HERE’S what may happen if you decide to drop a course...
SAFE! If you’re still enrolled at 12 credits or more, no change to your aid or tuition since you’re still considered a full-time student.
SAFE! A drop from an enrollment total of 12 or greater credits to a new level of 6 to 11 credits will mean a lower tuition, but no change in aid eligibility. This is true once the first week of the semester has passed. Otherwise, you’re classified as being enrolled for only part-time credits and therefore, charged at the part-time tuition rate.
CAUTION! If you’re enrolled at part-time status up through the first week of the semester, then your charges will reflect part-time enrollment and not full-time enrollment. This also means that only aid which you qualify for as a part-time student can remain with you. All full-time student aid eligibility is forfeited.
LOOK OUT, AN AID ADJUSTMENT MAY BE NECESSARY! If you drop course credit below six credits, Uncle Sam now considers you as enrolled at less than half-time status. Grants, scholarships, work-study eligibility and loans are all affected.
LOOK OUT AGAIN, AN AID ADJUSTMENT MAY BE COMING YOUR WAY! All credits are dropped for the semester? The same outcome will occur as if you dropped below half-time status. All aid eligibility is affected.
Here's more (detailed) information on what happens when you drop a class...
An adjustment to financial aid eligibility can occur when a student makes a change in the number of enrolled credits up through 60% of the semester. This period of time constitutes approximately the first eight weeks of the semester. The change in enrollment status also applies to mini-master course work, as long as the course work is part of the student’s initial semester registration. Mini-master course credits that are dropped after the 60% semester refund time period are not subject to financial aid adjustments. The same thing is true, however, for adding course work beyond the first week of the semester. Any new course work and the associated charges aren’t included in financial aid eligibility. The switching of course credit, the exchanging of one four-credit course for another, isn’t affected. This latter instance is just a "swap" in course work with no change in the aggregate number of registered credits and the associated tuition charges that have been established at start of the semester.
When a student withdraws from a course, a tuition credit to their charges will be issued to the student for the adjustment made in course load. This occurs for students dropping from full-time status (12 credit or more) to part-time status or when a student is reducing the number of credit hours as a part-time student. The amount of tuition credit is contingent on the date that the withdrawal is initiated with the Register’s Office. If no date is established, then the mid-point of the semester is used to determine a refund amount.
During the first 60% of the semester, a refund calculation is made by the Bursar’s Office. If the adjustment in course load is made prior to the end of the first week of the semester, the semester charges are based only on the number of credits the student is still enrolled for up through the close of the first week of the semester. If all course work is dropped, then there is no tuition charge, although the Bursar may apply a "withdraw fee" to the bill. If the student drops from full-time to part-time during the first week, then the tuition charge is based only on the total number of credit hours enrolled.
After the first week of the semester, but before the beginning of the 6th week, the Bursar’s Office will refund a graduated step-wise percentage of tuition as well as other charges, such as room and board. The College’s general refund schedule is printed each semester in B-W’s Listing of Course Offerings and through the Bursar’s Office. Students enrolled in minimesters and summer terms have different refund schedules based on the length of the term and these are available through the Bursar’s Office.
For federal student aid purposes, after the first week of classes when tuition charges are "set", each day corresponds to a decreasing percentage refund, starting at 93%, because this is how much of the semester still remains through the end of the exam week. So, for example, B-W allows a 100% refund of tuition up through week one of the semester. If the student drops a course on the 8th day of the semester, the refund is at 93%, the ninth day is at 92%, and so forth until on the 60th day of the semester is reached and the refund is reduced to 40%. Beginning on the 61st day there is no tuition refund credit for changes in course load.
Just as there is a change in tuition charges when a course is dropped, the same occurs with financial aid eligibility. The refund schedules described above applies to financial aid that has been credited to a student’s account. Federal student aid is reduced in accordance with the federal refund policy where each day of the semester reflects a small percentage of the academic term, such as 8 days of enrollment out of 109 days of the semester, equaling 93% of the semester not in attendance. A ny eligibility for loans not yet formally approved by the guarantee agency doesn’t count in this refund calculation. Instead, all loan eligibility is lost for unapproved loan assistance. The percentage of financial aid adjustment only applies for "earned" aid. Aid that hasn’t been formally approved is ignored on the refund formula. This particularly affects loan assistance that hasn’t been taken. Here, the student could lose 100% of their loan eligibility for a loan not approved plus have the refund percentage, say 72%, be applied against all other "earned" aid. There’s one exception to this financial aid refund application and that involves work-study eligibility. Work-study assistance is entirely excluded from the refund determination. This applies to whether earnings have been made or not.
In the event that a student has entirely withdrawn from coursework for the semester, there is also an adjustment for room and board charges that have been assessed the student.As before, the same 60-day percentage schedule would apply in determining financial aid eligibility. The Bursar’s Office, however, would determine the amount of credit to the billing statement that would be applied against housing and board charges. It could be the same percent or a different figure entirely, since board consumption varies from student to student, and housing occupation isn’t subject to day-to-day adjustments. So while there may be an adjustment in financial aid eligibility, a different credit adjustment to the billing statement may be made by the Bursar’s Office.
Finally, these adjustment in aid eligibility generally occur in two situations: (1) when a student withdraws entirely from classes, and (2) when a student’s course load drops from full or part-time to less than half-time (fewer than six credit hours). In the first instance, which affects, perhaps 30 students per semester, the student is completely withdrawing from the College. In the second instance, the student has reduced their status from full or part-time to a different form of status, that of being less than a half-time student. In this latter situation, the federal government no longer considers the person as principally attending college. College is more tangential to the person’s way of life. Therefore, eligibility for aid is calculated similar to as if the student had withdrawn from the College. There are few students that are impacted this way each semester. The financial aid consequences for dropping to five hours or fewer can be great particularly if the student didn’t receive loan approval prior to dropping credit hours.
Now, let’s look at an example. John Buford is enrolled at B-W as a full-time resident in the Liberal Arts Program. He decides to drop all of his courses on the 21st day of the semester(110 days total). This corresponds with the college's 70% refund schedule. What happens to his charges and his aid?
Here’s what John qualified for as a full-time resident student this semester:
| Charges: |
04/05 |
| Tuition | $ 9,747 |
| Room | $ 1,567 |
| Board | $ 1,642 |
| Total | $12,956 |
| Financial Aid: | |
| Pell Grant | $2,000 |
| OIG Grant | $1,800 |
| Choice Grant | $ 502 |
| BW Grant | $2,800 |
| Stafford Loan (approved/received) | $2,640 |
| Work Study (eligible, none earned) | $ 850 |
| PLUS Loan (application in, but none approved) | $1,920 |
| Total | $12,512 |
Both CWS and PLUS loan are removed from any financial aid refund adjustment. CWS is always excluded from refund formulas and the PLUS Loan is excluded since it had not been formally approved by the guarantee agency. Note that approval by the Financial Aid Office doesn’t constitute guarantee agency approval. The latter comes after the aid office processes the loan application. The same is true for Stafford Loans.
For federal student aid purposes John’s federal student aid is reduced based on a refund of 81% [1 - (21/110)]%. Only federal student aid that has been credited counts in this refund calculation. This includes the Pell Grant and Stafford Loan while CWS and the PLUS Loan are not included in the refund calculation. 81% of the combined total ($4,640) of Pell Grant and Stafford Loan is $3,758. This is the amount of federal student aid that is required to be returned.
With respect to state assistance (OIG and Choice Grant) and B-W assistance (B-W Grant), John's withdrawal occurs in the 3rd week of the semester, resulting in a 70% refund. If John had withdrawn on the 28th day, then the College’s refund schedule would have been at 50% while the federal refund percent would have been at 74%. The later a student chooses to withdraw from the College, the more disadvantaged the student is in terms of reduction of student aid.
In John’s case, 70% of his $2,800 B-W Grant, $1,800 OIG, and $502 Choice Grant would be refunded. This amounts to $3,571. Therefore, the combined refund in student aid is $3,758 in federal assistance and $3,571 in combined state and B-W assistance for a total of $7,329.
The Bursar’s Office would also apply the 70% College refund schedule to John’s tuition and room charges, and refund the amount of Board charge that had not already been used. The tuition and room amounts would generate a reduction in tuition and room charges of $7,920. If there were $500 remaining in unused Board charges, this too would be refunded to John.
In this case, John would receive a larger combined reduction in his charges ($7,920 + $500) than reduction in his aid ($7,329). This is not always the case. Each withdraw situation is unique in terms of when it has occurred, how much student aid has been received, and what sources of aid were make up the Aid Award. As a general rule, it is always best for the student to withdraw as soon as possible, once it is decided to do so.
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