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If you receive federal financial aid and stop attending all of your classes before the end of the semester, CCC may have to recalculate your aid.
This process is called Return of Title IV Funds, or R2T4.
Federal financial aid is earned as you attend your classes. If you leave school early, you may not have earned all of the aid that was paid to you or applied to your account. CCC may have to return part of that aid to the U.S. Department of Education. If that happens, you may owe money to CCC.
Talk with the Financial Aid Office before withdrawing from all of your classes. Withdrawing can affect your financial aid, your CCC account balance, your academic progress, and your student loans.
Title IV is the name used for federal student aid programs. Federal rules require CCC to determine how much federal aid you earned if you received federal aid and stop attending before completing the semester or other payment period.
The R2T4 calculation is separate from CCC’s tuition refund policy. You may owe money after an R2T4 calculation even if you are not eligible for a tuition refund.
CCC may need to complete an R2T4 calculation if you received, or were eligible to receive, federal financial aid and you:
An F grade does not automatically mean that you withdrew. If CCC can confirm that you participated through the end of at least one class and earned the F because of your academic performance, an R2T4 calculation may not be required.
Withdrawing from one class does not automatically require an R2T4 calculation if you continue attending other eligible classes. Special rules may apply when your classes have different start and end dates.
At CCC, R2T4 applies to the federal grant and loan programs the College participates in, including:
Federal Work-Study earnings are not included in the R2T4 calculation because you earn that money by working.
Federal financial aid is earned based on how much of your payment period you complete.
CCC generally follows these steps:
If you complete more than 60% of the payment period, you are considered to have earned 100% of your federal Title IV aid for that period.
If you complete 60% or less, your aid is generally earned in proportion to the amount of the payment period you completed.
Suppose you are enrolled in a typical 16-week semester and stop attending all of your classes after completing 6 weeks.
Six weeks is about 37.5% of a 16-week semester:
6 weeks completed ÷ 16 weeks in the semester = 37.5% completed
In this example, you earned about 37.5% of your eligible federal aid. The remaining amount is considered unearned.
CCC would then use the federal R2T4 calculation to determine how much aid must be returned and whether the return creates a balance on your student account.
This is a simplified example. The official calculation is based on the number of calendar days in your payment period, not the number of weeks. Certain scheduled breaks of five or more consecutive days are excluded. Your actual percentage will depend on CCC’s academic calendar, your class schedule, and your withdrawal date.
Your withdrawal date depends on how you stop attending.
If you officially withdraw, CCC may use the date you begin the withdrawal process or the date you officially notify the College that you plan to withdraw.
If you stop attending without officially withdrawing, CCC may use your last documented academic activity.
Academic activity can include:
Simply logging in to an online course does not always show academic participation.
CCC is not an institution that is required to take attendance for all students. If CCC cannot document a student’s last academic activity, federal rules may require the College to use the midpoint of the payment period when determining the withdrawal date.
CCC bases the calculation on the classes you were scheduled to complete.
CCC uses a Return to Title IV Freeze Date (RFD) to determine the class dates included in the calculation. The RFD usually occurs on the third Tuesday of the semester. If you withdraw from all classes before the RFD, CCC generally uses the classes you were scheduled to complete on your withdrawal date. If you withdraw on or after the RFD, CCC generally uses the classes you were scheduled to complete on the RFD.
Different rules may apply if you register for a class after the freeze date and CCC-awarded federal aid based on that later class.
If the calculation shows that you received more federal aid than you earned, some of the aid must be returned.
CCC must return the amount the College is responsible for returning within the federal deadline. CCC returns funds to federal programs in the required order:
CCC must return the funds for which it is responsible as soon as possible, but no later than 45 days after CCC determines that you withdrew.
When CCC returns financial aid, the amount removed from your account may create a balance that you must pay to the College.
This can happen even if you already received a financial aid refund and used that money for books, housing, transportation, or other expenses.
The rules are different for loans and grants.
Federal loan funds that remain your responsibility are repaid under the terms of your loan and Master Promissory Note.
If withdrawing causes you to leave school or drop below half-time enrollment, you may also need to complete Exit Counseling. For Direct Subsidized and Direct Unsubsidized Loans, leaving school or dropping below half-time generally begins the six-month grace period before repayment starts.
Federal rules limit how much grant aid you may have to repay after a withdrawal. In general, the amount you must repay cannot be more than the amount by which your grant overpayment exceeds 50% of the grant aid included in the calculation. You do not have to repay an R2T4 grant overpayment of $50 or less per federal grant program.
CCC will notify you if you owe a grant overpayment or if the return of aid creates a balance on your CCC account.
Sometimes the calculation shows that you earned more federal aid than CCC had paid before you withdrew. This is called a post-withdrawal disbursement. If you qualify, CCC may be able to apply eligible grant funds to charges on your student account.
If the post-withdrawal disbursement includes federal student loan funds, CCC must offer the eligible loan funds to you or the parent borrower before those funds can be disbursed. You may accept or decline the loan funds.
It is important to understand that these are two separate calculations.
CCC’s tuition refund policy determines whether the tuition and fees you owe are reduced when you drop a class.
R2T4 determines how much of your federal financial aid you earned before you stopped attending.
Dropping a class by its published refund deadline may make you eligible for a tuition refund. After the refund deadline, you are generally responsible for the tuition and fees unless CCC approves an exception.
Receiving a tuition refund does not automatically change the amount of federal aid you earned under the R2T4 rules.
Federal rules are more complex when your classes do not all begin and end at the same time.
For classes offered in shorter parts of a semester, federal rules include situations where successfully completing certain coursework may mean that you are not considered withdrawn for R2T4 purposes. For example, an exemption may apply when a student successfully completes enough coursework or enough of the scheduled days in the payment period.
Because the rules depend on your individual class schedule, contact Financial Aid before dropping a short-term or late-start class.
Withdrawing may be the right choice in some situations, but it can affect more than your grades.
Before withdrawing from all of your classes:
The effect of withdrawing is different for every student. Contact Financial Aid before changing your schedule if you are unsure how a withdrawal could affect your aid.
Financial Aid:
(928) 226-4219
financialaid@coconino.edu
No. The result depends on when you stop attending, the classes you were scheduled to complete, the types and amounts of financial aid you received, and your CCC charges.
CCC must complete the federal calculation before it can determine whether aid needs to be returned.
You may still be considered withdrawn for federal financial aid purposes.
CCC will review your academic records to determine your last documented academic activity. If CCC cannot determine a later date, federal rules may require another date, such as the midpoint of the payment period, to be used.
Receiving an F does not automatically mean you withdrew. If CCC can confirm that you participated through the end of at least one class and received the F because of your academic performance, an R2T4 calculation may not be required.
If you stopped attending all of your classes before the end of the semester, CCC may have to complete an R2T4 calculation.
Not usually if you continue attending another Title IV-eligible class.
However, special rules apply when classes have different start and end dates. Contact Financial Aid before changing your schedule if you receive federal aid.
Maybe. Federal rules provide some exemptions for students who successfully complete certain short-term coursework before stopping attendance. For example, students in programs offered in modules may qualify for an exemption after successfully completing coursework covering at least 49% of the payment period or successfully completing at least half-time coursework.
Financial Aid will review your individual schedule to determine whether an exemption applies.
It can. A withdrawn course counts as attempted credits when CCC reviews Satisfactory Academic Progress (SAP). Too many unsuccessful or withdrawn credits can lower your Pace of Progression and affect your eligibility for financial aid in a future semester. Learn more about Satisfactory Academic Progress.
No. R2T4 determines how much federal financial aid you earned. CCC’s refund policy determines whether your tuition and fees are reduced. The two calculations are separate.
If withdrawing means you leave CCC or drop below half-time enrollment, you must complete Exit Counseling if you borrowed federal student loans.
For Direct Subsidized and Direct Unsubsidized Loans, you generally have a six-month grace period after leaving school or dropping below half-time before payments begin.
