Students who receive financial aid funds at UT Austin and subsequently withdraw from the University for that same semester (for any reason) must consult with the Office of Student Financial Services to have a withdrawal evaluation performed. Students attempting to withdraw should be aware that, depending on the effective date of their withdrawal, they may be considered to have not earned all or a portion of the financial aid funds they received. Because of this, under federal law, our office is often required to return funds to financial aid programs. The amount of funds we return depends upon the funds received, the effective date of the withdrawal, and the institutional expenses the student incurred. Since these funds have already been received by the student, we will need to be reimbursed by the student for this money before we can approve the withdrawal.

A student who withdraws will also receive a strike on his/her financial aid file. Students who receive three strikes are no longer eligible to receive funds from our office. Please visit our Satisfactory Academic Progress page for more information.

What does all this mean? In a nutshell, students who have received financial aid in a semester from which they later withdraw will often be obligated to immediately repay all or a portion of the funds they received. If you intend to withdraw from UT, please come and consult with a counselor at our front counter.

Federal financial aid regulations state that a student who makes unsatisfactory grades in all courses for a semester must be considered an unofficial withdrawal unless the institution can document that the student engaged in some academic activity beyond the 60% point of that semester. At UT Austin, unsatisfactory grades are considered to be F's, X's and Q's. Federal student aid recipients who have no grades other than these three reported for an academic semester will be reviewed to determine whether or not they must be considered an unofficial withdrawal. Official UT Austin records and sources will be reviewed to assist in this determination. Students may also be asked to provide documentation if official records are unsatisfactory or ambiguous.

If the student is determined to be an unofficial withdrawal, then the Office of Student Financial Services is required to perform a repayment calculation to ascertain the amount of federal financial aid which was "unearned" by that student for the period no activity can be documented and therefore must be returned to the federal aid programs. The repayment calculation is also mandated by federal regulations and determines the amounts and specific programs to which federal aid must be returned based on the date the student withdrew. This repayment calculation is also applied to students who go through the official withdrawal process and receive all W's, but is generally performed prior to the student completing the withdrawal petition, since our office must sign those before they are approved.

For any student for whom the last date of academic activity cannot be documented as occurring on or after the 60% point of semester, the withdrawal date will be considered the mid-point of the semester unless documented otherwise.

Any student who is considered an unofficial withdrawal and for whom a repayment calculation results in a required return of federal funds will be responsible to repay those funds prior to receiving additional federal financial aid at UT Austin or any other institution. The student will repay the required amount of funds to UT Austin who will return those funds to the federal aid programs from which they came.

Students will be have a financial aid bar for the amount owed placed on their records until the amount if fully repaid to UT Austin. This will prevent a student from re-enrolling at UT Austin.

If you have any questions, please Ask DON!