FAQs for Students Who Withdraw or Discontinue
Withdraw means that you are dropping one or more classes after the add/drop deadline but you still have at least one class for the enrollment period.
Discontinue means you are withdrawing from all of your classes for the enrollment period.
1. What happens to my federal financial aid if I discontinue on or before the add/drop deadline?
Pell Grants, Stafford and PLUS Loans: If you discontinue on or before the add/drop deadline and your financial aid has been disbursed to you, you will be required to return some or all of the aid you received. If you document that you began to attend classes, a Return to Title IV (R2T4) calculation will be done to determine how much of the aid received you are eligible to keep. If you do not document that you began to attend classes, you will be billed for all of the aid received. In either case, the portion you are not eligible to keep will be debited from your student account, and you will be required to repay that amount to BYU. If the unpaid portion is reported to the federal government as an overpayment, you may not be eligible to receive further federal financial aid until the funds are repaid. You will receive a full tuition refund which will be used to repay all or a portion of the funds you are required to pay back.
In addition, if you have a Stafford or PLUS loan, we will cancel any future loan disbursements. If you wish to take out another Stafford or PLUS loan for your next enrollment period, you will need to send a request through your Message Center.
2. What happens to my financial aid if I discontinue after the add/drop deadline?
Pell Grants, Stafford and PLUS Loans: If you discontinue after the add/drop deadline, a Return to Title IV (R2T4) calculation will be done to determine how much of the aid you received you are eligible to keep. This is based on the number of days you were enrolled prior to your discontinuance. We use the “Date Out” on the discontinuance form—the date you initiated the process of discontinuance. The portion you are not eligible to keep will be debited from your student account, and you will be required to repay that amount to BYU. You may also receive a partial tuition refund which will go toward any funds you are required to pay back. If the unpaid portion is reported to the federal government as an overpayment, you may not be eligible to receive further federal financial aid until the funds are repaid. If you discontinue after 60% of the enrollment period has passed, you will not be required to repay any of the federal financial aid you received.
3. Will my aid still be available when I come back next semester? Do I need to do anything for that?
Pell Grant: Assuming you still meet the Satisfactory Academic Progress (SAP) policy for your next enrollment, you should be eligible to receive your Pell Grant funds for the next enrollment.
Stafford and PLUS Loans: Assuming you still meet SAP for your next enrollment, you should be eligible to receive your Stafford and/or PLUS loans. However, because you discontinued or withdrew below half time, all future disbursements of your loans were canceled, so you will have to request through your Message Center a new loan for the new enrollment period. (Refer to #1 and #2 above.)
4. How do Withdrawals affect my financial aid?
Withdrawals can affect your financial aid eligibility in two ways:
First, W’s are treated as non-progress grades for federal aid purposes. Too many non-progress grades will impact your eligibility based on Satisfactory Academic Progress (SAP). Should you fail to meet SAP and have extenuating reasons why, you may submit a petition to the Financial Aid Office.
Second, the University has a new Repeat Policy which goes into effect Fall Semester 2011. The policy will no longer allow students to repeat a class and replace the previous grade earned for that class. Students, however, for federal aid purposes, may repeat a class one time and receive aid for the repeated class.
5. If I just withdraw from some classes but not all of them, what happens to my federal aid? Do I have to stay enrolled half-time in order to not pay back any of my loan disbursement this semester, or could I withdraw below half-time?
Pell Grant: Your grant award is based on the number of hours you are enrolled in on the add/drop deadline, including second block classes. If, after the add/drop deadline, you withdraw from a class(es), nothing will happen to your grant money. If you withdraw from all of your classes, however, you may have to pay back some or all of the grant money you received (see #1 and #2 above). If you are enrolled in second block classes, we are required to do a second-block “look” on the add/drop deadline for second block. If you have dropped a second block class and that causes your enrollment to drop from full-time to ¾-time, or ½-time, or less-than-half time, an adjustment will be made and you will have to repay a portion of the grant you received. If, on the other hand, you drop a second-block class but still maintain a full-time enrollment (or still maintain the enrollment status for which you were originally paid), nothing will happen to your grant money.
Stafford Loan: If you began attendance with at least a half-time enrollment (6.0 hours for undergraduates and 4.5 hours for graduates), and withdraw below half-time after receiving a disbursement, the disbursement you received for the current semester will not be adjusted. However, we will cancel any future loan disbursements. (Refer to #1 above.)
PLUS Loan: If you began attendance in at least a half-time enrollment and withdrew below half-time after receiving a disbursement, the disbursement you received for the current semester will not be adjusted. However, we will cancel any future loan disbursements. (Refer to #1 above.)
6. If I have to discontinue because of an extenuating circumstance (and fall below SAP's 67% completion or exceed 60 credits of non-progress grades or 180.0 attempted hours), will it be possible to still get financial aid in the future?
If you have experienced extenuating circumstances and now fail to meet Satisfactory Academic Progress (SAP), we invite you to petition your SAP status. The Financial Aid Petitions Committee will review your case and let you know if you will be able to get financial aid.
7. If I have to repay some of the financial aid I received, how much will I owe? How does that process work?
Please refer to #1 and #2 above. In addition, it may take two to three weeks for an adjustment to be reflected on your student financial account. Once the adjustment is made, your account will show whether you owe money to the University or are due a refund.
8. What happens to my scholarship? Do I get to keep any of it for this semester? What if this is an extenuating circumstance? Can it be deferred?
Withdrawals: If you withdraw from a class and it moves your hours below those required for the scholarship, your scholarship will be withdrawn and you will be responsible to pay any applicable tuition charges. You will not be eligible for any of the scholarship funds for that semester. If you have an extenuating circumstance regarding the reason(s) for withdrawing, you may petition the Scholarship Committee for a reduction in credit hours. If approved, and you are still enrolled full time, your scholarship will be reinstated. If your request is approved for fewer than 12.0 credits, your scholarship will be prorated and your tuition will be reassessed; if there is a balance owing on your student account, you will be responsible to pay the amount owed.
Discontinuance: If you discontinue (withdraw from all classes), your scholarship will be taken back and you will be responsible to pay any applicable tuition charges. You may defer your scholarship to another semester or term within the same academic year as long as you don’t double up amounts from the same scholarship. For example, if you discontinue fall, you will still be eligible for the winter portion of the scholarship and you can defer the fall scholarship to spring/summer (but you cannot use both the fall and winter scholarships for winter semester). If you discontinue winter, you can defer the winter scholarship to spring/summer. If you have a multi-year scholarship, you are required to attend BYU two semesters each academic year (spring/summer = one semester) unless you are serving an LDS mission. If you miss a fall or winter semester, you can defer that portion of the scholarship to spring/summer of the same academic year. If you do not attend spring or summer term, you simply forfeit that portion of the scholarship (and it counts against your total of eight semesters of scholarship). If you have extenuating reasons for discontinuing from the University, you may petition the Scholarship Committee and request approval to keep the scholarship for the semester you discontinued. If approved, your scholarship will be prorated.
Petitions: Send an email to sch-petitions@byu.edu. Include your name and BYU ID and describe your circumstances to the Committee. If your petition involves medical circumstances, include the Physician Verification Form.
9. Will discontinuing affect my ability to get scholarships or federal aid in the future?
Scholarships: If you have a multi-year award, you will still be eligible for any remaining semesters of scholarship you have as long as you achieve the 3.60 cumulative and BYU GPA requirement and meet the other requirements associated with your scholarship. If you have a one-year award, you will need to apply for scholarships for the next academic year by the March 1 deadline.
Federal Aid: As long as you continue to meet Satisfactory Academic Progress (SAP) and have repaid any overpayments reported to the federal government, you will be eligible to apply for federal aid.
10. What happens to my federal aid if I simply quit attending classes and neither withdraw or discontinue?
If you simply quit attending classes and receive a 0.0 GPA at the end of the enrollment period, the Financial Aid Office will consider you a “walkaway.” As a walkaway, you may have to repay some or all of the federal aid you received.
Other Important Topics
- Eligibility Requirements
- Financial Aid Repeat Policy
- Satisfactory Academic Progress
- Undergraduate Scholarship Policies
