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Financial Aid Information for Advisors

Withdrawing from the college and its effect on financial aid

Financial aid funds are awarded to the student under the assumption that the student will attend classes for the entire period (semester) for which assistance is awarded.  When a student withdraws, he/she may no longer be eligible for the full financial aid award.

If the student stops attending classes before the end of the payment period, the institution is required to determine how much financial aid the student earned up until the time he/she stopped attending classes.  If the student stopped attending up through the 60% point in the term, the institution will calculate the amount of financial aid earned. The percentage of aid earned is equal to the percentage of enrollment completed.  If the student stopped attending after the 60% point in time, the student earned 100% of his/her Title IV funds.

If aid was already disbursed and the amount disbursed was greater than the student earned, the unearned funds have to be returned.  If the aid was not disbursed, the student might be eligible for a post-withdrawal disbursement.

Failure to attend

If the student never actually began attendance in the payment period, than the student is not eligible for financial aid for that semester.

Determining the Withdrawal date

There are 2 dates that the institution uses in the refund calculation, the date the institution determined the student withdrew, and the last day the student was in attendance. The withdrawal date determines the % of financial aid the student earned, the date of determination triggers the process of notification.  In the case of an official withdrawal, the date the student notifies the college is the same as the institution’s date of determination.  In the case of an unofficial withdrawal, the date of determination is the date the institution became aware that the student was no longer in attendance.  STCC does not have an attendance policy.

Official notification date – The withdrawal process for all students originates in the Registrar’s Office with the student completing a College Withdrawal form.  Students can indicate if the last date of attendance is different from the date of notification. If the student does not indicate the last date of attendance, we will use the notification date as the LDA.

Determining the date of an unofficial withdrawal - The institution has 30 days from the end of the payment period to when the student ceased attendance to determine the withdrawal date.  STCC has several ways to collect data on unofficial withdrawals:

• Excessive Absence forms completed by instructors throughout the semester
• Review of mid-semester grades
• Have instructors complete Verification of Attendance forms
• Final grades / FA (notification of failure due to attendance)
• If no date available and the instructor is unavailable, use the midpoint of the payment period

Satisfactory Academic Progress (SAP) Policy

In order to receive financial aid, all students must meet the following minimum standards of academic progress.  Satisfactory progress is evaluated by the length of time it takes to complete the students program of study AND the cumulative grade point average (GPA). Financial Aid recipients must also be in good academic standing (see definition below).

The Financial Aid Office at STCC evaluates satisfactory progress at the end of each semester.  Federal regulations require that all attempted courses are included in this evaluation. Attempted courses include credits earned while attempting a prior degree, courses forgiven under Fresh Start Status (see definition below), remedial, repeated, and transferred courses.

Treatment of Fresh Start Status

You may apply for Fresh Start status as part of the Admissions process if you’ve had academic problems AND have been away from STCC for at least 2 years. All prior credits attempted at STCC that meet the degree and grade requirements of the current program are not included in the graduate QPA.  However, the Satisfactory Academic Policy must include all grades attempted for the purpose of determining financial aid eligibility.

Treatment of remedial coursework

Students may attempt up to 30 credits of remedial coursework. Students are not eligible to receive financial aid for attempted remedial credits beyond the 30-credit limit.  If a student has completed 30 credits of remedial coursework and enrolls in 12 credits of which 3 credits are for a remedial course, the financial aid award will be based on 9 credits.