Withdrawing from the University
Official Withdrawals
A student who wishes to withdraw from the University after completing registration
for a semester or summer session must initate the process through the appropriate
dean's office. Students 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. These funds
must be returned by our office within 45 days of the date the student withdrew.
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.
In some cases, if the amount disbursed to the student was less than the amount
the student earned, the student may be eligible to receive a post-withdrawal
disbursement of the earned aid that was not received. Our office will notify
the student if they are eligible for a post-withdrawal disbursement.
Withdrawn courses will be considered unsuccessfully completed and will affect
a student's pace toward degree completion. Please review our Satisfactory Academic Progress Policy 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 consult with a counselor at our front counter.
Unofficial Withdrawals
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 have a financial aid bar for the amount owed placed on their
records until the amount is fully repaid to UT Austin. This will prevent a
student from re-enrolling at UT Austin.

