Withdrawing

Withdrawal and Return to TITLE IV (R2T4) Policy

Federal Title IV funds are awarded to a student under the assumption that he/she will attend school for the entire period for which the assistance is awarded. When a student withdraws from all his/her courses, for any reason including medical withdrawals, he/she may no longer be eligible for the full amount of Title IV funds that he/she was originally scheduled to receive.

If the student withdraws from all courses prior to completing over 60% of a semester, he/she may be required to repay a portion of the federal financial aid that he/she received for that term. A pro rata schedule is used to determine the amount of federal student aid funds he/she will have earned at the time of the withdrawal.

The return of funds is based upon the concept that students earn their financial aid in proportion to the amount of time in which they are enrolled. Under this reasoning, a student who withdraws in the second week of classes has earned less of his/her financial aid than a student who withdraws in the seventh week. Once 60% of the semester is completed, a student is considered to have earned all of his financial aid and will not be required to return any funds. Students enrolled in dynamically dated classes are treated differently than the above regulatory guidance. Effective July 1^st, 2021 the Department of Education implemented new regulations for students enrolled in modules (as defined at Catholic University as dynamically dated classes). These classes do not span the entire 15 week traditional term. Students enroll in multiple courses with different start and end dates within a 15 week term.

The Office of Student Financial Assistance in accordance with 34CFR Sec. 668.22 calculates the Return of Title IV Funds for any student receiving Title IV Aid and subsequently withdraws before the end of the enrollment period (i.e. term). For students enrolled in dynamically dated classes they are not considered withdrawn if one of the following circumstances are true:

The student will attend a later module in the same payment period of period of enrollment;
The student completes the requirements for graduation;
The student completes one or more modules that, together, comprise at least 49% of the days in the payment period; or
The student completes coursework equal to or greater than the coursework required for half-time enrollment.

Official Withdrawal

In Person

Undergraduate students intending to officially withdraw should contact the Dean of Students Office. Graduate students should contact the Dean of their school. In addition, all students may officially withdraw by completing an Official Withdrawal Form with the Office of Enrollment Services. Students planning to enroll for the next semester should request a term withdrawal for the current semester; students that do not plan to return to the University should request a permanent withdrawal.

The official withdrawal date used to determine the return of funds calculation is maintained in the Office of Enrollment Services as well as within the PeopleSoft system. The “Student's Withdrawal Date" and the "Date of the Institution's Determination that the Student has Withdrawn" will be the date the student provides official notification of their intent to withdraw.

Online

A student that drops or withdraws from all of their courses online after the first day of classes is considered to have officially withdrawn. The Office of Financial Aid will use the date the last course was dropped/withdrawn to determine the “Student Withdrawal Date” and the “Date of the Institution’s Determination that the Student has Withdrawn”.

Unofficial Withdrawal

The Office of Student Financial Assistance will assume that students that fail to earn a single grade in any of their classes for a term to have unofficially withdrawn. Students that receive all grades of “F*” or a combination of “F*” and “W” will be considered to have unofficially withdrawn from the University. The Office of Student Financial Assistance will process an R2T4 using the 50% point as the student’s “Withdrawal Date” and the last date that grades are due as the “Date of the Institution's Determination that the Student has Withdrawn”.

The University has initiated a grading policy that will be used to distinguish between a student who earned a grade of “F” (awarded to students who complete the course but fail to achieve the course objectives) or a grade of “F*” (awarded to students who did not officially withdraw from the course, but who failed to participate in course activities through the end of the period). A grade of “F*” is used when, in the opinion of the instructor, completed assignments or course activities or both were insufficient to make normal evaluation of academic performance possible. A student that earns at least one grade including an "F" grade will be considered to have completed the term and no R2T4 calculation would be required or performed.

Incomplete Grade

Catholic University considers a student who receives an (I) grade(s) to have completed the course and earned any grade(s) resulting from the resolution of the initial (I) grade(s); no R2T4 calculation is required.

Enrollment Status Verification

The Office of Student Financial Assistance will perform an R2T4 calculation for each student that drops all courses after the start of classes but before the end of the drop/add period and each student that fails to earn a grade for a term. The Office of Financial Aid will contact instructors to determine if the student began attendance only if the R2T4 calculation determines that the student is eligible for a prorated portion of their disbursed aid or a Post Withdrawal Disbursement (PWD) of aid that could have been disbursed.

The Office of Student Financial Assistance will contact the instructor of each class for which a student was registered to determine the student’s enrollment status. For a student that drops (withdraws) from all classes during the drop/add period, the number of credits the student was registered for at the start of the day of the last drop will be used to determine the student's base enrollment status at the time of the withdrawal. Enrollment status and aid will then be readjusted to reflect the courses for which an instructor verifies that the student began attendance.

If the Office of Student Financial Assistance is not able to verify that the student began attendance in any class for a term, then all aid for that term would be canceled and returned to the federal aid programs.