Financial Aid Withdrawal

Students who wish to withdraw from Wentworth are required to submit a completed the Voluntary Withdrawal Form at and submit it to the Registrar’s Office. If you live in a residence hall, you must meet with the Resident Life Staff and submit the appropriate forms.

Withdrawing students who have received scholarships, grants, and awards from Wentworth are permitted to retain a portion of these funds based on the duration of attendance. The total amount of aid retained from both institutional and federal sources is calculated using the Federal Title IV rules. 

For purposes of this policy, the date of withdrawal will be the date the student begins the withdrawal process or the date, as determined by Wentworth, that the student otherwise notified Wentworth in writing or verbally, of their intent to withdraw to zero credits.

If Wentworth determines a student is unable to officially withdraw due to illness, accident, grievous personal loss, the student’s death, or other such circumstances beyond the student’s control, the withdrawal date will be determined by Wentworth as to the date related to this instance. 

If a student is administratively withdrawn, the date used will be the date Wentworth ceased the student’s enrollment. 

The amount of aid earned is calculated by dividing the number of calendar days from the beginning of the term of the point of withdrawal by the total number of days in the term. This percentage is multiplied by the amount of federal financial aid that was given and accepted for the term and becomes the amount of aid that was earned. This amount is subtracted from the amount of aid disbursed and the balance becomes the amount of unearned aid that must be returned.

Responsibility for repayment of these funds will be shared by Wentworth and the student, according to policies and procedures contained within the federal formula for proration of refunds of unearned Federal Financial Aid.

Wentworth halts all Title IV financial aid disbursements upon learning of the student’s withdrawal until the calculation of the amount of aid earned by the student is completed. 

A student may be eligible for a post-withdrawal disbursement if the amount of earned aid is more than the disbursed aid. Students will be notified through university email at the point of withdrawal if they are eligible for a post-withdrawal disbursement as determined by the Financial Aid Office. For loan funds, students must complete the form in the letter emailed to them and return it by the deadline on the letter.

In compliance with federal regulations, a school must return Federal financial aid funds to the programs from which the student received federal aid during the payment period as applicable, in the following order, up to the net amount disbursed from each source:

• Unsubsidized Federal Direct loans
• Subsidized Federal Direct loans
• Federal Direct PLUS loans
• Federal Pell Grants
• Federal Supplemental Educational Opportunity Grants (FSEOG)

Federal Work-Study funds paid to recipients will not be included in the computation of earned Federal financial aid, nor will these funds be refunded to the federal account from which they were paid.

Unearned Federal grant and Federal loan funds due from Wentworth will be repaid to the federal accounts for the specified semester. Unearned portions of Federal grant aid due from the student will also be repaid to the federal accounts by Wentworth. All repayments made by Wentworth under this policy will be charged to your student account. Any refund amount above the amount of unearned aid will be returned to the federal aid programs according to the distribution of the Unearned Federal Financial Aid schedule.

The institutional charges used in the calculation usually are the charges that were initially assessed to student for the entire payment period or period of enrollment as applicable. Initial charges may only be adjusted by those changes the institution made before the student’s withdrawal (e.g., a change in enrollment unrelated to the withdrawal). If a student does not have institutional charges at the time of the withdrawal or in a rare instance the school decides to eliminate charges, this does not change the charges or aid used in the calculation. 

Federal Regulations require that an institution must have a procedure in place for determining whether a Federal financial aid recipient who began attendance during a payment period completed the period.

For students enrolled in 15-week courses, if a student earns a passing grade in one or more of his or her classes offered over an entire period, for that class, Wentworth will presume that the student completed the course and completed the period of enrollment. For students enrolled in 7-week courses, the student is considered to have withdrawn from a payment period in which the student began enrollment if the student ceased attendance without completing all of the days the student was scheduled to complete in the period.

The determination of unofficial withdrawals will occur after grades are posted at the end of each semester. For unofficial withdrawals, the withdrawal date that Wentworth will use is either the midpoint of the payment period or the last date of an academically related activity the student participated in.

A program is ‘offered in modules’ if a course or courses do not span the entire length of the payment period. Therefore our 7-week sessions are considered modules. For all programs offered in modules, a student is considered to have withdrawn for Title IV purposes if the student ceases attendance at any point before completing the payment period.

A student is not considered withdrawn if the student successfully completes:

• One module that includes 49 percent or more of the number of days in the payment period, excluding scheduled breaks of five or more consecutive days and all days between modules.
• A combination of modules that when combined contain 49 percent or more of the number of days in the payment period, excluding scheduled breaks of five or more consecutive days and all days between modules.
• Coursework equal to or greater than the coursework required to be a half-time student for the payment period. Half-time is defined as 6 credits for Undergraduate students and 4.5 credits for Graduate students. 

For all programs offered in modules, a student is considered to have withdrawn for Title IV purposes if the student ceases attendance at any point prior to completing the module, unless the school obtains written confirmation from the student at the time of withdrawal that he or she will attend a module that begins later in the same payment period (semester).

If a school obtains a written confirmation of future attendance but the student does not return as scheduled, the student is considered to have withdrawn from the payment period (semester).

A Return of Title IV calculation will be processed at that time using the withdrawal date and total number of calendar days that would have applied if the student had not provided written confirmation of a future date of attendance. 

Students are required to return written confirmation within 10 days of being contacted by the Financial Aid Office.  If not returned a withdrawal calculated will be conducted. 

If a student re-enters their program offered in a module prior to the end of the payment period (semester) the student may be eligible to receive any Title IV funds to which they were eligible to receive prior to the withdrawal, including funds returned under the Return to Title IV calculations mentioned here. 

15-week semester - A payment period start date is September 9 and the end date is December 12. The total days for the payment period is 98 days. The student withdraws on October 1 which is day 26 of the payment period. The percentage of earned aid would be 26.5% (26 days/98 days) and the unearned aid percentage is 73.5%.

• If the student received $5,500 in Title IV aid, then the student earned $1,457.50 in Title IV aid and $4,042.50 is the unearned amount.
• If institutional charges are $6,000, then the amount of earned charges would be $1,590 and the unearned charges would be $4,410.
• Wentworth is responsible for returning the lesser of the unearned institutional charges or the total amount of unearned Title IV aid, so Wentworth would return $4,042.50 in this example. The student is responsible for immediate payment of this account balance.

7-week sessions - A payment period start date is January 9 and the end date is April 21. Session One starts on January 9 and ends on February 24. Session Two starts on March 6 and ends on April 21. There is a 9-day break between Session One and Two. The total days for the payment period is 94 days (47 days in each session)

The student is registered for a course in Session One and a course in Session Two. The student earns a B in Session One and then withdraws on March 7 which is day 49 of the payment period. The percentage of earned aid would be 52.1% (49 days/94 days) and the unearned aid percentage is 47.9%.

• If the student received $5,500 in Title IV aid, then the student earned $2,865.5 in Title IV aid and $2,634.50 is the unearned amount.
• If institutional charges are $6,000, then the amount of earned charges would be $3,126 and the unearned charges would be $2,874.
• Wentworth is responsible for returning the lesser of the unearned institutional charges or the total amount of unearned Title IV aid, so Wentworth would return $2,634.50 in this example. The student is responsible for immediate payment of this account balance.

Return of Title IV funds requirements DO apply to a student who:

• Officially withdraws during a payment period; or
• Unofficially withdraws during a payment period (student stops attending without providing notification to the institute); or
• Ceases attendance during a payment period; or
• Graduates during a payment period.

Return of Title IV funds requirements DO NOT apply to a student who:

• Withdraws from some classes but remains enrolled in other courses during the same payment period at Wentworth;
• Completes all of the academic requirements for graduation and is able to graduate before completing all of the days in the period they were scheduled to complete; 
• Never attended any classes, or for whom Wentworth cannot document attendance in at least one class for the payment period or period of enrollment. If the student never attended any classes or Wentworth cannot document the student’s attendance in at least one class, the student did not establish eligibility for Title IV aid for the period and all funds must be returned.
• Started attending but was not and could not have been disbursed Title IV grant or loan funds prior to withdrawal.