Refund Policy

 

It is important for all students to understand both our Institutional Refund Policy and the Federal Student Aid Refund Policy.  Any student who receives Whitman Scholarship funds is subject to the Institutional Refund Policy, and any student who receives federal student aid funds is subject to the Federal Student Aid Refund Policy.  In the case where a student leaves prior to the twenty-seventh day of the semester, it is possible that both policies would apply to that student.

Institutional Refund Policy

Funds will be returned to the appropriate program only in the case of approved withdrawals from the College. The refund schedule below applies to tuition and fee charges, applied music and fee courses. A student who moves from a residence hall after the semester begins, or fails to move into a room reserved for second semester, will be refunded room charges for the smaller of 40 percent or that determined by the refund schedule below. Board charges will be prorated on a weekly basis as of the date of withdrawal, except for a minimum charge of $100 per semester.

The percentage of charges refunded is based on the passage of total days of instruction commencing with the first day of classes for the semester on through to the date of official withdrawal.

 
The first day of instruction 100%
Day two through day eleven 80%
Day twelve through day sixteen 60%
Day seventeen through day twenty-one 40%
Day twenty-two through day twenty-six 20%
After day twenty-six No refund

Federal Student Aid Refund Policy

To determine the amount of funds that must be refunded to federal student aid programs, the institution must determine the percentage of time the student has been in attendance during the semester. The maximum amount of time a student may attend classes and have funds returned to any of the federal programs is 60%.

The calculation for the return of federal student aid funds to the programs is completely separate from the calculation of charges and refunds with regard to Whitman scholarship. The following is an example of how the College would calculate the percentage of refund and the amounts to be returned to each program.

Jane, a sophomore, attends her last class on February 22. She has attended 36 days of classes and the percentage of her charges will be 29.8% (36 divided by 121). The amount of the refund (total costs for the semester less actual charges) is then 70.1%.

Fixed charges for the semester: $17,768
Jane’s federal aid for the semester:
  Subsidized Stafford Loan $ 2,400
  Pell Grant 900
  Federal Perkins Loan 2,000
Total $5,300
  Jane’s scholarship for the semester: $8,100
  Refunded to federal programs: $3,721
(70.1% of $5,300)

The refund would then be:
  Subsidized Stafford Loan $   2,400
  Federal Perkins Loan 1321
  Pell Grant           0
Total refunded to federal programs $3,721

The funds that are to be returned to the various programs must be returned in a certain order. The following is a list of federal programs, in order of refund.

  1. Unsubsidized Federal Stafford Loan
  2. Subsidized Federal Stafford Loan
  3. Federal Perkins Loan
  4. Federal PLUS Loan
  5. Federal Pell Grants
  6. Federal Supplemental Educational Opportunity Grant
  7. Other federal, state, private or institutional sources of aid
  8. Money the student has paid directly to the college

In this example, the College would not reduce the amount of the student’s scholarship, since the amount of time the student was in attendance exceeded the twenty-six day cut-off for reduction of charges and refund to the scholarship programs.