Evergreen Return of Funds Policy
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If a student fully withdraws from The Evergreen State College and is a financial aid recipient, then the school and/or the student may be required to return some of the federal funds awarded to the student. If the student received aid from the Institution and/or the State of Washington, then a portion of the refund may be returned to the funding source from which it was received.
In general, the law assumes that you "earn" your financial aid awards directly in proportion to the number of days of the term you attend. If you completely withdraw from school during a term, the school must calculate, according to a specific formula, the portion of the total scheduled financial aid you have earned and are therefore entitled to receive up to the time you withdrew. If you receive (or the college receives on your behalf) more aid than you earn, the unearned excess funds must be returned to the Department of Education. The order in which the funds must be returned are as follows:
- Federal Direct Unsubsidized Loan
- Federal Direct Subsidized Loan
- Federal Perkins Loan
- Federal Direct PLUS Loans
- Federal Pell Grant
- Federal SEOG
- Other Title IV grant programs
- Institutional or State Funds
The portion of the financial aid grants and loans you are entitled to receive is calculated based on a percentage by comparing the total number of days in the quarter to the number of days you completed before you withdrew. For example, if you complete 30% of the quarter, you earn 30% of the aid you were originally scheduled to receive. This means that 70% of your scheduled awards remain unearned and must be returned to the programs.
If you withdraw from the College after 60% of the term is completed, you can be said to have earned all (100%) of your aid. If you withdraw from the College (either officially or unofficially) before completing 60% of the quarter, you may have to repay any unearned aid that was already disbursed to you.
Your withdrawal date will be determined by the College as: (1) the date you began the College's withdrawal process (as described in the Evergreen catalog); (2) the midpoint of the quarter if you withdraw without notifying Registration and Records of your intent to withdraw; or (3) your last date of attendance at an academically related activity as documented by the College.
If you received excess funds that must be returned to the government, the College shares with you the responsibility of returning those excess funds. The College's portion of the excess funds to be returned is equal to the lesser of
- The entire amount of the excess funds, or
- Your total institutional charges multiplied by the percentage of unearned funds.
If the College is not required to return all of the excess funds, you must return the remaining amount. Any loan funds that you must return must be repaid according to the terms of your promissory note. If you must return any grant funds, the law provides that the amount you must repay is to be reduced by 50%. Please note: this reduction applies only to Title IV grants. This means that you have to return half of any excess funds you receive from the Title IV grants. If the return of unearned aid caused any portion of your tuition and fees to become unpaid, you will be billed by the College. In such cases, you will be required to make arrangements with Student Accounts to pay the balance.
Any financial aid funds you do have to return are considered a grant overpayment. You must either repay that amount in full or make satisfactory arrangements with either the College or the Department of Education, whichever applies, to repay the balance owed. You must complete these arrangements within 45 days of the date you are notified by the College that an overpayment occurred or risk losing your eligibility for further Federal financial aid.
Worksheets used to determine the amount of return of funds are available upon request from the Financial Aid Office.