the students date of withdrawal notification, for an unofficial withdrawal, the calculation will be completed within 30 days of when grades are posted for the term. Funds based on the R2T4 calculation, will be returned within 45 days of the determined date of withdrawal.

  Post-Withdrawal Disbursements

  A student may be eligible for a post-withdrawal disbursement (PWD) of aid already offered, but not disbursed. The student must have established eligibility for the aid at the time they withdrew. If the student is eligible for a PWD, grants will automatically be disbursed up to the earned portion within 45 days of the determined date of withdrawal. A written offer for loans will be made within 30 days of the date the University determined the student withdrew. The borrower has 14 days from the date of the notification to accept the loans. If the student responds after the 14 days have elapsed, OFA will accept a late response for extenuating circumstances with Associate Director approval. The PWD of loan funds will be made no later than 180 days of the date the University determined the student withdrew.

  PWD disbursements are applied to the student account first and any resulting credit balance will be disbursed to the student as soon as possible and no later than 14 days from the date of disbursement.

  Credit Balances

  When a student withdraws with an outstanding Title IV credit balance, the University is first required to perform the R2T4 calculation to determine, among other things, whether adjustments to the credit balance will occur. For this reason, the existing 14-day payment requirement is placed on hold to determine the final amount of any Title IV credit balance. In order to allow the University time to appropriately apply any credit balance after it has been recalculated, a new 14-day deadline is triggered when the University performs the R2T4 calculation. The new 14-day deadline begins on the date the University performs the return calculation, not the date the University performs any calculations required by its institutional refund policy.

  Any credit balance will be disbursed as soon as possible and no later than 14 days after the R2T4 calculation

  Notification to Student

  An email will be sent to the student’s university email and a message will be posted to the student’s RAMweb if financial aid is adjusted.

  Policies & Information

  • Consumer Information, Rights & Responsibilities
  • How Aid is Awarded
  • Financial Aid Code of Conduct
  • Satisfactory Academic Progress
  • Withdrawing from Classes