If a student withdraws or takes a leave of absence after the semester begins, Menlo College may be required to return a student’s federal financial aid back to the government. The Office of the Registrar oversees the withdrawal process for all students and any withdrawal from Menlo should be reported to the Registrar’s Office. The Registrar can be informed of a student’s request to withdraw, verbally or in writing by submitting the Withdrawal/Leave of Absence Form found on MyMenlo in the Student Forms section. The date of withdrawal for financial aid purposes is the date of submission recorded by the Withdrawal/Leave of Absence Form unless the Office of Financial Aid is aware the student has ceased participating in academic activity prior to the submission of the form.
Federal law requires that a Return of Title IV Fund calculation be performed for any student who attended at least one class and withdrew. This means that financial aid eligibility will be calculated based on an earned versus unearned calculation. The calculation determines how much aid a student is eligible to keep based on the amount of time enrolled. Students who attend more than 60% of the semester will be eligible to keep their entire financial aid award. PowerFAIDS’ R2T4 functions will calculate the percentage of the semester the student has completed based on the beginning and end dates of the semester and the date of withdrawal. Scheduled breaks, such as Thanksgiving Week and Spring Break Week, are not included in this calculation.
The federal government has defined two types of withdrawal — an official withdrawal and an unofficial withdrawal. An official withdrawal is one in which the student notifies the Registrar of the desire to withdraw from Menlo College. An unofficial withdrawal is one in which a student leaves without notifying the Registrar’s Office. Students who do not officially withdraw and pass no units (receive grades of UF only as grades of F are considered earned per Menlo’s academic policies) in a semester or summer session are presumed to have unofficially withdrawn, unless the student provides the Office of Financial Aid with documentation showing attendance through the end of the semester. Such documentation must be presented within 30 days of the end of the semester being evaluated. The return of aid for an unofficial withdrawal is calculated at the 50% point of the semester or summer session.
The R2T4 calculation and return of federal funds will be completed before 14 calendar days have elapsed following the student’s notification of withdrawal or the Office of Financial Aid becoming aware the student has unofficially withdrawn.
After the return of federal aid is calculated and sent back to the U.S. Department of Education, students may owe a balance to Menlo in some cases. It is the responsibility of the student to make a payment arrangement with the Business Services Office to pay any remaining balance.
The order in which aid is returned is as follows:
Student loan borrowers are responsible for loan funds that did not get returned to the federal government as a part of the Return of Title IV Funds; repayment begins according to the terms and conditions of the promissory note.
Other external aid programs, such as California’s Cal Grant program, follows the above policy for returning aid/assistance and follow the same time frames.
Institutional aid follows a separate policy from R2T4. If a student withdraws or takes a leave of absence during the period in which the student is eligible for a tuition refund, then all institutional aid is removed from the student’s awards for that term. If a student withdraws after the tuition refund period has ended, institutional aid will not be removed.
VA Benefits programs are subject to a return of funds if a student withdraws or takes a leave of absence during a semester of enrollment, but does not follow the Office of Financial Aid’s R2T4 policy. The VA Certifying Official will notify the Office of Financial and as well as the Business Office on how much of the benefits will be returned to the VA. The Certifying Official will determine the amount to be returned with the VA based on when the student withdrew and is not determined by the Office of Financial Aid’s R2T4 process.
Students receiving the Department of Defense’s Tuition Assistance (TA) are subject to the return of funds if they withdraw or take a leave of absence during a semester of enrollment in which they have received TA. TA funds are earned proportionally during an enrollment period through at least the 60% point of the semester. Unearned funds will be returned to the Department of Defense (DoD).
Students who withdraw before completing more than 60% of the semester will have their TA prorated based on the week the student withdrew from Menlo College according to the schedule below and how much unearned funds will be returned to the DoD. Students who attend past the 60% completion point will not have any TA funds returned to the DoD if they withdraw after that point. Fall and Spring semesters at Menlo College are typically 16 weeks in length. Some students may enroll in intercession courses, in which case the term lengthens to 18 weeks and will follow the assigned schedule. Return of TA funds for the Summer semester will follow the assigned schedules depending on the sessions enrolled. Due to the shorter length of Summer Session I, schedule to return TA funds will be based on the day the student withdrew instead of the week.
Unearned TA funds will be returned to the Department of Defense and not the student. This distinction is necessary as the funds were initially distributed from the DoD to the student who in turn remitted payment to Menlo College. Unearned TA funds will not be refunded to the student.
Students receiving TA funds who unofficially withdraw or cease attendance without withdrawing will have their week of withdrawal determined by the student’s most recent date of academic activity in the absence of any other information. Academic activity includes, but is not limited to, classroom attendance, submission of a homework assignment, taking a test or quiz, or participating in assigned asynchronous discussions in course forums. Non-attendance due to service obligation will use the date the student was called to active duty to determine the week of withdrawal if the student provides such information.
The Office of Financial Aid will perform this calculation before 14 calendar days have elapsed following the student’s notification of withdrawal or the Office of Financial Aid becoming aware the student has unofficially withdrawn. Following this calculation, the Office of Financial Aid will instruct the Business Office to return funds to the DoD.
Students who receive TA funds and withdraw due to service obligations will be awarded with a non-renewable Menlo Grant equal to the returned TA funds in order to not create a student debt of the returned amount.
