Overpayment
Financial aid eligibility is determined based on information from your FAFSA/Dream Act application, and your academic enrollment progress. There are four components: Cost of Attendance (COA), Student Aid Index (SAI), other financial resources, and enrollment status/enrollment intensity at the time of disbursement. Changes to any of these components within a term may change your financial aid eligibility. The Financial Aid Office must use these changes to redetermine your financial aid eligibility. This may result in an overaward and/or overpayment situation.
Overpayment are funds that you had received but did not earn. There are several situations that may cause an overpayment, if you:
- Received additional resources beyond the COA such as stipends, and or scholarships after your financial aid award had been determined.
- Changes in enrollment status: you drop some courses after receiving a disbursement.
- You receive financial aid funds from more than one campus for the same period of enrollment.
- Drop all of your courses at any time during the term. The Department of Education requires the campus to perform Return to Title IV (R2T4) calculation to determine the portion of earned and unearned funds.
General Overpayment
If you drop some units but continue to remain enrolled in at least a half-unit (0.5) class, you may have received unearned funds.. The Financial Aid Office will recalculate your eligibility based on the enrollment status/enrollment intensity and program eligibility requirements to determine the amount of earned and unearned financial aid funds. If you received unearned financial aid funds you will be required to repay the funds to remain eligible for financial aid. If you owe a financial aid overpayment, you will not be eligible to receive financial aid until the overpayment is resolved.
Return to Title IV Policy
Students who receive federal financial aid and then withdraw from ALL approved financial aid eligible classes may have to repay some or all of the federal funds they received.
Eligibility for financial aid is based on enrollment status/enrollment intensity. The Higher Education Amendment of 1998 governs the Return to Title IV Funds Policy for a student who completely withdraws from a period of enrollment (i.e., semester). These rules assume that a student “earns” aid based on his/her semester enrollment. “Unearned” aid, other than Federal Work‐Study, must be returned.
Unearned aid is the amount of federal financial aid disbursed that exceeds the amount the student has earned. Unearned aid may be subject to repayment. Earned aid that has not been disbursed will be offered to the student as a Post Withdrawal Disbursement (PWD).
During the first 60% of the semester of enrollment, a student earns aid in direct proportion to the length of time of their enrollment. A student who remains enrolled beyond the 60% point of the semester has earned all of their aid disbursed for the period.
If a student has earned funds or a PWD that had not been disbursed, the student will receive a notification regarding the disbursement of their PWD funds. A student may decline to receive their PWD funds by notifying the Financial Aid Office. A PWD containing Pell Grant funds will increase a student’s Lifetime Eligibility Used (LEU) and reduce their future eligibility.
If a student owes an overpayment, the student will be notified by email. The student has 45 calendar days from the date of the notification to repay. A hold will be placed on the student’s record. The hold may prevent the student from receiving college services and may jeopardize future financial aid eligibility.
Unpaid overpayments will be reported to the U.S. Department of Education for collection. It is advised that the student contacts the Financial Aid Office before withdrawing from all of their classes, so the student understands the results of their actions.