Withdraw Information

The amount of a repayment of tuition, fees, and books for students who withdraw, stop attending, or do not successfully complete all their financial aid eligible courses will be calculated as follows:

All students receiving Title IV (federal) and/or state financial aid may be required to repay all or part of any aid received to the appropriate federal and/or state program(s) if they withdraw, stop attending, or do not successfully complete all classes.

The amount that the student may be required to return to the federal and/or state program(s) will be determined by the amount disbursed, the amount which could have been disbursed, and the percentage of the enrollment period the student has completed.

If a student withdraws, stops attending, or does not successfully complete all their classes on or before the 60 percent point time of the period(s) of enrollment, calculated using calendar days, a portion of the total of federal and/or state funds awarded a student (excluding federal work-study) must be returned according to the provisions of the Higher Education Amendments of 1998 and the State Council of Higher Education for Virginia. The calculation of the return of these funds may result in the student owing a balance to the college and/or the federal or state government.

The amount of aid that a student must repay is determined via the Federal Formula for Return of Title IV funds as specified in Section 484B of the Higher Education Act. This law also specifies the order of return of the Title IV funds to the programs from which they were awarded.

A repayment may be required when a refund has been disbursed to a student from financial aid funds in excess of the amount of aid the student earned during the term. The amount of aid earned is determined by multiplying the total aid, other than Federal Work Study, for which the student qualified by the percentage of time during the term that the student was enrolled.

If a student leaves the institution prior to completing 60 percent of a payment period(s) or term, the Financial Aid Office recalculates eligibility for Title IV and/or state funds. Recalculation is based on the percentage of earned aid using the following Federal Return of Title IV funds formula:

Percentage of payment period or term completed = the number of days completed up to the withdrawal date divided by the total days in the payment period or term. (Any break of five days or more is not counted as part of the days in the term.) This percentage is also the percentage of earned aid.

Funds are returned to the appropriate federal and/or state program based on the percentage of unearned aid using the following formula:

Aid to be returned = (100 percent of the aid that could be disbursed minus the percentage of earned aid) multiplied by the total amount of aid that could have been disbursed during the payment period or term.

If a student earned less aid than was disbursed, the College would be required to return a portion of the funds and the student would be required to return a portion of the funds. Keep in mind that when Title IV and/or state funds are returned, the student may owe a debt to the College.

If a student earned more aid than was disbursed to him/her, the College would owe the student a post-withdrawal disbursement which must be paid within 30 days of the student’s withdrawal.

The College must return the amount of Title IV and/or state funds for which it is responsible no later than 30 days after the date of the determination of the date of the student’s withdrawal.

If the student withdraws during the period in which a financial aid credit balance is on his/her account:

• Within 14 days of the date that the College performs the aid to be returned calculation, we must pay any remaining credit balance from the applicable federal and/or state funds via the refund option of paper check or direct deposit selected by the student.

The responsibility for returning unearned aid is allocated between the College and the student according to the portion of disbursed aid that could have been used to cover College charges and the portion that could have been disbursed directly to the student once the College charges were covered. Germanna will distribute the unearned aid back to the Title IV and/or state programs as specified by law. The student will be billed for the amount the student owes to the Title IV and/or state programs and any amount due to the College resulting from the return of Title IV and/or state funds used to cover College charges.

Refunds are allocated in the following order:

Federal

• Unsubsidized Direct Stafford Loan
• Subsidized Direct Stafford Loan
• Direct PLUS Loan
• Federal Pell Grant
• Federal Supplemental Opportunity Grants (SEOG)
• Iraq and Afghanistan Service Grant

State

• Virginia Commonwealth Grant (COMA)
• Virginia Foster Care Grant
• Virginia GEER Grant
• Virginia Guaranteed Assistance Program (VGAP)

You will be notified within 15 days of your grade(s) being posted regarding overpayment and/or unearned aid and will be instructed to contact the GCC Business Office to arrange a suitable repayment agreement.