Residential Student Withdrawals and Refunds

Refund Policy for Full Withdrawal

Withdrawals & Refunds

Online students see the Withdrawal and Refund Policy for Online Students.

For various reasons, students may need to stop attending all of their courses. Any student who either stops attending or officially drops all of their current courses is considered to have withdrawn from the institution.

All students withdrawing from Baptist Bible Seminary must complete a withdrawal form. Each student’s final day of class attendance must be documented on the form in order to avoid overpayment of federal student aid. Students who are dismissed are not exempt from this policy. Seminary, graduate and online students may obtain the course Drop and Withdrawal Form from the Online Student Information course in Schoology. Seminary students may also obtain a copy from the Registrar’s Office. Residential students must stop by the Office of Student Development (OSD) to receive a form and begin the process of obtaining all necessary signatures from appropriate offices which will maintain a copy for their files.

Students attending modules or sessions shorter than a full semester must provide a written intent to attend their already registered courses for the next session or module within the same semester or those courses they plan to register for. This can be accomplished by simply completing the Course Drop and Withdrawal Form located in the Online Student Information course in Schoology. Just check the box that indicated you plan to attend other courses in a future session or module with the same term, specify the dates, and sign the form. Any student already registered for a future session or module who does not check this box on the signed form and who does not end up attending the already registered courses will be considered withdrawn from the institution as of the last documented date of attendance. Any student who does not check the box but does in fact take later courses within the same semester will have all previously calculated refunds reversed as well as their withdrawal status.

Full Withdrawal Refund Schedule

Refunds are calculated based upon all institutional charges including tuition, fees, room, and board.

If a student has completed 60 percent or more of the enrollment period then the percentage of costs incurred by the student is 100 percent.

Return of Federal Title IV Aid upon complete withdrawal from Baptist Bible Seminary

Financial Aid is required by federal statute to determine how much financial aid was earned by students who withdraw, drop out, or are dismissed prior to completing 60% of a payment period or term.

For a student who withdraws after the 60% point-in-time, there are no unearned funds. However, BBS must still complete a return calculation in order to determine whether the student is eligible for a post-withdrawal disbursement.

The calculation is based on the percentage of earned aid using the following Federal Return of Title IV Funds Formula: percentage of term completed = the number of days completed up to the withdrawal date divided by the total days in the term. (Any break of five days or more is not counted as part of the days in the term.) This percentage is also the percentage of earned aid.

Funds are returned to the appropriate federal program based on the percentage of unearned aid using the following formula:

Percent of aid to be returned = 100 percent – percent of earned aid
Multiply the total amount of aid that could have been disbursed during the term by the percent of aid to be returned.

If a student earned less aid than was disbursed, the institution would be required to return a portion of the funds to the government and the student may be required to return a portion of the funds as well. When Title IV funds are returned, the student borrower may owe a debit balance to the institution.

If a student earned more aid than was disbursed to him/her, the institution would owe the student a post-withdrawal disbursement which must be paid within 120 days of the student’s withdrawal.

The institution must return the amount of Title IV funds for which it is responsible no later than 45 days after the date of the determination of the student’s withdrawal.

Refunds are allocated in the following order:

1. Unsubsidized Federal Direct Stafford Loans
2. Subsidized Federal Direct Stafford Loans
3. Federal Parent (PLUS) Loans
4. Federal Pell Grants for which a return of funds is required
5. Federal Supplemental Educational Opportunity Grant

Return of Non-Title IV Aid

When a student withdraws during Baptist Bible Seminary’s refund period (less than 60% of the term completed), the institutional aid received by the student will be reduced in proportion to the adjustment of the student’s charges. The only exception is outside scholarships with specific program requirements for full return upon withdrawal.

Unofficial Withdrawals

Students no longer desiring to complete a course must fill out a course drop form to officially notify the University of the student’s intent to withdraw from the course. Course drop forms are available from the Registrar’s Office or in Schoology. Students that stop attending a course, without filling out the course drop form, will be withdrawn from the course after 14 consecutive calendar days of non-attendance.

Attendance, for online courses, is determined by submission of an academic assignment such as an examination, written paper or project, discussion board post, or other similar academic event.

Courses not officially dropped, in which the student stops attending the course for 14 days or more, will be assigned a grade of FN (Failure for Non-attendance), dated to the student’s last date of attendance in the course. The FN grade indicates that the student stopped attending the course and failed to meet the course objectives. An FN grade is calculated into the student’s grade point average like an F grade.

Students receiving a course grade of FN are responsible for all resulting charges to their student account. If, at any point, a student has dropped and/or unofficially withdrawn from all courses for the term, the student will be withdrawn from the University and will be subject to the Unofficial Withdrawal procedure, including the reduction and/or return of all financial aid.

Unofficial Withdrawal Appeal

Students who receive a grade of “FN” may appeal to their professor to have the grade removed in order to continue work in the course.  This appeal must be communicated in written form to the faculty member within 1 week of the notification of the “FN” grade being posted. The  appeal must include a statement that the student desires to continue in the course. If the student is not satisfied with the decision of the professor, the student may appeal the decision according to the University’s Student Appeals and Grievance Policy.