If a student receives financial aid but never begins attending classes, the Financial Aid Office must return all disbursed funds to the respective federal, state and institutional aid programs.

For financial aid purposes, there are two types of withdrawals: official and unofficial.

• Official: An official withdrawal will be recorded once the withdrawal process has been completed by the student.  The current academic year’s policy for a Complete Withdrawal can be found in the Undergraduate Catalog.
• Unofficial: Federal financial aid regulations consider a student to be an unofficial withdrawal if the student receives all failing grades for the term.  If the student has not completely withdrawn and has failed to earn a passing grade in at least one class for the term, federal regulations require the school to determine whether the student established eligibility for financial aid by attending at least one class or participating in any CSM academic-related activity.  An unofficial withdrawal calculation will be performed and funds returned to their respective federal and institutional aid programs if:

       a)  there is no documentation supporting the student’s last day of attendance
       or
       b)  the documentation indicates the student stopped attending prior to the 60% point of the term.

A notification letter outlining the amount repaid to the federal program(s) will be mailed to the student’s Mines email account.  The student will be instructed during the withdrawal process to monitor Mines email for two business days after withdrawing to make certain there are no outstanding requirements. Mines will repay the amounts to the appropriate federal program(s) on the student’s behalf and will bill the student’s account.  Most Direct Loan borrowers will be required to enter repayment six months after withdrawal – unless they begin classes on a half-time basis (6 credits undergraduate/4.5 credits graduate) before the end of their six month grace period.

Order of Return of Title IV Funds

Funds that are returned to the Federal government are used to reduce the outstanding balance in individual federal programs.  Financial aid returned, either by CSM and/or the student or parent, must be allocated in the following order:

1. Federal Unsubsidized Direct Loan
2. Federal Subsidized Direct Loan
3. Federal Direct PLUS (Parent) Loan
4. Federal Pell Grant
5. Federal TEACH Grant
6. Federal Supplemental Educational Opportunity Grant (FSEOG)

Exit Counseling

Students that leave Mines with any federal student loan debt will need to complete Loan Exit Counseling. Notification will be sent to the student at the time of withdrawal if completion of exit counseling is required.

A student must maintain Satisfactory Academic Progress in order to continue to receive federal assistance.  If a student withdraws from a term it may impact the pace requirement for satisfactory academic progress.  This decision may also impact scholarship eligibility if a student is currently receiving an academic scholarship.  Please contact the Financial Aid Office for further details.