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Return of Title IV Funds Regulations

The law specifies how your school must determine the amount of Federal Student Aid (FSA) assistance that you earn if you withdraw from school. The FSA programs that are covered by this law are: Federal Pell Grants, Stafford Loans, PLUS Loans (Graduate Student and Parent), Academic Competitiveness Grants, National SMART Grants, Federal Supplemental Educational Opportunity Grants (FSEOGs), Federal Perkins Loans and in some cases, certain state grant aid (LEAP/SLEAP).  At Drake University, we apply the same guidelines to state and institutional aid. For other programs we use guidelines as provided by the funding source. 

When you withdraw during your payment period the amount of financial aid that you have earned up to that point is determined by a specific formula. If you received (or your school or parent received on your behalf) less assistance than the amount that you earned, you may be able to receive those additional funds. If you received more assistance than you earned, the excess funds must be returned by the school and/or you.

The amount of assistance that you have earned is determined on a pro rata basis.  For example, if you completed 30% of the fall or spring semester, you earn 30% of the assistance you were originally scheduled to receive. Once you have completed more than 60% of the payment period, you earn all the assistance that you were scheduled to receive for that period.  The percentage amounts are calculated using the number of allowable days in the semester.

If you did not receive all of the funds that you earned, you may be due a post-withdrawal disbursement. If the post-withdrawal disbursement includes loan funds, you may choose to decline the loan funds so that you don't incur additional debt.  Drake will use all or a portion of your post-withdrawal disbursement for incurred tuition, fees, and room and board charges.

If you receive (or your school or parent receive on your behalf) excess program funds that must be returned, your school must return a portion of the excess equal to the lesser of

1. your institutional charges multiplied by the unearned percentage of your funds, or

2. the entire amount of excess funds.

The school must return this amount even if it didn't keep this amount of your program funds.

If your school is not required to return all of the excess funds, you must return the remaining amount. Any loan funds that you must return, you (or your parent for a PLUS Loan) repay in accordance with the terms of the promissory note. That is, you make scheduled payments to the holder of the loan over a period of time.

Any amount of unearned grant funds that you must return is called an overpayment.  You are only required to return grant funds if the final grant overpayment amount exceeds 50% of the total grant assistance you received for that semester.  You must make arrangements with your school or the Department of Education to return the unearned grant funds.

The requirements for the return of program funds when you withdraw are separate from any Student Account billing policies that your school may have. Therefore, you may still owe funds to the school to cover unpaid institutional charges. Your school may also charge you for any program funds that the school was required to return.

If you have questions about your program funds, you can call Student Financial Planning at 1-800-44-Drake, extension 2905.  Information is also available on Student Aid on the Web at www.studentaid.ed.gov.