Withdrawing from your classes can have an impact on your federal and state aid. The impacts of withdrawing from all courses are different than withdrawing from individual courses while remaining enrolled in other courses.
Impact to the Current Semester
When a student withdraws from some, but not all classes, eligibility for federal grants will be adjusted to reflect the new enrollment status even if the grant has already been disbursed, unless it occurs after they have incurred full tuition liability (after the fourth week). Eligibility for federal loans is not affected in the current semester as long as the student remains enrolled in at least half-time when the loan funds are disbursed. If a student waits until after the semester has started to apply for aid their eligibility will be based on the enrollment status at the time of application or, if eligible for prior terms, based on the number of credits completed.
Impact to Future Semester(s)
Withdrawing from a class or the entire semester reduces the student's pace rate. Your pace is the percentage of credit hours successfully completed out of all those attempted. A pace rate of 66.67% is required to remain eligible for federal aid according to Federal Satisfactory Academic Progress (SAP). requirements. A withdrawal is considered an unsuccessful attempt, this will negatively impact a student's pace. As a result, students could be placed on Financial Aid Warning or become Ineligible for aid in the next semester.
Current Semester Impact
To receive TAP a student must incur full tuition liability for a semester. This means that a student must be enrolled full-time through the fourth week of classes. Students who drop below full-time before the fifth week may have a reduced TAP award.
Impact to Future Semester
Eligibility for TAP in a subsequent semester also is contingent on how many credits were completed in the prior semester. Therefore, withdrawing from a single course or the entire semester could result in the student's ineligibility for TAP the following semester. Refer to NYS Satisfactory Academic Progress for more.
Students who withdraw from classes may request that the corresponding tuition charges be removed in cases of exceptional circumstances.
If the appeal is approved the student may have to return the financial aid that they received for the semester. Appeals are filed with the Academic Standards Office.