Understand How Withdrawing Can Affect Your Financial Aid
Dropping a class or withdrawing from all of your classes can affect your financial aid. The date you withdraw is important. Depending on when you withdraw, you may be required to repay some or all of the financial aid you have already received.
Before dropping all of your classes, contact the Office of Financial Aid and Scholarships. A financial aid advisor can review your situation, explain how withdrawing may affect your aid, and estimate whether you may need to repay any funds.
If You Withdraw Before the Term Begins
Federal financial aid rules are very strict about dropping classes after you've received financial aid.
If you drop every class before the first day of the term, you have not earned financial aid for that term. CSUSB must cancel or return the aid. If funds were already applied to charges or refunded to you, you may owe 100% of the aid you received to CSUSB.
If You Withdraw After the Term Begins
If classes have already started and you withdraw from all of your classes before completing 60% of the semester, CSUSB is required to determine how much of your federal financial aid you earned based on how long you attended.
This calculation is called a Return of Title IV Funds (R2T4) calculation.
If the calculation shows that you received more federal financial aid than you earned, you may have to repay some of that aid.
Federal regulations also do not allow you to use future federal financial aid (Title IV funds) to pay an amount you already owe because of a financial aid repayment. This means you could have a balance due to CSUSB that must be paid before you can receive future financial aid.
Before withdrawing, contact the Office of Financial Aid and Scholarships. A financial aid advisor can calculate your expected federal financial aid repayment and explain your options.
How to Officially Withdraw from the Term
Dropping to zero units—meaning you drop all of your classes—is considered withdrawing from the term and/or university.
You must follow CSUSB's official withdrawal policies, procedures and guidelines.
Withdrawing from a Class or the University
If you're dropping one or more classes, make sure you follow the university's official withdrawal process.
If you don't complete the required withdrawal process:
- You may still be responsible for paying fees.
- You may receive failing grades in your courses.
After the census deadline, you cannot complete the withdrawal process through MyCoyote.
If you receive financial aid and plan to withdraw, you must contact the Office of Financial Aid and Scholarships before withdrawing. Depending on when you withdraw and the financial aid you've received, you may have to repay some or all of your aid.
Withdrawal from a Class or the University
How Your Withdrawal Date Is Determined
A Leave of Absence must meet certain conditions to be counted as a temporary interruption in a student’s education instead of being counted as a withdrawal requiring a school to perform a R2T4 calculation. The Office of Financial Aid and Scholarships is not required to perform a R2T4 calculation when a student adheres to CSUSB’s Leave of Absence policy.
A Leave of Absence that does not meet all of the conditions for an approved Leave of Absence is considered a withdrawal for Title IV purposes. In these cases, a student’s withdrawal date at CSUSB will be considered the date a student begins the Leave of Absence.
A student may provide official notification of intent to withdraw by following CSUSB’s withdrawal process. The last date of attendance is the date CSUSB Office of the Registrar receives an official withdrawal documentation.
If a student fails to begin the withdrawal process or otherwise notify the school of the intent to withdraw due to illness, accident, grievous personal loss, or other circumstances beyond the student’s control, the withdrawal date shall be based on final grades for a term of either all WUs (Unofficial Withdrawals), all Fs (Failure) or a combination of both but not any other combinations that include grades of A, B, C, D, I, RD or their combinations.
If a student dies within a term, the last date of attendance shall be the date of the student’s death. If the R2T4 indicates that CSUSB is required to return Title IV funds, then it will return the funds for which it is responsible. The student’s estate is not required to return any Title IV funds, and CSUSB will neither report a grant overpayment for a deceased student to NSLDS, nor refer a grant overpayment for a deceased student to Debt Resolution Services.
Discharge provisions for a borrower’s obligation to repay a Federal Direct or Federal Perkins Loan (including a PLUS loan borrower’s obligation to repay and Direct PLUS loan if the student on whose behalf the parent borrowed dies).
If you withdraw after classes begin and you are scheduled to receive undisbursed federal aid, before making a disbursement of Title IV grant or loan, the Office of Financial Aid and Scholarships will calculate the earned portion.
