Return of Federal Student Loans
The return of Federal Student loans has a different rate than the University’s refund policy:
Return of Title IV Funds applies to a Federal loan recipient who withdraws from or leaves school before completing the payment period or period of enrollment.
- At Messiah University the period of enrollment is a semester.
- Messiah University will determine the percentage of aid earned by the student by calculating the percentage of the period that the student completed.
- For credit-hour programs that means the Days Attended/ Days in period = percentage completed.
- Any unearned funds must be returned. The percentage of loan that a student is allowed to keep may differ from the percentage of tuition remaining on their account per the University’s refund policy. This would result in a balance due to the University.
However, since some ADP programs at Messiah University have two parts of term in each semester, there may be situations where a student withdraws from the early part of the term but still plans to attend classes in the latter part of the term.
- In this case the student is not considered to have withdrawn from the program if the student gives the institution written confirmation that he or she will attend a class in the part of term that begins later in the same payment period or period of enrollment. The situation will change if the student does not attend the class in the later session.
- This written confirmation must occur at the time that would have been considered a withdrawal.
Therefore, if a student withdraws from a class or classes part of the way through the early part of the term and gives Messiah University written confirmation (at the time of withdrawal) that they are enrolled in and planning to attend a class or classes in the latter part of the same semester, there is no need to return Federal Direct Loans. However, if the student does not follow-through and attend the later session, the situation would be considered a withdrawal.