Federal Aid Return Policy

Federal Aid Return Policy

Refund Policy/Return of Title IV

School Refund Policy

Students who withdraw from courses will receive a refund of tuition and fee charges according to the schedule listed in the Academic Calendar. In computing refunds, the date of withdrawal is the date on which the Office of Registrar receives an Official Drop or Withdrawal form from the student.

  • Withdrawals from course(s) before the end of add/drop results in a 100% reduction of charges for each credit below 12 credits.
  • Withdrawals from course(s) during the first third of the semester but after add/drop results in a 50% reduction of charges for each credit below 12 credits.
  • Withdrawal from course(s) after the first third of the semester does not result in any reduction of charges.

If classes are canceled by the University, tuition and mandatory fees are fully refunded.

Student Withdrawal

The WITHDRAWAL REQUEST FORM is available in hard copy and online. This form is completed by the student and submitted to the Office of the Registrar to formally withdraw from a course(s).

Return of Title IV Calculation

On a weekly basis students are identified as withdrawn from the University. The Peoplesoft Campus Solutions software is utilized to perform the R2TIV calculation to determine the amount of earned an unearned aid based on the withdrawal date. The amount of unearned aid is determined by the number of days the student attended divided by the number of days in the semester. NJCU will return the balance of any unearned aid. NJCU will bill the student for the unearned federal aid returned to the Federal Title IV programs.

The order of the return of Title IV Aid is:

  1. Federal Direct Unsubsidized Stafford Loan
  2. Federal Direct Subsidized Stafford Loan
  3. Federal Direct Graduate PLUS Loan
  4. Federal Perkins Loan
  5. Federal Direct PLUS Loan
  6. Federal Pell Grant
  7. Federal ACG (no longer applicable)
  8. Federal SMART grant (no longer applicable)
  9. Federal SEOG

Weekly:

  • Students are identified as withdrawn from NJCU
  • R2TIV preformed according to official withdrawal date
  • Aid adjusted and updated on the student's account
  • Students are notified via letter of the aid adjustments
  • Bursar's Office is notified of the aid adjustments
  • Change records will be sent to COD for all Federal Direct Loan and Federal Pell Grant adjustments
  • Change in the student enrollment reported to NSLDS.

Last Date of Attendance

Instructors are instructed to keep records that will enable them to complete the Monthly Veterans Attendance Rosters, and to certify the last date of attendance for students receiving federal aid.

Financial aid recipients, who never attended, withdrew or stopped attending on or before the 60 percent point of semester for which they are charged will be subject recalculation of their financial aid eligibility based on their last date of attendance and the application of Federal R2TIV Funds calculations.

Attendance Monitoring 

Federal regulations require that financial aid recipients begin attendance in each of their classes. If students do not begin attending class, or drop before the enrollment Census date, the amount of a student award must be reduced. If the award has already been paid, students will be required to return to NJCU any amount they鈥檙e not eligible to receive. Federal Pell grants will not be recalculated after the add/drop date of a term (census date) if enrollment status changes. Students will be paid based on the financial aid calculation at the time of the census date.

Online Coursework 

In regards to online students, simply logging into an online class for a specific period of time is not sufficient documentation of attendance in that class. There must be some measure of active participation in the online course in addition to logging in, such as participating in online discussions or completing online assignments.

Academic attendance and academically-related activity includes but is not limited to:

  • Physically attending a class where there is an opportunity for direct interaction between the instructor and students;
  • Submitting an academic assignment;
  • Taking an exam, an interactive tutorial, or computer-assisted instruction;
  • Attending a study group assigned by the school;
  • Participating in an online discussion about academic matters; and
  • Initiating contact with a faculty member to ask a question about the academic subject studied in the course.

The definition of academic attendance and academically-related activity does not include activities where a student may be present, but not academically engaged, such as:

  • Living in institutional housing;
  • Participating in the school鈥檚 meal plan;
  • Participating in a student-organized study group;
  • Logging into an online class without active participation; or
  • Participating in academic counseling or advising.

Federal Direct Loans

Change records are sent to COD based on the revised loan amounts. The unearned portions of aid are updated on the student award record. The award change and the disbursement create a change record that is sent to COD as part of the regular aid processing cycle.

The student is notified in a letter about the revised loan amounts they earned prior to the withdrawal.

Example of an R2TIV calculation

  • Student withdraws 22 days into a given semester.
  • Percentage of Title IV Aid earned: 21.10%
  • Percentage of Title IV Aid unearned: 78.90%
  • Total Aid Disbursed: $2,775
  • Total Institutional Charges: $6,180
  • Unearned Institutional Charges: $4,876.73
  • Amount of Title IV Aid due from school: $1,092.70
  • Amount due from student: $0.