To be eligible for financial aid, you must meet minimum enrollment requirements. Any change of enrollment status during the year could result in a revision in the financial aid offered.
If you reduce your credit load or officially withdraw from the University during a term for which you have already received financial aid, all or part of the funds that have been disbursed to you may have to be repaid or returned to the funding source. This may cause an owing balance to Northwest University.
The amount to be repaid for returned financial aid will be determined by the length of time you were enrolled.
Minimum Enrollment Requirements for Undergraduates
Your initial Financial Aid Offer assumes you will enroll for 12 – 18 undergraduate credits per term. If you are a graduate student, your initial Financial Aid Offer assumes you will enroll full time as defined by your program.
Credits are reviewed after the add/drop period. Your enrollment at that time will be your financial aid enrollment.
If you registered for fewer than 12 undergraduate or 6 graduate credits, your Financial Aid Offer may need to be adjusted. If you plan to enroll for fewer than these credits, please contact Student Financial Services right away.
If you register for five or fewer undergraduate credits, you will not be eligible for financial aid, unless you are a Pell Grant recipient. Pell Grant recipients are eligible if enrolled for a minimum of 3 credits during the academic year and a minimum of 6 credits for summer term.
Dropping a Course
If you drop a course after the add/drop period, you will be responsible for the tuition related to that course and there will be no changes to your financial aid. However, the drop in credits may affect your academic progress. Please review the Satisfactory Academic Progress policy to ensure you are in compliance.
Withdrawing from the University
If you completely withdraw from all classes after the add/drop period, which is the first seven days of the term, you will be responsible for the full tuition. However, per federal regulations, your financial aid will be adjusted based on your last documented day of attendance. If a refund was received prior to withdrawing from the University, then those funds may need to be repaid, depending on the date of withdrawal.
Please be aware that if you withdraw from courses, those courses are considered “attempted” and therefore are included in calculating if Satisfactory Academic Progress requirements were met.
Contact your Advisor and the Registrar right away to document your last day of attendance. If there is not a documented last day of attendance then it will be assumed the withdrawal occurred after 50% of the semester has passed.
Once the withdrawal has occurred or been determine financial aid will be reviewed for possible adjustments. Federal funds must be returned to federal programs based on the percent of the term that a student is no longer enrolled. Student Financial Services will determine how much of a student’s aid was “unearned” as defined by the federal regulations, and then return the “unearned” aid in the following order to the programs from which the student received the aid:
- Federal Unsubsidized Stafford Loan
- Federal Subsidized Stafford Loan
- Federal PLUS Loan
- Federal Pell Grant
- Federal Supplemental Educational Opportunity Grant (FSEOG)
- Other Title IV Programs