Office of Student Financial Aid

Financial Aid Class Attendance Policy

“Recipients of federal funds who have registered for classes must attend those classes if they wish to keep their financial assistance. Failure to do so could result in the cancellation of your aid, owing money back to the university, owing money back to the federal programs, and losing your eligibility for future federal financial assistance”.

Indiana State University is required to document that federal student aid recipients attended class during the semester if they received aid. Financial aid recipients who did not attend any classes owe all their financial aid back.  Aid recipients who completely withdraw from all their classes often owe a significant amount of money back as well.  This requirement does not apply to financial aid recipients who drop from some, but not all of their classes within the semester.  The Federal Title IV programs covered under this policy include Federal Pell Grant, Federal Supplemental Education Opportunity Grant (SEOG), Federal Perkins Loan, Federal Stafford Loans and Federal PLUS Loans.  

For financial assistance purposes, there are two ways in which a student can withdraw from the university:

Official Withdrawal Process

The student officially begins the withdrawal process as prescribed by ISU by contacting the Office of Admissions for undergraduates or the School of Graduate Studies for graduate students.  At the end of this process, an official withdrawal date is established. Depending on this date, the amount of financial assistance the student is still eligible to keep or the amount they must repay is determined.

Unofficial Withdrawal Process

Occurs when the student ceases attending all classes before the end of the semester, but fails to go through the Official Withdrawal Process. These students will typically receive all F’s at the end of the term. In addition, the Office of Student Financial Aid has to determine the official last day of attendance for these students in order to establish the amount of financial assistance the student is still eligible to keep or the amount they must return.  Attendance reports generated by the Office of Registration and Records drives most of the determination of last date of enrollment.

NOTE:  As recipients of one or more of the Title IV financial assistance programs, students are expected to fulfill certain requirements mandated by the U.S. Department of Education in order to maintain their eligibility for all or a portion of the funds. Students receiving Title IV assistance are required to attend class. Once you are no longer attending any classes (participating in class activities) you must go through the Official Withdrawal Process.