[OACRAO] Follow-up Question to the Withdrawal Policy Email: How Does that Impatc Financial Aid/Tuition Refund Policy?

[Yadigar Collins]

I agree, these are important follow-up questions. Denison just recently
changed its drop deadline from the end of week 4 to the end of week 9.
Accordig to our new policy, we will not assign any type of withdrawal grade
for courses dropped within the 9 weeks. Drops after week 9 require a
petition to the Academic Standing Board. If approved, the student will
receive a W - withdrawal grade for any course dropped after week 9.
To provide some context, we are a full-time all residential campus, so we
have very few (if any) students in a given semester who are not full-time
(below 12 cr). In other words, we do not allow students to drop below 12
cr. unless they have approval to be part-time. Additionally, we use
different drop codes when processing a course drop in our SIS that align
with our tuition and fee refund table. Depending on the week that the drop
is processed, we use the corresponding drop code, which triggers the
appropriate financial action in our Student Accounts Office.  The financial
audit does not look at what appears on a transcript, but rather that the
date of the drop and the financial process corresponds with our refund
policy.


*Yadi Collins  *

*DU Registrar*

*Ph: 740.587.6530*



On Thu, Feb 8, 2018 at 10:19 AM, Alex Siebert <asiebert at artacademy.edu>
wrote:

> Colleagues,
>
>
> I've seen some responses that I didn't expect to the original question
> that Capital University put out there of, "...how many days into the
> semester your institution begins recording a “Withdrawal” grade for a full
> semester course?", how do some of these policies impact a student's
> financial aid and their tuition bill?
>
>
> I'm curious to also learn about some of your other policies as they might
> relate to the one above.
>
>    1. What is your tuition refund policy?
>    2. How does that relate to your course withdrawal policy in
>    determining whether to record a "W" or no grade at all?
>    3. If you don't record a grade, and/or it does not show on a
>    transcript, how do you track whether or not a student paid, or overpaid
>    their tuition in a given semester when you review them later in an internal
>    review or audit?
>
>
> Currently, our course withdrawal policy is closely aligned with our
> tuition refund policy. In the first week of a full semester (sticking with
> our fall/spring traditional semesters--not summer or other shortened
> sessions), a student is able to get a 100% refund of their tuition back
> from a resulting drop in credit hours. So if a student paid $12,000 for 12
> credits, but then dropped down to 9 credits in the first week, they would
> get $3,000 back. In week 2, it's 75% refund, week 3 is 50%, 4 is 25%, then
> no refund after that.
>
> In that first week, we will also remove the class from their schedule and
> transcript entirely, and send back all financial aid money that is
> dependent on enrollment level (I think PELL money is directly tied to
> enrollment level).
>
> Anytime after the first week, we feel that we must record a grade, as we
> do not refund their full tuition amount back, and we feel we need to record
> that on a transcript with a "W" for when we are asked about it later to
> create a papertrail and explain the resulting odd tuition bill. Also,
> financial aid must calculate a return of funds, based on when the student
> withdrew. If a student is able to switch classes, and keep the same
> enrollment level, we will not record a grade, so that their transcript
> would not show that they attempted maybe 24 credits, receiving a "W" in
> half of them (if a student had to completely alter every class in the
> semester in the first week of classes).
>
> I apologize if this is a bit long-winded--I'm very curious to know if your
> schools handle this differently, and why. I know that my co-workers and I
> have debated over some of these policies, specifically the course
> withdrawal one, rather recently.
>
> Thank you!
>
> *Alex Siebert*
> Director of Registrar Services
>
> *Make Art, Make a Difference*
>
> asiebert at artacademy.edu
> *O* 513-562-8749 <(513)%20562-8749>
>
> 1212 Jackson Street
> Cincinnati, OH 45202
>
> *P* 800-323-5692 <(800)%20323-5692> toll free
> <https://instagram.com/artacademyofcincinnati/>
>
>
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