Withdrawals & Return of Funds

Financial aid is awarded with the understanding that you will attend school for the entire semester. If you withdraw from classes, stop attending, or significantly reduce your enrollment, you may be required to return some or all of the financial aid you received. It is important to understand how this works before making any changes to your enrollment.

Withdrawing from classes can also affect your Satisfactory Academic Progress (SAP) standing and your future financial aid eligibility.

A return of funds calculation, known as Return to Title IV (R2T4) applies to the following federal aid programs:
- Federal Pell Grant
- Federal Supplemental Educational Opportunity Grant (FSEOG)
- Federal Direct Student Loans
Institutional scholarships and Federal Work-Study are not subject to return calculations.
Federal regulations require SWC to recalculate your financial aid eligibility if you:
Note: Once you have passed the 60% point of the semester, you are considered to have earned all of your financial aid and will not be required to return any funds.
If you drop some classes but stay enrolled in others, a return of funds calculation is not required. However, your financial aid may be adjusted based on your new enrollment level. If your aid is reduced, you may end up with a bill owed directly to SWC. A hold will be placed on your account until that bill is paid in full. You will not be able to register for future semesters or access your transcripts while the hold is active.
Official Withdrawal

An official withdrawal is one you initiate, which includes withdrawals for medical reasons. Your withdrawal date is the date you submitted the withdrawal request or the last date of documented academic activity, whichever is later.

Unofficial Withdrawal

An unofficial withdrawal occurs when you stop attending without formally withdrawing. If you do not earn a passing grade in at least one course during the semester and never officially withdrew, it will be treated as an unofficial withdrawal, even if you were enrolled the entire term.

If you never officially withdrew from your classes, your withdrawal date will be set at the midpoint of the semester or the last date your instructor documented that you attended, whichever is later.

Students who never begin attending any class will have their financial aid canceled. All funds received are considered unearned and must be returned. You will be billed for this amount.
Within 45 days of your withdrawal, the Financial Aid Office calculates how much aid you earned based on how far into the semester you attended:

Days Attended before Withdrawal / Total Days in the Semester = % of Aid Earned

Any aid received above that percentage is considered unearned and must be returned. Once the calculation is complete, SWC has 45 days to return the unearned funds to the federal programs.
If you withdraw before receiving all of the aid you were eligible for, you may qualify for a post-withdrawal disbursement. SWC may apply some or all of this disbursement to any outstanding balance you owe the college.

If your post-withdrawal disbursement includes Direct Loan funds, you will be notified by email and will have 10 days to submit a Request to Cancel, Reduce, or Reinstate Direct Loan Form if you want to receive those funds. If SWC does not hear from you within 10 days, it will be assumed that you do not want the loan disbursement.
After the calculation is complete, if you owe money you will be notified by email at your SWC email address. A hold will be placed on your account. You cannot register for future semesters or receive transcripts until the balance is paid to SWC.

If you do not pay SWC by the deadline, SWC is required to return the funds to the federal government on your behalf. At that point the debt transfers to the Department of Education's Debt Resolution Services. After 45 days without payment, a hold will be placed on your federal record and you will lose eligibility for all federal financial aid until the debt is repaid.

The best way to avoid this is to pay your balance to SWC as soon as possible. Loan funds must be repaid according to the terms of your promissory note regardless of this process.