Understanding Return of Federal Aid Due to Withdrawals (R2T4)

You must officially withdraw from all your classes using the appropriate registration procedures or forms.

When you officially withdraw from all your classes our office is notified. If required, we will do the recalculation of aid for you. If you provided the Registrar's Office or Bronco Advising Center with a signed statement indicating the date you began the withdrawal process or called one of those offices and indicated your intent to withdraw, the earliest date will be using in performing the recalculation. This date will only be used for the aid recalculation; it will not be used in possible fee refund determination or recorded as your official withdrawal date by the campus.

We must recalculate your eligibility according to federal regulations for the aid you have received if you withdraw from all your classes within the first 60% of the term (on or before the following dates):

2023-2024 Academic Year

• Fall 2023: November 1, 2023
• Spring 2024: March 28, 2024
• Summer 2024: Calculations will be based on which session(s) and dates you are enrolled in

The return of funds by the school is paid from University resources, which may create an obligation from you to the University. Any grant repayment you may owe will be payable to the campus. Any return of loan funds required of you will be in accordance with the terms of the promissory note.

If a fee refund is applicable these funds will first be used to cover any school return of funds, then student portion, with any remainder being issued to you.

During the first two weeks of the term, we use the date you accessed BroncoDirect and withdrew from all of your classes.  After this initial period we are required to use the earliest date that we became aware of your withdrawal. We will determine this date using the earliest of the following:

• The date you began the withdrawal process which is the date you obtained the appropriate form from the Registrar's website with the intent to withdraw from all registered classes.
  • Since you can perform this action unmonitored (self-service) and the institution cannot determine whether your intent was a partial or full withdrawal, you must provide a signed statement as to this date if you wish to declare the date you began the process.
• The date you provided official notification to the institution of your intent to withdraw from all your classes by submitting an approved and completed withdrawal form to Enrollment Services. In the event of a medical withdrawal, the withdrawal date is the date indicated by the physician that you were unable to participate in academic activities.

And

You have received financial aid (either funds have been applied to your account or you have received a refund) from any of the following federal programs:

• Federal Pell Grant
• Federal Supplemental Educational Opportunity Grant (FSEOG)
• Federal Direct Subsidized or Unsubsidized Loan
• Federal PLUS Loan (Graduate or Parent)

The first step is to determine the date you began the withdrawal process. Based on available information, we use the earliest date, which is established as described above.

Remember that this date is only for the purposes of the Federal aid recalculation. If you provide notification of intent to withdraw, the date of the notification will not be used in possible fee refund determination or recorded as your official withdrawal date by the campus.

Based on the date you began the withdrawal process we then determine the percentage of the semester you attended. This percentage is then applied to the aid disbursed or that could have been disbursed to determine the amount you earned. If the amount disbursed to you is less than the amount you earned, we will notify you of your eligibility and give you the opportunity to receive that aid. If the amount disbursed to you is greater than the amount you earned, then unearned funds have to be returned. This may include a return of funds by the school and repayment by you.

Aid will be returned in the following order (as required under regulation):

• Federal Direct Unsubsidized Loan
• Federal Direct Subsidized Loan
• Federal Direct PLUS Loan (Graduate Student)
• Federal Direct PLUS Loan (Parent)
• Federal Pell Grant
• Federal Supplemental Educational Opportunity Grant (FSEOG)

You will receive an email notification providing details of the calculation, which will include:

• The date used in the calculation
• The percentage of aid you earned (were eligible to receive)
• The amount of aid that must be returned - including the program being returned to
• The amount of any additional funds being refunded to you

If you owe a repayment, you will also receive a billing notice from Student Accounting & Cashiering Services for the amount of funds for which you are not eligible.

• Cal Poly Pomona will return all required Title IV funds for which it is responsible to the Department of Education no later than 45 days of officially determining you withdrew
• You must return any overpayment of Federal Grant funds directly to Student Accounting and Cashiering Services
• If Direct Loan funds must be returned, you must repay the funds according to the terms of the promissory note.
• We may refer the overpayment to the Department of ED if the student fails to make satisfactory payment arrangement in a timely manner with Student Accounting and Cashiering Services

If you are eligible to receive additional funds, we will send you a notice explaining the process and your options.

If the amount of Title IV aid earned is less than the amount disbursed as of the date the you withdrew, the difference is the amount of unearned aid that must be returned to the Title IV programs by Cal Poly Pomona, you (the student), or both.

The R2T4 formula is designed so all the unearned funds are returned by the school if the student’s institutional charges equal or exceed the amount of Title IV funds disbursed. It is also designed so that Cal Poly Pomona and you must each return a share of the funds if the amount of Title IV funds disbursed exceeds your institutional charges.

School Share

Cal Poly Pomona’s share is determined first and is the lesser of the total amount of unearned aid or an amount equal to institutional charges multiplied by the percentage unearned. The percentage unearned is the complement of the percentage earned.

Cal Poly Pomona must return the Title IV funds for which it is responsible no later than 45 days after the date of the determination of the date of the student's withdrawal.

Cal Poly Pomona is responsible for allocating unearned funds to the Title IV programs from which you received assistance in the following order, up to the net amount:

Aid will be returned in the following order (as required under regulation):

• Federal Direct Unsubsidized Federal Stafford Loan
• Federal Direct Subsidized Federal Stafford Loan
• Federal Direct PLUS Loan (Graduate Student)
• Federal Direct PLUS Loan (Parent)
• Federal Direct Pell Grant
• Federal Supplemental Educational Opportunity Grant (FSEOG)

Student Share

The student share is the difference between the total unearned aid and Cal Poly Pomona’s share. Cal Poly Pomona must notify you of any unearned funds for which you are responsible for repaying within 30 days of the date the school determined you withdrew.

If unearned grant funds are to be returned it is referred to as an overpayment. Unearned portions of Title IV grant aid due from you will be repaid to the federal accounts by Cal Poly Pomona and will be charged to your student account for collection from you.

If direct loan funds must be returned, you must repay the funds according to the terms of the promissory note.

Cal Poly Pomona must determine the correct Title IV credit balance, taking into account the results from both the Return to Title IV calculation and the institutional refund calculation. If after the Return to Title IV funds and the institutional refund calculations are applied to your account and a credit balance results, the credit balance will be disbursed as soon as possible but no later than 14 days after the date of the Return to Title IV calculation is performed.

A student may be due a post-withdrawal disbursement if the amount of Title IV funds earned is more than the amount disbursed at the time they withdrew.  This is referred to as a post-withdrawal disbursement.

If you have an outstanding balance on their account for current award year charges for tuition, Cal Poly Pomona may automatically credit a post-withdrawal disbursement of grant funds to your account. Otherwise, Cal Poly Pomona must obtain your written authorization before crediting the post-withdrawal disbursement for other current award year educationally related institutional charges.

• Grant Funds: If you do not have an outstanding balance on your account or the amount of the post-withdrawal disbursement is greater than the balance, Cal Poly Pomona must directly deliver any grant portion of the post-withdrawal disbursement to you within 45 days of the date of our determination the student withdrew.
• Loan Funds: If the post-withdrawal disbursement includes loan funds, Cal Poly Pomona may not credit your account and the your (or the borrower) may not receive the proceeds as a direct disbursement without first notifying the borrower and confirming they still wish to receive the loan disbursement. Cal Poly Pomona must send the notification within 30 days of our determination that you withdrew and allow the borrower at least 14 days to respond. You may choose to decline some or all the loan proceeds to reduce indebtedness. If no response is received within 14 days of notification, the loan will be cancelled.