Withdrawals and Refunds

Withdrawal Notification, Tuition Refunds & Return to Title IV

Students who wish to withdraw from CCMS must notify the Office of the Registrar. Students who “officially withdraw” or leave the CCMS program are tracked by faculty and the Academic Chair and reported to the Registrar with date of last academic activity. The Registrar will immediately notify the Financial Aid Administrator (FAA) of any Official Withdrawals. The date of last academic activity will be used by the FAA to calculate percentage of funds earned in the Return to Title IV (R2T4) process.

Unofficial Withdrawal Notification

Students who “unofficially withdraw” or leave the CCMS program without official notification are tracked by faculty and the Academic Chair and reported to the Registrar with date of last academic activity.

The Registrar will immediately notify the Financial Aid Administrator of any Unofficial Withdrawals. The date of last academic activity will be used by the FAA to calculate percentage of funds earned in the Return to Title IV (R2T4) process.

Return to Title IV

Withdrawal Notification & Return to Title IV (R2T4) Processing

Title IV funds are awarded to a student under the assumption that the student will attend school for the entire period for which the assistance is awarded. When a student completely withdraws before the end of a payment period, the student may no longer be eligible for the full amount of Title IV funds that the student was originally scheduled to receive.

CCMS is considered an attendance taking institution, as outlined in the FSA Handbook, Volume 5, Chapter 2, pages 63-66.  If a school is required to take attendance, a student’s withdrawal date is always the last date of academic attendance as determined by the school from its attendance records. For R2T4 purposes, the withdrawal date is used for determining the amount of aid a student has earned in the R2T4 calculation.

Financial Aid Office is notified of withdrawals by the Office of the Registrar. The financial aid office reviews the withdrawal information to determine if an R2T4 calculation is needed, or if the withdrawal meets an R2T4 exemption as determined by the FSA handbook, as follows:

o R2T4 Exemptions -not optional

 A student is not considered to have withdrawn if the student successfully completes coursework equal to or greater than the coursework required for the institution’s definition of a half-time student under § 668.2 for the payment period. (applies to modular programs only)*

 Completing Graduation Requirements (all students)

 Completed module(s) spanning 49% or more of the countable days in the payment period.*

• A student is not considered to have withdrawn if the student successfully completes one module or a combination of modules that includes 49 percent or more of the number of countable days in the payment period, excluding scheduled breaks of five or more consecutive days and all days between modules. 

*Currently, CCMS does not have any modular programs. 

If a student has been determined to have withdrawn, an R2T4 calculation is performed in COD. Once the return calculation has been completed, the financial aid office notifies the billing office of any required returns that have been calculated so that the funds can be returned promptly, and within 45 days of the student’s withdrawal date.

The Registrar also works closely with the faculty and the Dean to be certain that all enrolled students are accounted for so that any withdrawals can be promptly reported to the Registrar so that the calculation and returns can be executed within the 45-day timeframe. Refunds are applied in the following order:

1. Unsubsidized Direct Stafford Loan  

2. Subsidized Direct Stafford Loan 

3. Direct PLUS (Parent) Loan 

4. Pell Grant 

5. Iraq and Afghanistan Service Grant, for which a return of Title IV funds is required.

6. FSEOG for which a return of Title IV funds is required

NOTE: The student must return unearned aid for which he/she/they are responsible by repaying funds to the applicable aid program. The students will be notified by the Financial Aid Office if so required.

If you are required to repay loan funds, this is done in accordance with the terms of your loan promissory note. If you must repay any grant funds, the law states that you are not required to repay 50% of the grant assistance that you were calculated to repay. Any grant amount that a student must repay is considered a grant overpayment and therefore must be repaid to CCMS within 45 days.

Credit Balance Policy

A Federal Student Aid (FSA) credit balance occurs whenever CCMS applies the student’s FSA awarded funds to the student’s account and the total amount of those FSA funds exceeds the student’s balance due to the College. If this happens, CCMS must pay the credit balance directly to the student or parent as soon as possible but no later than 14 days after:

• The date the balance occurred on the student’s account, if the balance occurred after the first day of class of a payment period, or
• The first day of classes of the payment period if the credit balance occurred on or before the first day of class of that payment period.

CCMS may not require you to take any actions to obtain your credit balance. It is the sole responsibility of CCMS to pay, or make available, any FSA credit balance within the 14-day regulatory time frames.

Notwithstanding any authorization obtained by the school, CCMS must provide the student with any remaining FSA credit balance resulting from FSA loan funds by the end of the loan period and any other FSA program credit balances by the end of the last payment period in the award year for which the funds were awarded.