WITHDRAWALS AND THE RETURN OF FEDERAL FINANCIAL AID
Federal student aid is awarded with the expectation that you will attend school for the entire period for which your financial aid was intended. To establish eligibility for any federal financial aid payments, you must establish a record of attendance in each of your courses. The college uses your instructors' records of attendance to determine whether or not you have actually begun attendance. [Note: If you receive a financial aid payment for a class or classes you have never attended, you must return that payment immediately to the college.]
Once you start attending classes, the federal government requires that you "earn" your financial aid awards in direct proportion to the number of days you do attend. If you withdraw from all of your courses, the portion of your federal grants and loans you are entitled to receive is calculated on a percentage basis by comparing the total number of calendar days in the semester to the actual number of days you attended before you withdrew.
If you receive (or the college receives on your behalf) more assistance than you earn, the unearned excess funds must be returned to the Department of Education. If, on the other hand, you receive (or the college receives on your behalf) less assistance than the amount you have earned, you may be able to receive these additional funds.
For example, if you complete 30 percent of the semester, you earn 30 percent of the assistance you were originally scheduled to receive. The remaining 70 percent of your scheduled awards remains unearned and must be returned to the federal government.
After it has been determined that you have withdrawn, either officially or unofficially, City University of New York will perform the necessary calculations and notify you if you are eligible for further payments or if you must return any of the aid you already received. You will be required to repay to the college any grant funds the college had to return to the Department of Education on your behalf. In such cases, you will be billed by the college and have to make payment arrangements with the Bursar.
More information about withdrawals
