Withdrawing from Courses
If you are considering withdrawing from any courses, it is important to contact the WVU Hub and your academic advisor before withdrawing to ensure you understand the consequences of withdrawal. Withdrawing from courses can impact your current and future financial aid eligibility.
Withdrawing from any courses after the add/drop date can impact the student's completion rate percentage for future financial aid eligibility. Students must successfully complete a certain percentage of all attempted credit hours to remain eligible. If a student earns a "W" by withdrawing from a course after add/drop, this counts as attempted hours where the student did not earn a passing grade.
See our Satisfactory Academic Progress webpage for more information based on student level. Certain aid programs such as grants and scholarships may also require a student earn a certain amount of credit hours during the academic year to renew the aid in the future.
What Happens If You Withdraw from ALL Courses After Aid Disburses for the Semester?
There are three questions to consider:
- Will current institutional charges be reduced?
- Will current financial aid be reduced?
- How will the withdrawal impact future financial aid eligibility? See our Satisfactory Academic Progress webpage for more withdrawing and Satisfactory Academic Progress information.
Will current institutional charges be reduced?
Refund policies determine how much institutional charges may be reduced when a student withdraws from all courses based on the date of withdrawal.
- Tuition and fees: Visit our Withdrawal webpage
- Housing charges: Contact WVU Housing
- Dining plan charges: Contact WVU Dining Services
Will current financial aid be reduced?
When a student withdraws from school before completing an enrollment period or falls below the minimum enrollment level for a specific aid type by withdrawing from a class, WVU must determine whether any of the student’s financial aid must be returned.
The federal government mandates that students who withdraw from all courses, officially or unofficially, may only keep federal financial aid earned up to the date of the withdrawal. This also applies to state and institutional financial aid programs.
How much aid is "earned" is based on the length of time enrolled. If more than 60%
of the enrollment period is completed, funds are considered “earned," and no funds
must be returned (i.e. removed from the student's account and returned to the provider
of the aid).
- To determine the percentage of "earned" aid, the institution must divide the number of calendar days the student has attended classes by the number of calendar days in the semester (minus any scheduled breaks of five days or more).
- For example, if a student attended 25% of the semester, 25% of the aid disbursed will be considered "earned." The remainder - or "unearned" amount - must be returned to the provider of the aid.
Returning financial aid funds to the provider may generate a balance on the student's account, because it is removal of a financial aid payment which was applying to institutional charges for the semester.
Students owing a repayment to any federally sponsored student aid program cannot
receive any federally supported student financial assistance for future enrollment
periods until repayment arrangements have been made with either the
WVU Hub or the U.S. Department of Education.
This applies to all aid programs, including but not limited to:
- Federal Direct Subsidized and Unsubsidized Loans
- Federal Direct PLUS Loans (Parent or Graduate)
- Federal Pell Grant
- Federal Supplemental Educational Opportunity Grant
- Federal TEACH Grant
- West Virginia Higher Education Grant
- Promise Scholarship
- Institutional scholarships
Federal Aid
When a student withdraws prior to completing 60% of the payment period or semester, federal aid is recalculated based on the percentage of the semester that was completed. Based on this calculation, the institution must return the amount of Title IV funds the student is no longer eligible to receive by removing it from the student’s account. Federal Title IV aid is returned in the following order:
- Federal Direct Unsubsidized Loans
- Federal Direct Subsidized Loans
- Federal Direct Graduate PLUS Loans (graduate students)
- Federal Direct Parent PLUS Loans (undergraduate students)
- Federal Pell Grant
- Federal Supplemental Educational Opportunity Grant
- Federal TEACH Grant
- Other Title IV Assistance
- State aid according to the state’s policy
- Institutional scholarships and waivers
State Aid
- West Virginia State Aid: If a student withdraws from all courses, the institution must recalculate the amount of the state aid the student earned. If the student is receiving Title IV aid, this recalculation is performed by determining the percentage of the payment period, or semester, the student completed. If the student is not receiving Title IV aid, the institution must use the West Virginia Higher Education Policy Commission’s rules for determining the portion of state aid to be returned.
- Other State Aid: Aid awarded by states other than West Virginia will be reduced based on the policy and procedures of the state agency.
Institutional Scholarship Withdraw Policy
- Institutional Scholarships & Tuition Waivers: Scholarships and waivers are awarded to students under the assumption the student will successfully complete a semester. Institutional scholarships and tuition waivers will be reduced in accordance with the tuition reduction (refund) schedule. For example, if a student withdraws from all courses and 50% of tuition and fees are removed, the institutional scholarship or tuition waiver would be reduced by 50%. The tuition reduction (refund) schedule can be found on our Refunds webpage and details how much a student's tuition will be reduced if they withdraw from all courses based on semester, course length, and week or day of withdrawal.
- Departmental Scholarships: Departmental scholarship reductions due to total withdrawal
from courses vary by scholarship.
- Athletic Waivers: SFS will reach out to the Athletics Department at the Morgantown campus, and the appropriate staff at the regional campuses, when a student receiving athletic aid withdraws. The Athletics Department has the final decision, using NCAA regulations, if and by how much the athletic aid should be reduced.
Unofficial Withdrawal
If a student does not officially withdraw but stops attending the course(s) and receives a combination of all F's, I's, and/or W's, they may be considered an unofficial withdrawal.
After grades post for the semester, these students are sent notification that they must provide documentation from the professor of one of their semester courses to verify they actively participated in at least one course throughout the semester.
Acceptable documentation includes:
- A notice from the professor which can be submitted to the WVU Hub by submitting a ticket after logging into the "Faculty or Staff Inquiry Submission" with their WVU login; OR
- A letter from the professor on institutional letterhead. The professor must specify the student's last known date of attendance.
This information must be submitted by a specific deadline which is listed in the notification to the student. If the last known date of attendance was prior to when all financial aid is considered "earned" for the semester or documentation is not received, the institution is required to return a portion of the student's financial aid.
- Institutional Scholarships & Tuition Waivers: Scholarships and waivers are awarded to students under the assumption the student will successfully complete a semester. Institutional scholarships and tuition waivers will be reduced in accordance with the tuition reduction (refund) schedule. For example, if a student withdraws from all courses and 50% of tuition and fees are removed, the institutional scholarship or tuition waiver would be reduced by 50%. The tuition reduction (refund) schedule can be found on our Refunds webpage and details how much a student's tuition will be reduced if they withdraw from all courses based on semester, course length, and week or day of withdrawal.
- Departmental Scholarships: Departmental scholarship reductions due to total withdrawal from courses vary by scholarship.