Earning Your Financial Aid/Return to Title IV (R2T4)

  • As part of the Higher Education Act of 1998, Congress passed regulations that dictate how Federal Student Aid funds are handled when a student withdraws officially from classes or stops attending classes during any given semester (unofficial withdrawal). These regulations require that a Return to Title IV (R2T4) calculation be performed in order to determine the amount of aid the student has earned.

    Even though students are awarded and allowed to use their financial aid to registrar, the student is still required to earn the aid by attending classes up to the point that 60% of the semester has passed. When the student attends classes after 60% of the semester has passed, the student has earned all of the Title IV funds that he or she was awarded or was scheduled to receive.

    When the student completely withdraws from the semester or stops attending classes before 61% of the semester has passed, the student has failed to earn all of the financial aid that he or she received. Therefore, the college will need to determine how much of the aid must be returned to the Title IV program by the college and the student.

    Baltimore City Community College  must calculate the amount of the earned aid by  using the date of the student’s withdrawal from the college or the date the student stopped attending classes or the last date that the student attended an academically – related activity to determine the withdrawal date.

    The Return to Title IV calculation is based on the total number of days in the semester compared to the total number of days that a student attended classes before the last date of attendance. If the student receives more aid than they ‘earned’, then the ‘unearned portion’ of the student’s aid must be returned to the U.S.Department of Education.

    When a student’s award has to be adjusted, the monies that are returned to the U.S. Department of Education will be returned in the following order:

    1. Pell
    2. FSEOG

    (BCCC does not participate in the federal student loan programs.)

    Students earn the Federal portion of their financial aid by attending classes. An example is as follows:

    Date of Withdrawal

    #of Days of Class Attend      

          #Days in Semester   

    %Completed  

    % of Refund to DOE

    8/23

    1

    110

    1%

    99%

    9/8

    22

    110

    20%

    80%

    10/13

    57

    110

    52%

    48%

    10/22

    66

    110

    60%

    40%


    To earn 100% of the aid awarded the student must withdraw AFTER 60% of the semester has passed. A complete copy of the Return to Title IV Policy can be found on the college’s web page at www.bccc.edu. In addition, a copy of the policy is available in the Financial Aid Office.

    Institutional Refund Policy

    Baltimore City Community College’s non-federal refund policy may be found in the tuition and fee section of the college catalog or course schedule that is published each semester.

    Note: If Baltimore City Community College has to return a portion of the student’s Federal financial aid, the funds will be deducted from their account and the student will owe the college for whatever amount had to be returned to the U.S. Department of Education.