A student is considered as withdrawn from a course either officially or unofficially.  Georgia State University defines the withdrawal date as follows:

• Official withdrawal –
  1. The period for student-initiated withdrawal is determined and published by the Office of the Registrar for each semester. In general, students initiate the withdrawal by logging into the PAWS portal.  The date that the withdrawal is initiated in PAWS is the effective date of the withdrawal.  A student may also be assisted by staff from the Office of the Registrar to update the course to withdrawn.
  2. There are other withdrawals that may occur within or outside of the published withdrawal period.  Examples of these withdrawal types are faculty-initiated, emergency, military, or non-academic withdrawal.  Definitions of each withdrawal type can be found at https://registrar.gsu.edu/registration/withdrawals/.   The effective date of the withdrawal is determined by the faculty member or by the information provided on the petition that is submitted for emergency and military withdrawal. The Office of the Registrar reviews these petitions and enters the effective date in the Banner software.

• Unofficial withdrawal – a student that has failed to earn a passing grade in at least one course attempted or has a combination of withdrawal(s) and failed to earn a passing grade, may be considered as unofficially withdrawn.  A student in this scenario may have ceased attendance and not have completed the official withdrawal process.

All grades that are identified as not passing require faculty to enter a last date of attendance (LDA) in the Banner software.  The last date of attendance is determined by the faculty member based on the last date the student had academic attendance or attendance in academically related activities.

The effective date of the withdrawal is the most current date from all courses listed. If an official withdrawal exists, the status date is considered and if it is a failed course, the LDA is considered. In the example below, the effective date of the unofficial withdrawal is 10/13/2020.

Subject	Course Title	Grade	Status or Last Date of Attendance
AAS	POLITICS OF CIVIL RIGHTS MVMNT	W	10/13/2020
CRJU	WRONGFUL CONVICTIONS	F	9/11/2020
POLS	NUCLEAR WEAP & INT POLITICS	W	10/13/2020
SOCI	GENDER AND SOCIETY	F	9/13/2020

 

Withdrawal Rescinded:  A student may submit a petition for a grade change to rescind a withdrawal.  If the grade change results in the student no longer being an official or unofficial withdrawal, then the calculation will be reversed.  Aid may be reinstated if Title IV deadlines have not passed for the respective semester.  If the change results in an unofficial withdrawal or a more current date of the unofficial withdrawal, the calculation will be updated, and aid adjusted based on the result of the calculation.

A student who is actively attending a semester can rescind a withdrawal through the Office of the Registrar and if he or she subsequently ceases attendance, then the student would be subject to the unofficial withdrawal calculation.  The effective date will be the most current date based on the effective status date of any withdrawals or the last date of attendance date of any courses the student failed to earn a passing grade.

Attendance: Georgia State University is not required to take attendance for Title IV purposes.

Leave of Absence: Georgia State University does not have a Leave of Absence policy or process. 

The Return of Title IV calculation is performed by the Office of Student Financial Aid and is completed by using the R2T4 module in the Banner software.

The R2T4 calculation is triggered by one of the following methods:

1. Students that officially withdraw have a withdrawal registration status assigned.  The Office of Student Financial Aid identifies students with this status and performs the calculation.
2. At the end of the term, after grades are officially available the Office of Student Financial Aid identifies students that appear to be unofficial withdrawals for the term.
3. Students that petition the Registrar’s office for grade changes may result in the student becoming an official or unofficial withdrawal.  The Office of Student Financial Aid receives notification from the Registrar’s office for approved petitions.

Institutional charges may be prorated based on the Office of Student Accounts proration refund schedule in relation to when the student ceases to attend.  The withdrawal refund schedule may be found at https://sfs.gsu.edu/resources/tuition/withdrawal-refund-schedule/.  The calculation is completed using the original institutional charges prior to the withdrawal.  Institutional charges include tuition, mandatory fees, housing, and meal plans.  Non-institutional charges will not be included in the calculation; examples of non-institutional charges include library fines, parking fines, registration adjustment fees, reinstatement fees, graduation fees, application fees, bookstore charges, etc.

Georgia State University does not provide interim disbursements when there are outstanding items on a student’s account such as verification. For additional information on post withdrawal disbursement, review the subsequent section of this policy on Post Withdrawal Disbursement.

Georgia State University is a standard term-based program using semesters.  As such, the calculation will use the payment period.  The payment period is the length of the corresponding semester.

2020-2021 payment periods:

Period	Start	End	Break period*
Fall 2020	08/24/2020	12/15/2020	11/22/2020 to 11/29/2020
Spring 2021	01/11/2021	05/04/2021	03/14/2021 to 03/21/2021
Summer 2021	05/10/2021	07/31/2021

*The length of the break period is excluded from the calculation.

A student that has withdrawn prior to funds disbursing, may be eligible for a post withdrawal disbursement.  The R2T4 calculation will be performed, and the undisbursed funds will be included in the calculation.  If it is determined in the calculation that the student could have been disbursed funds, then the following occurs:

• Pell grant or Federal Supplemental Opportunity Grant (SEOG) - if a student has satisfied and is meeting all eligibility requirements, the funds will be disbursed on behalf of the student.  Grant funds are disbursed within 15 days of the calculation. The student will receive an award notification via email to view the update on PAWS.

• Federal loans – if the loans have been accepted by the student/parent, all loan eligibility requirements met/completed, and has an approved loan origination prior to the student withdrawing, the student/parent may be eligible for a post withdrawal disbursement.  If the student is eligible for a post withdrawal disbursement, the Office of Student Financial Aid will send a notification to the student providing information on the R2T4 process and guidance on post withdrawal disbursement for loans.  The notification will be sent to the student within 45 days of the effective date of the official withdrawal or 45 days after grades are made available for unofficial withdrawals.  The student must respond within 14 days to be able to receive the post withdrawal loan disbursement. Students/parents that fail to respond within 14 days, requests may or may not be processed based on federal and/or institutional deadlines.

The unearned aid share for the institution and student is determined when the calculation is performed in the Banner software.  The calculation is completed within 30 days of the effective date of the official withdrawal or 30 days after grades are made available for unofficial withdrawals.  Within 45 days, the unearned share is returned to the respective Title IV program.

The unearned Title IV aid shall be returned to the following programs in the following order by both the student and the institution:

1. Unsubsidized Direct Loan
2. Subsidized Direct Loan
3. Direct Grad PLUS / Direct Parent PLUS
4. Pell Grant
5. Federal Supplemental Educational Opportunity Grant (FSEOG)
6. TEACH Grant
7. Iraq and Afghanistan Service Grant

If it is determined in the calculation that the student has a share to return:

• Pell grant and/or SEOG – the share is not returned on behalf of the student.  The student is notified of the overpayment by the Office of Student Financial Aid and the overpayment is reported to the National Student Loan Data System (NSLDS).  The student must pay the Department of Education to resolve the grant overpayment.
• Federal loans – the share is not returned on behalf of the student.  The student is notified of the overpayment by the Office of Student Financial Aid.  The Office of Student Financial Aid will report to the Servicer students identified as overpayments.  The Servicer will contact the student to resolve the overpayment within 30 days.  Overpayments not resolved with Servicer within 30 days will result in the Servicer reporting the student as an overpayment to the National Student Loan Data System (NSLDS).

Failure to resolve the overpayment will result in the student’s NSLDS record being flagged as an overpayment.  This flag prevents the awarding of future federal student aid until resolved.  The overpayment flag may also impact other aid sources such HOPE Scholarship, Zell Miller Scholarship, and other state student aid.

If any balance is caused at Georgia State University by the return of the institution share and is not resolved, it will prevent future registration activities and transcript related requests at Georgia State University.