Withdrawal from the College
Financial aid recipients withdrawing from the College should contact the Financial Aid Office. This will ensure that all matters regarding financial aid awards, refunds, and student loan obligations are taken care of prior to leaving the College. It is the policy of Bucks County Community College not to grant leaves of absence. Students are considered to be withdrawn at the time they are no longer in attendance.
A student will be considered an unofficial withdrawal if such student receives financial aid and fails to earn a passing grade in at least one class in which he/she was enrolled. In this case, the Financial Aid Office will perform a Return to Title IV calculation and remove any unearned financial aid received by the student. If the removal of unearned financial aid results in an outstanding balance, the student will be unable to re-enroll until such time that the outstanding balance has been paid. Students not contacting the Financial Aid Office will be billed for any unearned financial aid received, and will be unable to re-enroll until such time that the resulting balance has been paid. Students with Federal Perkins Loans (formerly National Direct Student Loans), Nursing Health Professions Student Loans, and Federal Stafford Loans (formerly Guaranteed Student Loans) must contact the Financial Aid Office so that exit counseling can be conducted.
Please contact the Financial Aid Office if you are interested in receiving information regarding exit counseling required to be provided to student borrowers of a Federal Stafford Loan or Federal Perkins Loan. You may also contact the Financial Aid Office to receive terms and conditions of deferments of loans for service in the Peace Corps, under the Domestic Volunteer Service Act of 1973 or comparable volunteer service for a tax-exempt organization of demonstrated effectiveness in the field of community service. Finally, you may request, from the Financial Aid Office, information regarding the terms of any loans received, sample loan repayment schedules and the necessity for repaying loans.
Return to Title IV Refund Policy
All Title IV Aid recipients, who totally withdraw from classes at or before the 60% point in the semester, or if they have all “F” grades at the end of the semester, or if the student has a combination of grades including any “I” Incompletes will have a calculation performed to determine the amount of unearned aid that must be returned. Based on the withdrawal date recorded in the Office of Admissions, Records, and Registration or the last date of attendance recorded by the instructor, we determine how many calendar days a student has attended in the semester. We divide the calendar days attended by the calendar days in the semester to get the percentage completed. Total disbursed aid is then multiplied by this percentage completed to determine earned aid. If earned aid is less than disbursed aid, we must perform another calculation to determine how much of the unearned aid has to be returned by the college and how much has to be returned by the student. Once the amount of unearned aid that needs to be returned is determined, it must be returned to the Title IV aid programs in the following order:
- Unsubsidized Direct Stafford Loans (other than PLUS Loans)
- Subsidized Direct Stafford Loans
- Federal Perkins Loans
- Federal Direct PLUS Loans
- Federal PELL Grants for which a return of funds is required
- Academic Competiveness Grants for which a return is required
- Federal Supplemental Eduacationak Opportunity Grants (SEOG) for which a return is required
- Iraq and Afghanistan Service Grant for which a return is required