Financial Aid

Students who receive financial aid at Haverford College and then withdraw during a semester may have all or a portion of their financial aid reduced. This is called a return of funds. There is a return of funds policy for Haverford financial aid, and a separate return of funds policy for federal financial aid.

Generally speaking, the longer a student remains enrolled in a semester, the more financial aid the student is able to retain. However, it is also true that the longer a student remains enrolled in a semester, the more tuition and fees the student will be responsible to pay. (See the “Refund Policy” on the Haverford Student Accounts web page.)

Haverford Financial Aid Return of Funds Policy

A student receiving Haverford Financial Aid (Haverford Grant or Haverford Loan) will retain the same percentage of aid that matches the percentage of tuition and fees being charged. For example, if a student withdraws during the second week of a semester and must pay 10% of tuition and fees, the student will keep 10% Haverford Grant and/or Loan.

This same return of funds policy also applies to the Pennsylvania State Grant and most other state grant programs.

Federal Title IV Refund Policy

Students who receive federal financial aid under Title IV (Pell Grant, SEOG, Perkins Loan, and the Direct Stafford and PLUS Loan programs) and leave the College during the first 60% of the semester will have their federal aid recalculated to determine how much of that aid the student actually earned. However, if the student is enrolled for 60% or more of the semester, no federal recalculation is necessary and the student may retain all federal financial aid for the semester.

The recalculation of federal aid is based on the percentage of earned aid using the following Return of Title IV Funds formula:

The percentage of the payment period (semester) completed = the number of days completed by the student up to the withdrawal date divided by the total days in the payment period. Any break of five days or more is not counted as part of the days in the term. This percentage of the payment period completed is used to determine the percentage of earned financial aid.

To determine how much unearned aid is to be returned to the appropriate federal program, the following formula is used:

Aid to be returned = 100% of the aid that could be disbursed minus the percentage of earned aid, multiplied by the total amount of aid that could have been disbursed during the payment period (semester).

If the formula shows that the student earned more aid than was disbursed to the student, the College will owe the student a post-withdrawal disbursement of the remaining earned aid, which the College must pay within 120 days of the student’s withdrawal.

If the student earned less aid than was disbursed, the College is required to return a portion of the funds and the student would also be required to return a portion of the funds. (Be aware that in this scenario the student could be left with a balance owed to Haverford once the financial aid is returned to the federal programs.)

The College must return the amount of Title IV funds for which it is responsible no more than 45 days after the date the College determined that the student had withdrawn. Unearned federal funds are returned in the following order:

• Unsubsidized Federal Stafford Loan
• Subsidized Federal Stafford Loan
• Federal Perkins Loan
• Federal Parent (PLUS) Loan
• Federal Pell Grant
• Federal Supplemental Opportunity Grants (SEOG)
• Other assistance under Title IV for which a return of funds is required

Students who owe a repayment of Title IV funds must repay those funds before becoming eligible again for federal aid. Both the Haverford College return of funds policy and the federal Return of Title IV funds policy are administered by the Haverford Financial Aid Office.