COMPLETE WITHDRAWAL INFORMATION
If you have found yourself in the position where you must withdraw from all of your classes after the term has begun at USAO, you will need to be aware of the following information.
You may be responsible for repayment of some of the federal financial aid funds received for that term and may have an outstanding balance with USAO. This policy applies to students receiving Title IV assistance through the Pell Grant, FSEOG, Perkins Loan, Direct Loan (subsidized and unsubsidized), and/or PLUS loan programs.
The Department of Education requires that 60% of the term must be completed before a student has “earned” 100% of the federal aid received. Therefore, if you are withdrawing (or stop attending) before 60% of the term is completed, the Financial Aid Office is required to perform a calculation to determine if repayment of aid will be required. The calculation may require information from other University offices. You will be notified by mail of the results within approximately four weeks. You will want to be sure you have a valid address on file.
Upon withdrawal, the financial aid office will determine the date of the withdrawal and will calculate the amount of financial assistance the student earned while enrolled in classes according to the following formula: number of days enrolled divided by total number of days in the term.
If your withdrawal is after the end of the designated enrollment period at USAO, your tuition and fee charges will remain in place. If the amount of federal aid disbursed exceeds the amount of federal aid earned as of the date of withdrawal and the financial aid office determines that you owe a repayment of federal funds, USAO will be required to return funds that may have been originally applied to your bill or already issued to you directly. Because the charges will remain the same and the amount of aid to be repaid may be greater than what is available to return, this means you may have an outstanding balance with USAO. Late disbursements for which you are eligible are required to be included in the calculation.
A withdrawal after 60% of the term has been completed will not require the calculation and you will be considered to have earned all of the financial aid you received.
Under this policy, the date of withdrawal is the date the student began the institution’s withdrawal process (as described in the USAO Catalog) or “officially” notified the institution of the intent to withdraw. If a student leaves USAO without notification, the withdrawal date will be designated as the midpoint of the semester or the last date of attendance at a documented academically related activity. For students who fail to return from an approved leave of absence, the withdrawal date will be designated as the date the leave of absence began.
Students who do not receive any “earned” grades are considered to be unofficial withdrawals that stopped attending all of the courses prior to the end of the term. When professors report final grades they are required to report whether the student stopped attending or never attended and must indicate the last date of attendance. Once grades are posted, the financial aid office identifies all Title IV students who received no passing grades and processes them under the unofficial withdrawal policy.
Withdrawal will affect your Satisfactory Academic Progress (SAP). Every student should be familiar with the USAO SAP Policy, which is in compliance with federal policy regarding Satisfactory Academic Progress.
You may enter repayment status if you have used federal student loans. You will be required to complete loan exit counseling when you are no longer enrolled at USAO.
STUDENTS WHO NEVER ATTEND ANY OF THEIR CLASSES ARE NOT ELIGIBLE FOR FEDERAL FINANCIAL AID.
Non-attendance in some but not all of your classes can also affect aid eligibility.
