The law specifies how your school must determine the amount of Title IV program assistance that you earn if you withdraw from school. The Title IV programs that are covered by this law are: Federal Pell Grants, Academic Competitiveness Grants, National SMART grants, TEACH Grants, Stafford Loans, PLUS Loans, Federal Supplemental Educational Opportunity Grants (FSEOGs), and Federal Perkins Loans.

When you withdraw during your payment period or period of enrollment (you may contact the Financial Aid office to define these for you and tell you which one applies) 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 that 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 pro-rata basis. For example, if you completed 30% of your payment period or period of enrollment, you earn 30% of the assistance you were originally scheduled to receive. Once you have completed more than 60% of the payment period or period of enrollment, 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, 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 Title IV 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 or Direct loan funds that you would have received had you remained enrolled past the 30th day.
 

If you receive (or your school or parent, receive 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:

1. your institutional charges multiplied by the unearned percentage of your funds, or
2. 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) 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. You can view the tuition refund policy and requirements and procedures for withdrawing from school at http://www.maricopa.edu/publicstewardship/governance/adminregs/students/2_2.php#refund

Return of Title IV Funds 

• Calculations are based upon the percentage of aid earned. For students who officially withdraw from school, the percentage of aid earned is based upon the number of days completed during the semester. For students who unofficially withdraw from school, the mid-point of the semester is used for calculation purposes.
  
• Amount of aid earned by the student is determined by taking the aid disbursed (plus aid that could have been disbursed) and multiplying by the percentage of aid earned.
  
• Amount of Title IV aid to be returned is the difference between the total aid disbursed and the amount of aid earned by the student.
  
• Amount of unearned Title IV aid due from the school is calculated by taking the total institutional costs multiplied by the percentage of unearned Title IV aid. If loan funds were included in the disbursement, unearned Title IV aid due from the school would first be returned to the loan program(s).
  
• Amount of unearned Title IV aid due from the student is calculated by taking the previously calculated Title IV aid to be returned and subtracting the amount of unearned aid returned by the school. Title IV loans are reimbursed first. Since loan repayment is subject to the terms of the promissory note, the student is not required to make immediate repayment.
  

• Student's that drop a class within the 100% refund time frame and/or are rostered out of a class at anytime after they receive federal financial aid may owe an overpayment based on their recalculated award.
  

• The school will bill the student for amounts requiring immediate repayment. Student may pay in full or make satisfactory repayment arrangements. Failure by the student to repay or make satisfactory repayment arrangements will result in the referral of the debt to the U.S. Department of Education, and the student will be ineligible for further Title IV assistance.

• Unsubsidized FFEL or Direct Stafford Loan
  
• Subsidized FFEL or Direct Stafford Loan
  
• Federal Perkins Loan
  
• or Direct PLUS Loan
  
• Federal Pell Grant
  
• Federal Supplemental Educational Opportunity Grant (FSEOG)
  
• Other Federal Aid Programs
  
• Other State, private, or institutional sources of aid
  
• The student
  

• Unsubsidized FFEL or Direct Stafford Loan*
  
• Subsidized FFEL or Direct Stafford Loan*
  
• Federal Perkins Loan*
  
• FFEL or Direct PLUS Loan*
  
• Federal Pell Grant
  
• Federal Supplemental Educational Opportunity Grant (FSEOG)
  
• Other Federal Aid Programs
  
• Other State,private, or institutional sources of aid
  
• The student